A young Native-American boy and a Franciscan priest learn the true meaning of Christmas during a holiday party at a reservation mission.
Tag Archives: Christmas
A Journey to Bethlehem, December 5, 2021
For children and their families…
Kids will have the opportunity to walk along with Joseph and Mary from Nazareth to Bethlehem. They’ll complete a census with the Roman guard before they meet Mary and Elizabeth to grind some grain and sew a quilt square, help Joseph in his carpentry shop, and visit the manger scene to take a photo with Mary, Joseph, baby Jesus, and the animals in the stable.
Children can also create their own ornament and draw a picture to remember the Nativity scene. This is an excellent way for preschool and elementary age children to develop memories of Christmas. Moms and Dads will want to tag along, rather than dropping kids off, as children walk through the journey at their own pace.
Pender UMC
12401 Alder Woods Drive
Fairfax, VA US 22033
Fairfax, VA US 22033
Learn more at https://penderumc.org/christmas/
Advent Wreath — Chuck Knows Church
Sunday, November 28, is the First Sunday in Advent. I’m skipping a couple of the Chuck Knows Church episodes because this one is so timely. We’ll get back to the others after Christmas.
The first Candle is lit on the first Sunday of Advent. It is called the Prophecy Candle and reminds us that Jesus’ coming was prophesied hundreds of years before He was born. The candle’s purple color represents Christ’s royalty as the King of Kings.
Suggested Bible Reading: Luke 1:26-38
Chuck Knows Church — ADVENT WREATH. Four candles in a circle with a big one in the middle? Yep, take a moment and learn the basics about the advent wreath. And why is the pink candle…pink?
Just In Time For Christmas
From RevKev, Pender’s Former Associate Pastor – “As it was, so it is, Christmas about Jesus. We are all distracted by the glitz and festivities, but let us hear the sound of Angels and the call to worship our Newborn King.
Just in time for Christmas, a gift from God to you: A baby in a manger who would love us through and through..”
Charles Wesley: Hark the Herald Angels Sing
In Honor of Charles Wesley ‘s birthday today. Wesley (1707-1788), the younger brother of John Wesley wrote the words to this Christmas Carol.
Charles was a hymn writer and a poet, also known as one of the people who began the Methodist movement in the Church of England. Hark the Herald Angels Sing appeared in 1739 in a book called Hymns and Sacred Poems.
Wesley envisioned this being sung to the same tune as his hymn, Christ the Lord Is Risen Today, and in some hymnals it is included along with the more popular version.
This hymn was regarded as one of the Great Four Anglican Hymns and published as number 403 in “The Church Hymn Book” (New York and Chicago, USA, 1872).
To celebrate the invention of the printing press, Felix Mendelssohn composed a cantata in 1840 called Festgesang or “Festival Song”. The melody of Mendelssohn’s cantata was then used by William H. Cummings and adapted it to the lyrics of Wesley’s “Hark the Herald Angels Sing”.
Hark the herald angels sing
“Glory to the newborn King!
Peace on earth and mercy mild
God and sinners reconciled”
Joyful, all ye nations rise
Join the triumph of the skies
With the angelic host proclaim:
“Christ is born in Bethlehem”
Hark! The herald angels sing
“Glory to the newborn King!”
And, of course, no one can do it better than The Mormon Tabernacle Choir.
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