Our final Tuesday Music Moment features this anthem from our Virtual Choir directed by Rev. Chad Kidd.
Blue Christmas is a time when we hold tenderly the difficult emotions the holidays bring. For many of us (especially in 2020), the holidays are not the most wonderful time of the year. If you are grieving, lonely, isolated, tired, weary, angry, or just need a place to be on the Longest Night of the year, you are welcome to this virtual service of prayer, music, and virtual Communion.
Our last #MissionMonday Advent Blog post is a huge thank you to all our volunteers and to all who participated in our various projects!
We collected boxes and bags packed to the brim of toiletries for Emmaus, Inc., pantry items for Reading Food Pantry, and toys, hats, games, and more for City Mission Boston’s Christmas Shop!
From our Christmas Shop inventory in particular we learned:
We had 94 hats, with the majority (perhaps 90%) of those being hand knit. We also received 13 beautiful hand knit baby blankets. We received 76 toys and books for children. Overall there were 343 items
We all know generosity begets generosity. Thank you for being a blessing to others! And thank you in particular to Cindy Crampe, Sharon Ofenstein, Carol Patterson, Joann Sanford, Larry Piper, Linda Ananian, Betsy Schneider, Gay Williams, Shirley Holden, and all involved in helping make this socially distanced collection safe and possible.…
“… the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord.” — the Gospel of Luke
The third week of Advent we light the candle of Joy (the pink candle!). This Sunday is also know as “Gaudete” Sunday. Gaudete is latin for “rejoice!” and comes from the first word of the Latin Mass from the 3rd Sunday of Advent (clearly a very ancient tradition to mark this Sunday as a joy-filled one!).
Joy is not the same as happiness, which may seem elusive in a time of loss. Joy is the deep river of assurance that is always there for us to dip into in spite of circumstances. Joy is not about denying suffering, but rather it is the embracing of the depths of all of life’s emotions that is the very thing that allows us to eventually feel the heights once more. The shepherds were very afraid when angels appeared and so they encouraged them, after they got over the shock, to rejoice because a baby had been born that would change hearts and help us find a better way.
Adapted from Dr. Marcia McFee’s Advent Resource
What is giving you joy this week? What are you celebrating in your heart?
“Somehow, not only for Christmas”
John Greenleaf Whittier – born Dec. 17, 1807
Somehow, not only for Christmas,
But all the long year through,
The joy that you give to others,
Is the joy that comes back to you.
And the more you spend in blessing,
The poor and lonely and sad,
The more of your heart’s possessing,
Returns to you glad.…
Did you know that our church recorded a CD of Advent and Christmas songs? This CD features our orchestra, bells, and choir and was recorded in 2007 & 2008! You may have this CD somewhere in your home. Go ahead and give it a listen this week to hear familiar sounds and voices in our sanctuary.
Don’t have a copy? We still have a few in storage and would be happy to share this musical gift. Just let us know!
Our local food pantry is one of the most immediate ways that we can care for our neighbors. Currently, the Food Pantry serves over 100 clients, of which many are seniors. The COVID-19 Pandemic has seriously affected pantry clients as well as the pantry volunteers. Currently, the pantry is offering a curbside pickup system for clients, who are currently able to come twice a month so that numbers are staggered. Donations are able to be dropped off at the pantry at 6 Salem Street from 4-6 PM on Wednesdays. All the work of the pantry is done by dedicated volunteers.
Items the Reading Food Pantry is always in need of:
coffee, tea, cooking oil, sugar, flour, shampoo/conditioner, laundry detergent, soap, four-packs of toilet paper, tissues, and paper towels.
Did you know that the Food Pantry uses monetary donations to purchase items that they don’t get by donation? The Reading Food Pantry is able to purchase from the Boston Food Bank, but some items can’t come from that source.
In addition to food, pantry, and toiletry staples, clients also receive a Market Basket gift card ($15 for individuals and $30 for families) which can be used to help stipend the cost of groceries. The pantry can always use donations of Market Basket gift cards in $15 increments to help hand out.
Donate money
Donate online to the pantry by visiting its PayPal page here.
Or send a check made out to Reading Food Pantry, 6 Salem St., Reading, MA 01867
Donate pantry items like those listed above at the following times and locations:
And follow the Reading Food Pantry on Facebook here.
Normally, prior to the pandemic, we collected pantry items weekly in a basket just outside our office and music room. Community members using our building as well as church members on Sundays knew they could leave items at that spot whenever they could. Just as COVID has affected pantry clients and volunteers, it’s affected how we are able to help take donations, too. Every once in a while a stray donation will still appear in that basket by someone who happened to be in the building as we are socially distancing and limiting time in the building.
We are taking a collection of bottled and canned items throughout December until December 17th as a part of our December Mission Ministry. You can drop those off just inside the Office Door on Sanborn Street. There is a …
“A child is born to us, a son is given to us, and authority will be on his shoulders. He will be named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. There will be vast authority and endless peace for David’s throne and for his kingdom, establishing and sustaining it with justice and righteousness now and forever.” — the Book of Isaiah
During the second week of Advent we light the Peace candle. Jesus was called “Prince of Peace.” We can think of this as the metaphor of royalty in the Reign of God. This name as applied to Jesus points us to our role as those who help bring about a peaceful existence in which all people thrive. This is our prayer for our community, our nation, and our world.
Adapted from Dr. Marcia McFee’s Advent Resource
What is your prayer for peace this week? What was a moment this week that, looking back, you experienced a feeling of peace?
“from spiralling ecstatically this”
+ e e cummings
from spiralling ecstatically this
proud nowhere of earth’s most prodigious night
blossoms a newborn babe:around him,eyes
— gifted with ever keener appetite
than mere unmiracle can quite appease —
humbly in their imagined bodies kneel
(over time space doom dream while floats the whole
perhapsless mystery of paradise)
mind without soul may blast some universe
to might have been,and stop ten thousand stars
but not one heartbeat of this child;nor shall
even prevail a million questionings
against the silence of his mother’s smile
— whose only secret all creation sings
+ e e cummings…
When I was in high school, I thought that I wanted to go to art school for college. I took classes at the Currier Museum of Art art school, and so naturally, my first-ever part-time job was as a Gallery Attendant (aka security) for the museum, which was just a couple blocks from my high school. Working at the museum meant hours on my feet. I quickly became familiar with the museum’s collection.
This painting, “Freeman Farm: Winter,” painted in 1935 by Maxfield Parrish was one of my favorites to stop and admire when I was assigned to the gallery it was displayed in at that time. Parrish was an illustrator, a contemporary of Norman Rockwell, who used vivid colors and each piece of his feels like it has a touch of the fantastic. Yet, this painting is simple. It makes me think of the novel “Ethan Frome” or poems by Robert Frost. What I love about it is that you can’t quite tell if it is supposed to be twilight or sunrise.
Advent is the season of in-between, already-and-not-yet, and it coincides with this ancient moment of waiting for the solstice (the longest night of the year and the slow return of the sun). There is something powerful about this season and connecting to nature. As we head indoors, or busy ourselves with holiday shopping (although, this year it may be online), we might miss these moments of the natural world, like the last kiss of the sun on the horizon.
This painting also makes me think of this poem by Wendell Berry, who is a farmer himself:
Remembering that it happened once,
We cannot turn away the thought,
As we go out, cold, to our barns
Toward the long night’s end, that we
Ourselves are living in the world It happened in when it first happened,
That we ourselves, opening a stall
(A latch thrown open countless times Before),
might find them breathing there,
Foreknown: the Child bedded in straw,
The mother kneeling over Him,
The husband standing in belief
He scarcely can believe, in light
That lights them from no source we see,
An April morning’s light, the air
Around them joyful as a choir.
We stand with one hand on the door,
Looking into another world
That is this world, the pale daylight
Coming just as before, our chores
To do, the cattle all awake,
Our own white frozen breath hanging
In front of us; and we are here
As we have never been before,
Sighted as not before, our place
Holy, although we knew it not.
– Rev. Emelia…