December 25, 2025
Americans in Germany Embrace a British Christmas Tradition
Randy and Katy Smelser describe the pleasure of Advent fellowship in Germany with a church of Anglican tradition.
Articles for tag: Advent wreath
October 3, 2015
The Best Thing We’ve Done for Christmas
By Jennifer Johnson Our building is on the National Registry of Historic Places and is three blocks from the state capitol building. Several other beautiful places of worship are also nearby. Each year the media advertises that from 3-6 p.m. on December 26 these places will be open for tours. We offer live music during that time as well as cookies, hot chocolate, apple cider, and coffee. Our guides give visitors information about the church and a tour of the building that explains what worship, fellowship, and Christian education functions dictated the form of the building. From 400 to 600
December 4, 2014
Christmas Icebreakers for Your Group or Class
By Michael C. Mack 1. Describe a time in your childhood when you were chosen for something (i.e., a team, an award or distinction, or an important task). How did it feel to be chosen? 2. What nativity-set traditions, if any, did your family have? 3. With which character in the Christmas story do you most identify? Why? 4. As a child, what were some of your family”s traditions leading up to Christmas Day? (For examples, an Advent wreath, candles, a calendar.) Do you have any traditions today? 5. As a young child, how did you anticipate the coming of
November 30, 2008
The Difference Advent Makes
By Robert Hull It is 7:00 a.m. on a Thursday in mid-December. A dozen people are sitting quietly, watching the morning come up outside the church windows. Dark clouds are scudding over Buffalo Mountain, backlit now by a rising, rosy glow. Two candles burn on the Advent wreath. The leader intones, “Our King and Savior now draws near. Come, let us adore him.” Advent prayers have begun. During the 15 minutes before we all hustle off to work or school, we will confess our sins, hear a Psalm, a text from the prophets, and a Gospel reading; we will say
