A Christmas Without Family & Community
Advent and Christmas remind us God can still surprise us, surprise us with mystery, and surprise us with love. Advent and Christmas are an invitation into the surprise mystery that is God.
As California’s Hospitals Fill, Kirk Cameron Hosts Unmasked Christmas Caroling Events
The actor-turned-evangelical Christian activist Kirk Cameron led a large outdoor Christmas caroling event Tuesday night in Thousand Oaks, California, despite a COVID-19 surge that is filling hospital beds across the southern part of the state.
A New Pastor Who Couldn’t Meet Members of Her Church Found a Way to Celebrate Christmas with Them
Katie Day’s church is among hundreds of thousands of congregations nationwide whose worship has been radically changed by the pandemic. Read full piece
Singing Hope … & Doubt … in Christmas 2020
Editor Brian Kaylor says it won’t really feel like Christmas this year. And we shouldn’t pretend everything’s alright. It’s okay to lament. It’s okay to express our disappointment. It’s okay to miss what we can’t have and do this year. Because that’s part of the
Christmas Unites Community After Fire Guts Historic Church
At Christmases past, parishioners at Middle Collegiate in New York City rejoiced over gospel hymns, carols, and soul tunes played on a Steinway piano that is now only metal and ashes after the historic church was destroyed this month by fire.
Christian Climate Activists Mount Guerrilla Poster Campaign
Posters linking Christ’s birth with the climate emergency have been springing up all over the country. Read full piece
From a Long Ago Sermon, a Joyful Message for This Troubled Season
That sermon, as I recall (having failed to locate the cut sheets of newsprint containing the actual words), was about his friend Phil, an American priest who was serving in Guatemala. While the bulk of the story is no longer with me, the memorable line came after
‘No Man is an Island,’ Wrote John Donne on a Grim Christmas Amid a Pandemic
This year more than others there could be an understandable tendency to seek distraction. But as further spikes are driven by observance of the holiday season itself, our choice is whether to look away or to face death as an inevitable part of the 2020
Unwrapping Christmas
Columnist Heather Feeler says she made a list of the things she loves about Christmas and the things she just trudges through because, well, it’s “tradition.” And this year she is only going to do the love list.