Today is the Second Sunday after Christmas. Collect of the Day: O God, who wonderfully created, and yet more wonderfully restored, the dignity of human nature: Grant that we may share the divine life of him who humbled himself to share our humanity, your Son Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. Readings for today: Jeremiah 31:7-14 Psalm 84:1-8 Ephesians 1:3-6,15-19a Luke 2:41-52 Today's Worship Livestream: Today's service bulletin can be found here.

CCC Bin Set Up in Parish Hall to Collect Diapers, Personal Care items Parishioners are asked to support Columbia Community Care (CCC), an all-volunteer effort that came together in Howard County in response to the pandemic, by collecting diapers and personal care items. The organizers have told Christ Church Vestry member Diane Phillips-Laguerre that these basics are scarce. Besides diapers in all sizes and baby wipes, CCC needs women’s sanitary care products, soaps, shampoo, deodorant, and other toiletries. Please put them in the yellow bin, marked "CCC", just inside the Parish Hall door. You can drop off items on weekdays until 2 p.m., but we ask that you call the church office (410) 381-9365 to let them know when you are coming. Since its establishment last spring, CCC has become a vital nonprofit organization in meeting the needs of families in Howard County for food and other essentials. In the Howard Magazine’s Best of Howard County competition in the fall, CCC was named “Pandemic Public Hero” and the best volunteer organization. As of December 2nd, CCC moved its operations indoors. Its new locations, all in Columbia, are: Wilde Lake Interfaith Center, 10431 Twin Rivers Rd.; Faulkner Ridge Neighborhood Center, 10518 Marble Faun Lane; and Stevens Forest Neighborhood Center, 6061 Stevens Forest Rd. (In the photo above, organizer Amy Kowalczyk is shown at Stevens Forest near the baby and personal care offerings.) Hours for volunteers and donation drop-offs are Wednesdays from 4 to 8 p.m., with lines open for guests at 5 p.m., and Saturdays from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., with lines open for guests at 10:30 a.m. Donations of food, personal items, and cleaning supplies can be brought to the sites during these hours. At its new locations, CCC is following all state and federal COVID-19 protocols to keep volunteers and guests safe during the winter setup. Only 10 people total will be in the space at a time, volunteers and guests combined. Several parishioners at Christ Church have contributed or volunteered to CCC. For those wishing to volunteer, there is a new assignment for those who don’t feel comfortable working indoors. Someone at each site works as a Gatekeeper. The person uses a clicker to monitor the number of guests served, making sure the 10-person limit is observed, and hands out gloves and bags as needed, among other duties. The translator can also work as the gatekeeper and if so, translators should sign up for both spots. Those and other volunteer slots can be found on the CCC website and on the group’s Facebook page. Non-perishable Food Items --No Glass, No Liquids-- Requested for FISH In pre-pandemic days, a basket for food donations could be found at the altar. Yes, we still care about our hungry neighbors who get help from the nonprofit organization, FISH of Howard County. But please keep the weather in mind. Nowadays, that basket has been replaced by a yellow bin, marked “FISH” that is located on the breezeway between the Parish Hall and Old Brick. We ask that you continue to contribute items such as cereals, granola bars, sugar, flour, rice, and dried beans. At this time, please do NOT bring canned goods, liquids in plastic such as juices and salad dressings, or glass containers. Thank you. The goods in the yellow bin are picked up periodically by FISH volunteer Paul Wisniewski for delivery at the FISH pantry. For those who shop online to stay safe, consider benefiting a charity that helps the hungry when you order from Amazon. Through AmazonSmile, the company’s foundation makes a contribution of .5% of every purchase on the site to the customer’s designated charity. It’s a small amount but volume matters, and the nonprofits who participate tell us it truly makes a difference. You can designate only one, but we are highlighting several from which you may wish to choose. FISH, which is an all-volunteer organization, helps impoverished households in several ways ranging from energy assistance to food drop-offs utilizing donations from Christ Church and others in Howard County. Another is Community Action Council of Howard County, which oversees the Howard County Food Bank and several other initiatives to help those in need, and the Grassroots Crisis Intervention Center. The latter oversees the live-in facility on Freetown Road where Christ Church provides an evening meal every month, as well as the Dorsey/Day Resource Center for homeless individuals. The center on Rt. 1 in Jessup remains closed due to the coronavirus, except for curbside distribution of non-perishables. Please lift up your prayers for the volunteers and nonprofit employees who are striving to cope with even greater demands and daunting challenges due to coronavirus, as well as those in need of help during the pandemic. In general, if you have suggestions about ways to help the community, if you want to get involved, or if you need assistance, please email Christ Church Outreach at outreach@christchurchcolumbia.org. Your help is greatly welcomed and appreciated. Thank you. Be Aware of Email Phishing Scams, Especially During this Holiday Season We want to make you aware of email and text message scams that are targeting members of religious institutions around the country. There are also recent reports of other Maryland and Howard County churches having been affected by this issue, including Christ Church. You can learn about these phishing scams, and what you can do to help stop them, on our website's blog. Click here.

Thank You! Thank you very much for the many ways in which you have blessed Christ Church and the many people she serves. Thank you for participating in the life and ministry of this community of faith. Thank you for joining us in worship, whether indoors, outdoors, or online. Thank you for the Christmas wishes. Thank you for celebrating Christmas with us; some of you rejoiced in your hearts, some of you prayed online with us, some of you sang some of the old familiar Christmas hymns and carol with us, some of you had your little communion kit we blessed with you so that you could actually share in the Eucharist with us. Some of you could not see your children or grandchildren - loved ones you have celebrated every Christmas with since they were born. Denis and Cindy could not travel to New York to be with their daughter and grandchildren. Marjorie and Paul could not host her daughters and grandchildren. She shared with us on Tuesday that this is the first time in forty-seven years that she has not spent Christmas with her oldest daughter. Mary Kay Tucci told me that she met her children and grandchildren at the park. Jim Collins shared with me that her daughter visited but they socially distanced all through her Christmas visit. Besides Denis and Cindy, Marjorie and Paul, and Mary and Jim, many of you have similar stories and experiences that tell of how difficult the year has been and how different Christmas has been. The one thing that warms my heart is that you did celebrate Christmas. As tortuous and lonely as it may have been, you did celebrate it. Someone described the past year as being in a disco with all the lights - blue, red, green and yellow - rolling around without knowing which particular light you can follow with your eyes. Tomorrow, we begin a new journey into a new year. Remember all the excitement you had at the beginning of the year? Remember all the plans you had at the beginning of the year? It has been a turbulent one, but turbulence only brings out the character in us. We are not out of the woods yet, but we will be in a matter of time. The one thing that I want you to focus on as we welcome a new year is one thing you would want to accomplish during this next year. In Luke’s gospel, Jesus reflects on the cost of being a disciple and then makes a startling observation to the crowd. He says in Luke 14:28-29 “For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it. Lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him.” Jesus does not talk about someone intending to build towers, but a tower - one thing. Remember, the tower at Jesus’ time was like a storehouse, and for farmers, building a storehouse meant the ability to preserve and keep produce. To build a tower - that one thing - means making a decision. You have to decide whether you want to build a tower, or not. As we make a turn for the New Year, you have to decide which tower you want to build. Yes, the past year has been challenging, but what is that one thing you want to do in the coming year which is different from what you did this past year? No decision is made out of a vacuum; that is what Jesus seems to be saying. To decide, you have to consider the cost involved in making that decision and to evaluate whether you have the necessary resources to complete the project. That is why our focus should be on simply building a tower, that one thing we know we have the capacity and the necessary resources to accomplish. So, as you prepare to welcome the new year, I need you to figure out which one thing you want to accomplish. More than that, I need you to evaluate whether you have the resources to make that happen and, should you lack, how do you plan to secure the needed resources. Your decision can be the defining moment in your life. There is a story of a special moment in the life of a university student. Each week, he attended the same seminar. He could not concentrate on the documents studied in the seminar because he was captivated by the face of another student who sat almost opposite him each week. He got no impression she noticed him, but he could not take his eyes off her. He actually dropped the course, but he kept on attending the seminar just to look at her. Eventually, he plucked up the courage to ask her to join him on a bike ride. They cycled about ten miles together until they reached a great castle. And at that point, she looked around at her fellow rider, and in an instant, he knew. He knew he would marry her. He knew they would be together. He knew whatever challenges life threw at them; they would face them together. It was his defining moment-the moment he decided on the one thing that would make all the difference in his life. You also have an opportunity to decide on building a tower - that one thing. Do not saddle yourself with too many towers; just one tower is enough for you. Even if you drop the class, keep going because you know what it is that you want from it. As we make a turn for a New Year, figure out which tower you want to build. Calculate the cost involved in bringing it to fruition. Plan every step of the way and execute the plan to your own surprise and that of your loved ones. As awfully terrible as life might be at this moment in time, remember that life has a peculiar way of smiling at you with favor. In all the struggle, God has been gracious and blessed us with more than we can ever desire or deserve. I do not know the decision you have made or intend to make, but I implore you to keep your focus on the one thing that you can build. As we make a turn for a new year, I know you have the chance to start anew. As the Chinese proverb goes: “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” Without that first step, you cannot build the tower. So, what kind of tower do you want to build in 2021? The good news for you and I is that that one thing could be anything - yourself, your relationship with God, family, friends, colleagues, career, and everything in-between. Whatever it is, your first step may lead to a storehouse of goodwill. And so, do not hold yourself up. Do not limit yourself. Do not count yourself out. Let the New Year be the beginning of building a new tower-that one thing. Like St. Paul, I always give thanks to God for you, my beloved, and I wish you a Happy and Prosperous New Year! Manny.

Christmas Eve Pageant: Christmas Eve Sermon: Father Manny's Sermon for today can be read here. Christmas Eve Eucharist Livestream: Christmas Day Livestream: Christmas Day Sermon: Deacon Denise's Sermon for Christmas Day can be read here.

Today is the First Sunday after Christmas. Collect of the Day: Almighty God, you have poured upon us the new light of your incarnate Word: Grant that this light, enkindled in our hearts, may shine forth in our lives; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. Readings for today: Isaiah 61:10-62:3 Galatians 3:23-25; 4:4-7 John 1:1-18 Psalm 147 Today's Worship Livestream:

Columbia Community Care Moves Indoors; Requests Donations of Diapers, Personal Care items Christ Church is among the supporters of Columbia Community Care (CCC), an all-volunteer effort that came together in Howard County in response to the pandemic. Since its establishment last spring, the nonprofit organization has revised the timing and location of its distribution sites as demands --and the weather conditions --have changed. As of Dec. 2, CCC moved its operations indoors. Its new locations are Wilde Lake Interfaith Center, 10431 Twin Rivers Rd., Faulkner Ridge Neighborhood Center, 10518 Marble Faun Lane, and Stevens Forest Neighborhood Center, 6061 Stevens Forest Rd., all in Columbia. Hours for volunteers and donation drop-offs are Wednesday, 4 to 8 p.m., with lines open for guests at 5 p.m., and Saturday, 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., with lines open for guests at 10:30 a.m. Donations of food, personal items, and cleaning supplies can be brought to the sites during the above hours. Please consider contributing diapers and personal care items. The organizers are telling Christ Church Vestry member Diane LaGuerre that such things are in short supply. Besides diapers in all sizes and baby wipes, CCC needs sanitary pads, soaps, shampoo, and other toiletries. At its new locations, CCC is following all state and federal COVID19 protocols to keep volunteers and guests safe during the winter setup. Only 10 people total will be in the space at a time, volunteers and guests combined. Traffic of the line will flow one way with an entrance and exit to avoid crossover in the line. Doors will be propped open to allow air circulation. Gloves and masks will continue to be a part of requirements. Several parishioners at Christ Church have contributed or volunteered to CCC. For those wishing to volunteer, there is a new assignment for those who don’t feel comfortable working indoors. Someone at each site works as a Gatekeeper. The person uses a clicker to monitor the number of guests served, making sure the 10-person limit is observed, and hands out gloves and bags as needed, among other duties. The translator can also work as the gatekeeper and, if so, translators should sign up for both spots. Those and other volunteer slots can be found on the CCC website and on the group’s Facebook page. Save the Dates -- Jan. 18 and Feb. 15-- to Help Feed the Hungry at Grassroots Thanks to all who brought holiday cheer in the form of decorated cookies as well other desserts and side dishes for a meal at the Grassroots Crisis Intervention Center on Dec. 21. And now’s the time to mark your calendars for the next two meals for the residents of its live-in facility on Freetown Rd. Please plan to bring your items on Monday, Jan. 18, and on Monday, Feb. 15 at 3:30 p.m. outside Old Brick. We suggest that you wear both masks and gloves and plan to practice social distancing to keep everyone safe. In what has become a tradition during the pandemic, co-coordinator Nancy Winchester acquires the chicken at Weis and meets the other volunteers as they drive up to Old Brick. (See accompanying photo from Dec. 21) She then transports the items to Freetown Road for handoff to the staff of Grassroots. Additional volunteers -- and the resulting side dishes, desserts, fruit, and granola bars to complement our main course -- are always welcome. For questions, ask Nancy or co-coordinator Shahra Toth or email outreach@christchurchcolumbia.org. On their own, parishioners at Christ Church have signed up to provide the evening meal on several evenings in January for the 50 adults and children. Consider pitching in, by picking a date during January or February to provide an entree and side dishes. Grassroots encourages an order of six pizzas -- two with cheese and four with meat (any kind), or rotisserie chickens (12 to make a meal, plus sides), but discourages lasagna or other pasta entrees. Another welcome option is takeout from restaurants to help the workforce. Here is a link to the sign-up list maintained by Grassroots. Meanwhile, the Dorsey/Rt. 1 Day Resource Center remains closed due to the coronavirus, except for curbside distribution of non-perishables. In general, if you have suggestions about ways to help the community, if you want to get involved, or if you need assistance, please email Christ Church Outreach at outreach@christchurchcolumbia.org. Your help is greatly welcomed and appreciated. Thank you. December LEMS Committee Update Last week the LEMS committee delivered Christ Church's final contribution to the Weekend Food Program for 2020! Thank you for your support of the LEMS community during this unusual school year, you have made learning easier for students that really need the help. We plan to continue to provide food for ten families once a month in the new year, though as with everything, we may need to adjust to changing circumstances and needs. With local COVID cases at their peak we are following strict safety precautions, but we look forward to having greater involvement from parishioners when it is safe to do so. If you have any questions, please contact lemspc@christchurchcolumbia.org. Donations can be made towards future LEMS support online using Realm and listing LEMS in the memo line. Be Aware of Email Phishing Scams, Especially During this Holiday Season We want to make you aware of email and text message scams that are targeting members of religious institutions around the country. There are also recent reports of other Maryland and Howard County churches having been affected by this issue, including Christ Church. You can learn about these phishing scams, and what you can do to help stop them, on our website's blog. Click here.

The greatest story ever told invites us to ponder on our true humanity and to ask if we can, at the barest minimum offer even the stable in the inn. The Christmas story is the greatest story ever told-not only for its complication, mystique or the personalities involved, but because the story taps into a long held desire of union with God. Looking around this holy space, I see ruin and devastation caused by water. But I also see new wooden floors that would be installed beginning on Monday-it tells me that new life can spring out of destruction. Beyond that, our world has been decimated by a virus, rendering us incapable of gathering together as family and a community of faith to celebrate God’s presence among us. But I am thankful for the new vaccines. I hope when you get the chance, you will get vaccinated. The new vaccines inspire me to be hopeful in the face of this human adversity. Humans have always desired for the divine to be present in our lives. That desire for God to be present in our lives, in our condition, was for God to fill that inherent void and satisfy the emptiness in our lives. Christmas is the greatest story evert told because within this story, we experience a God whose desire hasn’t been about remaking humans into tin-gods, but humans who are fully alive in our humanness and in God that we do not live in the agony of sin and destruction In his book on Miracles, C.S. Lewis wrote that “The central miracle asserted by the Christian is the incarnation. They say that God became man…If the thing happened, it was the central event in the history of the earth, the very thing the whole story has been about.” [1] If C.S. Lewis is right, then it is fair to say that without the incarnation, there would be no theology, there would be no story. The incarnation forms the basis of the Christian identity and understanding of God. That is to say that we cannot understand God without the miracle of the incarnation. In the Christmas story human hopes and fears converge in a little baby boy whose life represents life’s paradox-that a baby who was born as God among men, who in his adult years was considered a pariah, an outsider, would totally transform the responsibilities that we owe to one another and to ourselves. The responsibility that I owe you is what compels me to call you a brother or sister, for our kinship is not based on the will of man or the flesh but by the will of God. The responsibility I owe you compels me to offer you the barest minimum-even the stable, should there be no place in the inn. The Christmas story is the greatest story ever told because it reminds us of the sacrifice of God. That God who is wholly other, transcendent, boundless in His personhood, and is infinitely good and pure, would set aside the glory of His heaven, and sacrifice that very nature to assume the limitations of people like you and me. I learned that to wish for something is a substitute for action, and in the incarnation, we don’t experience a God who wished for something different, rather we experience a God who was ready for action, ready to change the human story. And so St. Paul in his letter to the Galatians reiterates the nature of Jesus’ birth. He doesn’t confer any special qualities on Jesus, but states that Jesus was born under the law like any Jewish child, and born of a woman like any human being. In essence, Jesus was not different from us in any way. In Jesus, God did not supplant human nature nor did He assume a special nature which would have made it impossible for him to deal with the pain, sickness, hurt, disappointment, hunger, tears, thirst, violence, anger or even death- experiences that people deal with on a daily basis. God’s sacrifice of God’s self was a means for God to identify God’s self with us in a way that will renew our hope in each other and ultimately in God. Christmas is the greatest story ever told because the joy of the incarnation is the renewal of our shared hope in each other and in God-especially during these perilous times. The prophet Isaiah ponders on God’s redemptive act in the restoration of Jerusalem and rejoices in its new identity. By virtue of the incarnation we have also been restored to newness. For that reason, we can no longer be slaves to sin, nor can we be slaves to the law with its divisiveness and burdensome character. We have been made anew. Listen to John, to those who received Him, to them He gave power to become children of God, not of the will of man or of the flesh, but the will of God. This particular will of God is synonymous with the grace of God. And because we are now children who have the privilege of being joint heirs with Christ, we acknowledge our joint inheritance with Christ, and affirm that every life has value, even those born in the mangers of our world. Christmas is the greatest story ever told because it is the story of a new creation-all of God’s creation is made anew in Jesus. John in the gospel story harkens back to the language in Genesis, “In the beginning”, with this language, John refers to the chaotic nature of the world where God turned the chaos of a formless void into an oasis of habitation for humanity. John argues that that same Word which was with God, which is God and with which the world was created, is the same Word which has come to dwell with us. The purpose of the presence of the Word among us was not to recreate the world by changing its composition, but that through the light which overpowers all darkness, we may behold the new thing that God is doing with us and among us-shaping our often formless lives, filling our often empty lives, bringing meaning to our often hopeless lives, pulling us out of the darkened pit of our lives and restoring us from being exiled from Him and from our true selves. The new creation the incarnation ushers is one where the Word which has come to dwell with us will help us unwrap ourselves from the darkness with which we have covered ourselves. Christmas is the greatest story ever told because it is about the power of the light that shines in the darkest places of our lives. The light reveals to us our true human potential, assures us that our weaknesses are unimportant in God’s eyes, and that we do not have to do anything to earn His love. The Christmas story brings life to the love of God. If God is love, then His glory most of all shines forth in anything that fully expresses His love. Love loves love, and wherever love is, there you will find the story of redemption, hope, renewal, forgiveness, compassion, justice, peace and transformation. If the first creation story is about the gift of being human, the second creation story realized in the incarnation of Jesus, the greatest story ever told is about the choices we make on a daily basis, and these choices often require us to humbly descend deep into ourselves to find our true humanity. And we do this by asking if we are ever willing to offer the barest minimum, even the stable to the other. There is always a reason not to find a place in the inn, but Christmas is about whether you can offer the stable. To discover your true self, and to discover God in the process, is to be able to always offer the stable. I wish you a very Merry Christmas. Amen. The Reverend Emmanuel Ato Mercer Christmas Eve Christ Episcopal Church Columbia, Maryland USA [1] Lewis, C.S. The Complete C.S. Lewis Signature Classic p.398

A couple of days ago, I received a call from a desperate mother of five who wanted Christmas gifts for her children. Like every parent, she knew that her children - like most children all over the world - will be looking forward to what Santa got for them this Christmas. Later in the day after my call with this mother, I went to the Columbia Mall to purchase Christmas gifts for my children. I have not been to the mall since my arrival from Ghana, but I have been at the mall several times during the height of the holiday season. To my utter surprise, the mall was not as packed with shoppers as it usually is this time of year. "Where is everyone?" I wondered. Another strange observation was the number of shops which have been boarded up. "What is going on?" I asked myself. The devastation on families as a result of this coronavirus has been profound. In fact, many were suffering before the virus did hit, and their plight has only been exacerbated by the devastation wrought by this pandemic. In many ways, I am part of the lucky ones who can still count on a paycheck. It is humbling to know that many of you still give in support of our common life, in spite of the many challenges that you do face in your personal lives. Your generosity makes it possible for me to be Santa Claus to my children. Your kindness makes it possible for me to help another parent also be Santa Claus to hers. Our gifts make it possible for us to be Santa Claus to many children through the Angel Tree program that took place a few weeks ago. Thank You for being Santa Claus. "But does Santa Claus really exist?" asked a son who thought he was old enough to challenge the myth of Santa Claus. I read this story on the Facebook page of Sara Kirkpatrick, our Sr. Warden: Son: "Dad, I think I'm old enough now. Is there a Santa Claus?" Dad: "Ok, I agree that you're old enough. But before I tell you, I have a question for you. You see, the truth is a dangerous gift. Once you know something, you cannot unknow it. Once you know the truth about Santa Claus, you will never again understand and relate to him as you do now. So, my question is: Are you sure you want to know?" (brief pause) Son: "Yes, I want to know" Dad: "Ok, I'll tell you: Yes, there is a Santa Claus" Son: "Really?" Dad: "Yes, really, but he is not an old man with a beard in a red suit. That is just what we tell kids. You see, kids are too young to understand the true nature of Santa Claus, so we explain it to them in a way that they can understand. The truth about Santa Claus is that he is not a person at all; he is an idea. Think of all those presents Santa gave you over the years. I actually bought those myself. I watched you open them. And did it bother me that you did not thank me? Of course not! In fact, it gave me great pleasure." He continued: "You see, Santa Claus is THE IDEA OF GIVING FOR THE SAKE OF GIVING, without thought of thanks or acknowledgment. When I saw that woman collapse on the subway last week and called for help, I knew that she would never know that it was me that summoned the ambulance. I was being Santa Claus when I did that." Son: "Oh." Dad: "So now that you know, you are part of it. You have to be Santa Claus now, too. That means you can never tell a young kid the secret, and you have to help us select Santa presents for them and, most importantly, you have to look for opportunities to help people. Got it?" What fascinates me about this story is the idea that Santa Claus is an idea, the idea of giving for the sake of it. Not with the hope of securing any benefit or glory, but only for the sake of giving. In the incarnation itself, we experience the ultimate act of giving - the giving of God’s self to us. John 3:16 reminds us “For God so loved that world that He GAVE His only begotten son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” In a very real and transforming way, it is only the act of giving that sustains our lives and that of the world. The kind of giving that leaves us free and not beholden to anything. The kind of giving that is only acknowledged by God and expects nothing in return from the receiver. I learned, many years ago, that no one can give what he or she does not have. But there is one thing, that one gift that each and every one of us has in equal measure-which is love. The rich and the poor, the slave and the free, Blacks, and Whites, and everyone in-between, possess this gift in equal measure. And it is that one gift which fuels our act of giving and offers meaning to all our relationships for without the act of giving, there is no way we can build a relationship. It has been a difficult year all around, but we can soften the blow that many of us have faced by not only being a part of the secret but actually living into the secret idea of being Santa Claus-giving for the sake of giving. So, this Christmas, be a Santa Claus - give to yourself, and to others. Give without the expectation of a reward. Matthew reminds us: “When you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.” As dreary as Christmas might be, you may never tell the impact of your belief in the idea until you live it. It is like lighting your candle and putting it on the lampstand. As challenging as this Christmas might be, you may never know how fulfilling life can be until you live it. As different as this Christmas might be, I invite you to a wonderful celebration of joy, hope, faith, beauty, renewal, love, and life. And I invite you to reflect on the fact that it is only by our act of GIVING that our celebration of life becomes possible, fulfilling, and complete. Christmas is about giving, and I wish you the absolute best this Christmas. Again, I invite you to the celebration of the greatest story ever told - the story of how God’s act of GIVING changed the human story, and how your act of GIVING can change your life and the lives of many. A Very Merry Christmas to you, my beloved, and my fellow Santa Claus. ~Manny

Christ Church presented our Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols online for the first time, an online gathering whose more analog origins date back to late 19th century England. We welcome you all to join us in re-watching this celebration of glorious carols, anthems, and hymns with Bible passages. The video of this service, an evening of joyful expression, in word and song, of the greatest story that has ever been told, is below and the service bulletin can be found here.

Today is the Fourth Sunday of Advent. Collect of the Day: Purify our conscience, Almighty God, by your daily visitation, that your Son Jesus Christ, at his coming, may find in us a mansion prepared for himself; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. Readings for today: 2 Samuel 7:1-11, 16 Canticle 15 Romans 16:25-27 Luke 1:26-38 Today's Sermon: Father Manny's Sermon for today can be read here. Today's Worship Livestream:

Christ Church presents our annual "Christ Church Caroling" gathering tonight, but this year - like most events and gatherings these days - it is held as an online event. Our Director of Music, Adam Detzner, leads us and we'll all sing of God’s glorious presence captured in some of the most beautiful and beloved carols from around the world. You can sing along with our Caroling Packet, located here, and gather for this festive online celebration. The video replay is below: