How do you prepare for Christmas? Where does considering what Christ’s birth means fit in with your baking, shopping, decorating, and visiting? Or does it? We’d like to hear from you as you consider what two writers said about how they approach Advent in the November 2010 Mandate.
Before he was ordained, the Rev. Matthew Stevens—a United Church minister of Mohawk and Irish Métis heritage who is a staff person in London Conference—used to celebrate Advent with his family by lighting a wreath with five candles representing peace, hope, joy, love, and Christ. They’d have calming after-dinner readings and discussions, but then, he says, “[I] allowed ordination to replace a natural and gentle progression with frantic ritual.”
Although this Sunday morning gathering is audibly silent, it’s visually loud. When Helen Bickle leads the weekly worship service at her unique congregation for the Deaf in Belleville, Ontario, no words are spoken. Rather, Deaf congregants enthusiastically sign prayers and songs, while the text is displayed on a screen.
Worshippers have come together at Quinte Deaf Fellowship since 2007, when Deaf members of several local churches decided to form their own non-denominational church. Bickle, who was born Deaf, serves as the lay pastoral minister.
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