The turkey sandwiches were made, and hot chocolate filled our thermoses. We piled into the car and drove off for a family tradition: our day-after-Thanksgiving trek into the woods.
The season of Advent, which begins on Sunday, Dec. 2, is often misunderstood. Before Thanksgiving is even finished, people are inundated with the sights and sounds of Christmas. Within this consumer culture, it’s easy to confuse the season of Advent with the number of shopping days until December 25.
The refrain of Advent is Come, Lord Jesus. And so, during the season, we stand in the place of those who awaited the advent of the Lord for centuries before the birth of Christ. We cry out for the Lord to come. But just as importantly, we also stand looking forward to Christ’s second advent, when we, who see through a glass darkly, will see our Savior face to face.
It’s November. The air is full of politics across the United States, and the world will be watching to see whether the face of our country will change or will be one more edition of the same old, same old.
Throughout the month of October, The Gallery at West Side Presbyterian Church in Ridgewood, New Jersey, is showcasing the paintings, photographs and poetry of local artist, Andrew Weatherly.
As a pastor, I am reminded weekly during Sunday’s prayers of people that life is not easy. I listen as those in the pew ask for comfort, guidance, healing and hope. I listen, and then I pray for our laments to turn into songs of praise.
In a global campaign, the World Council of Churches (WCC) invites people across the globe to extend “A Light of Peace” for the Korean Peninsula and for a world free from nuclear weapons.
As part of an ongoing series designed to engage Presbyterians in conversation and learning around the seasons of the Christian year, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) continued its occasional Facebook live series on Wednesday afternoon.
If you cringe each year at the saccharine, formulaic entertainment that Hollywood and TV foist onto the public during the so-called Christmas Season, here are four films actually worth your precious time. Two are Advent films of longing and hope, and two are Christmas Eve films focused on the power of love.
