Some light-hearted humor for after Christmas… Does someone ever say something to you, but you hear something completely different? Like, when I was a kid and they sang “hosanna in the highest” I thought they were singing about lasagna in the highest. Hmmm, lasagna in the highest heaven… So about a week or so ago I asked the Facebook people on my friends list what sort of funny things they thought they heard in church. Here is a selection of some of their comments below, there

Dave was in China the week after Thanksgiving. It turns out they celebrate Christmas there. Celebrating Christmas has been a growing trend in China. For younger people, it's a festive day to go shopping, catch up with friends, and party. Shopping malls decorate to show they are keeping up with the international trend. Shelves of pre-bagged small gifts show up. According to a 2014 study, almost 74% of Chinese are non-religious or observe a Chinese folk religion. Only 2.5% prac

I have now focused two sermons on being present - being in the moment. Remembering that Advent is a time of contemplation and preparation, it is also a time we try to rush to the Christmas story...I tend to rush it towards the Sunday where we have the story of Mary told to us once again. I have always been drawn to the character of Mary in the Biblical narratives. I have also been drawn to her as a person in history and faith. There is something so captivating of the woman dr

An original post on Twitter: Four hours later and we are still singing O Come, O Come Emmanuel. How many verses are in this song, anyway? (@UnvirtuousAbbey) Some of the responses: Actually you're not supposed to start singing this song until December 17th. Then it's one verse a day through December 23rd. It's called the O Antiphons. Each day's verse is the Gospel antiphon for that day. It's never too long. Tradition has its reasons: always anticipation. (@meg_in_richmond) Dep