The Best Post on Christmas Stress -- Ever -- In the World!

 

 

 



 

 

 

 

In order to reduce my stress load this Christmas, I am reposting last year's Christmas Stress post instead of writing a new one.

Do you feel that Christmas is a disruption in your life?  Are you overwhelmed by trying to provide the best Christmas possible?  How do you feel when you read an article or hear a discussion on a talk show telling you that you shouldn’t try to create the “perfect” Christmas?  And don’t forget all those movies about a burned out parent (usually Mom) who has a revelation and cries and berates herself for not seeing the meaning of Christmas.  Do you feel guilty because you would have been satisfied with just “real nice”?  Or are you shooting for perfect and feeling guilty not only for not making it but for even trying?

No matter where you turn, someone is saying something about the stress of Christmas.  I stopped reading articles about how to avoid stress, since reading them and trying to put them into action just took up time and led to more stress.

Maybe we just ought to accept that fact that we are going to strive for “the best Christmas ever,” no matter what we read or see on television and hear in church.

But I have a thought.

Christmas disrupts our lives, just as it has disrupted the world.  Mary and Joseph had their lives disrupted; so did the shepherds and wise men.  When we decide to follow Jesus, our lives are going to be changed and change is disruption.  It is a miraculous disruption.

But wouldn’t it be nice to find a little peace?

Maybe on the 26^th or the Saturday after Christmas, we can enjoy the leftovers, watch the DVD’s we got, and really read the Christmas cards and newsletters.  I’m going to keep the 26^th in mind tonight as I wrap presents and worry about whether everyone will like them.

Watchman, Tell Us Of The Night Happy Advent!

What Is Love?

 

We hear a lot about Love.   Christianity can be explained in three sentences:  Love God.  Love your neighbor.  Love yourself.  (I read this.  I did not think it up myself.)

But what does the church mean by love?   Certainly not romantic love, except maybe loving your neighbor.  It is hard to love.  How do we feel about the supervisors who screw us over or the neighbor who decided to love our significant other?  And our former significant other?

What about the Teapartiers or the Open Borders people?  What about welfare recipients?  Or Isis?

I, for one, don’t feel loving towards a lot of people.  This may lead to trouble about loving yourself.  Can we feel good about ourselves when we have such hateful feelings? 

A friend once told me that she got very annoyed at her neighbors who didn’t take their trash cans in on time.  She said she “wasn’t a Christian” because of it.

I said, “I’m not trying to be your pastor or anything, but that doesn’t mean you’re not a Christian.  It just means you’re not a particularly good one at that time.”  I don’t know if she believed me; we’re talking seventy some years of guilt producing conditioning.

And people have said that they couldn’t understand why we are told to love ourselves.  What about humility? You can be humble and still love yourself.  Not to an insult to God.  If you are good enough for God, you should be good enough for yourself.  And you can’t love anyone in any way if you don’t love yourself.

Basically, if God told you that if you did not want someone to have a merry Christmas, they would have a miserable one, and you wouldn’t get in trouble for it and you said, “Oh, what the heck, let the SOB or B have a nice holiday,” you are showing love.

Of course there are more charitable ways to do it, but this is the most basic.  We have to love, but we don’t have to like.

Do you have a s**t list?  Everyone who is on that list should be on your prayer list.

I’m not even going to try to talk about loving  God; it’s beyond me. As Dana Carvey used to say, “I’m only the churchlady” and I don’t want people to think I do a superiority dance whenever I write a post.

But hit it, Pearl, and we’ll dance for the fun or it!

 

 

 

The Air Quotes Church

What do you think of people who use air quotes?  I wonder how they got stuck in the nineties and forever after think of them as Mr. or Ms. Air Quotes.  Then I feel guilty, but I tell myself that they are reaping what they sowed.  (Isn't it interesting how a Bible reference seems to make a not-so-nice remark less catty?)  

What do you think about the thing being air quoted?  Air quotes denote sarcasm, which is saying something that isn’t true (often in a supposedly witty way).  No wonder Dr. Evil from the Austin Powers movies is so fond of them.

Although I’ve never seen it air quoted, I sometimes wonder if the established church doesn’t deserve to be.  The air quotes church is the official church that has a specific name and a specific identity.  In its struggle to keep its identity, it creates hierarchies, protocols, rituals (and not just liturgical ones) and rules.  It organizes conferences, task forces, seminars, and conventions, often with the best intentions.  Sometimes all this “organization” leads it to become disorganized religion.

If you do any reading about current religion, you are only too aware of the problems of the air quotes church.  People who are not (air quotes) religious mock it and sneer about what a waste of money and effort it is.  People who are religious and even some who are spiritual may make attempts to defend it, but worry that what the critics say is probably true.  If they are angry or disgusted enough, they may agree and offer ways to fix the church.  If they are completely burned out, they may say that the “church” is on its deathbed and the end can’t come soon enough for them.

I have been defensive, worried, angry and disgusted.  I may be on my way to burnout, but something stops me.  It may be the hymns that bring tears to my eyes, or the beautiful words of the service, or my friends in the church.  The air quotes church has enough to offer me that I stay.  Of course, as a parishioner I can ignore a lot, or at least not have to deal with the consequences of the “church”’s flaws.

But besides the air quotes church, there is the church, the people who may or may not be Members, but who strive to live Christ-like lives.  Or they may not even be striving.  The church includes everyone who wants to be part of it, trying to love God, love their neighbors, and love themselves.  The air quotes church may blatantly or covertly exclude people, but the church does not.  The air quotes church may blatantly or covertly judge people, but the church does not.  The air quotes church may have confused priorities (Should financial stability and growth be at the top of the list?), but the church does not. 

The church is an ideal.  I don’t know if it can exist without at least a part of the air quotes church.  But it does exist, even within the  "church".  Maybe if everyone recognized themselves as part of the church and tried to live that way, some or the problems of the air quotes church would be corrected.  Or at least the struggle would be easier.   

 

It Came from the Risen Consciousness

 

 

 



In his blog Clergy Confidential, Father Tim Schenck writes that in the diocese of Connecticut a resolution has been proposed to “mandate the elimination of gendered titles for priests.”  (“Hello, Mother, Hello Father” September 26, 2014.)  http://clergyconfidential.blogspot.com   This means not using “Mother” or “Father” as a courtesy title.  The reason this is a bad thing is that the use of “Father” for males comes from the old patriarchal church structure and addressing female priests as “Mother” supposedly reinforces this by giving a different title to females, instead of having a one- name-fits all honorific.

Of course there are options:  Reverend, Pastor, Vicar and probably others.  If the resolution should pass, there would be plenty of things to call the person who is your spiritual advisor and whatever else he or she is to you.  Father Tim says he really doesn’t care what people call him, and he thinks that most priests don’t.  When I was a Presbyterian, ministers were either Dr. or Mr.  (If there were any women, they would be Dr., Mrs., or Miss.  Ms. was not yet an option.)  When I became a Unitarian, like everyone else, I called the ministers by their first names.

But this raises the question of what to call the laity.  Usually, everyone goes by first names, but just in case the occasion is more formal, what do you do?  Mr., Mrs., Miss, and Ms. are gender specific and reflect the bad old days of the patriarchy, when women were considered property and had no rights or protection. 

How about Congregant Smith or Parishioner Jones or Christian Miller?  Maybe it would remind people of the French Revolution when everybody was “Citizen” or the Communist party where everyone was “Comrade”.  This did not stop them from killing each other, but at least they had linguistic equality.

 

And speaking of gender specificity, have you ever heard God referred to as She?  I am embarrassed to say that it always surprises me to hear it.  Of course I don’t have a problem with it, since I am Open-Minded and Liberal, but I still think it sounds weird.  I am working on getting over it.

But I can’t help wondering if God should really be referred to in any way that also refers to humans.  How about an all-inclusive pronoun, like shim (she and him) and for the possessive shis (she and his)?  Or why not It?  You have to be sure to write it with only one t so as not to confuse the deity with Cousin Itt Addams, but I think it might work.  And maybe it might spread to be used to refer to anyone, eliminating the awkward he or she.

And while they’re at it, maybe the linguists could think up a word to be used for addressing more than one person, when “y’all” won’t do?  And how do you form the possessive of “you guys”?
And what about single words for “aunts and uncles” and “nieces and nephews”?

There’s probably a tenured job or department chairpersonship in it.

 



 

 

A Look at Popular Culture

Since my accident, I have been spending a lot of time watching television.  I don’t know why.   You would think I’d read.  Maybe I’ve been conditioned to only read on public transportation or in waiting rooms.  Anyway, to get something positive out of it, I decided to try some “literary criticism.”

Law and Order Special Victims Unit:  This a dark, dark show.  Nothing seems to happen in bright light.   The cops as tragic antiheroes, often alone, or if they have relationships they are about to lose them. The crimes are horrible and sometimes grotesque.  I can only ask, how could I have spent six hours at one sitting watching this?  But how about that campy episode with Ann Margret, Jacklyn Smith, and Morgan Fairchild?

 

 

Two and a Half Men:  This has turned out to be another dark show, in spite of the humor.  Charlie leads an empty, hedonistic life and enjoys it thoroughly.  At the beginning of the series, Alan is a hardworking chiropractor who has been thrown out of the house by his bitch of a wife.  He is bled dry by alimony and child support and deteriorates into a parasite living off his brother.  When Charlie is killed (thrown under a train by his stalker lover because she had caught him fooling around), Alan sponges off the billionaire who bought Charlie’s house.  Charlie and Alan’s mother is constantly criticizing her sons and grandson and then complains that nobody loves her.  It’s really the story of Alan’s fall, so far.  Maybe there will be some redemption during the final season.  I still love some of the episodes like the investigation of Evelyn’s new husband’s death.

 

Sex and the City:  I can’t help but wonder (as Carrie says – she should know better) what it must be like to be able to spend over $400.00 on a pair of shoes.  I like all the women, but sometimes I’d like to shake them.  (Particularly Carrie and Miranda.  Charlotte and, oddly enough, Samantha seem to be the best adjusted;  they know what they want.) When I asked some friends who they identified with, they looked sheepish and said “Charlotte.” (The one who wants to get married and have children.)  I identify with her, too.

 

Keeping Up with the Kardashians:  Another chance to vicariously wallow in money and stuff and to feel superior because you know what is more important.  And here are people who are better off materially than you are, so you don’t have to feel guilty about your life and sorry for them.  And what’s up with Bruce?

 

How I Met Your Mother: A group buddy show (but not at all like Seinfeld), it brings back memories of your old friends and your youthful craziness.  This is one of the most positive sitcoms.  Everyone is looking for not only love, but marriage.  Unlike the Sex and the City women, the characters have families.  Birth, death, marriage – it’s all there.

 

I’m sure there must be a doctoral dissertation on popular culture here.  Or at least a master’s thesis.

 

 

I know I said I wanted a break, but this isn't what I meant!

If you’ve been wondering what happened to me, on August 14, I fell and I couldn’t get up.  It turned out I’d broken my hip.  After a ride in an ambulance, an operation, and four days in the hospital, I was moved to a rehabilitation facility and came home on September 19.

I decided to take vacation from writing and spent most of my spare time, when I wasn’t doing therapy, reading, watching television, and going on Facebook.  But I did make some notes.  I guess couldn’t help myself.

1.        There is a limit to how much Law and Order, Special Victims Unit one can take.  Mine is six hours.

2.       Even if you don’t think you’ll be embarrassed about procedures, bodily functions, and the gap in your hospital gown, because of course you’re not a prude, you may be.  Don’t be embarrassed about being embarrassed.

3.        After you get to be a certain age, people are uncomfortable about sending you rude get well cards.  If you like them, tell your significant other to mention it if anyone asks your hospital address.

4.       Unlike hotels (or at least those back in the day), medical facilities are BYOB – bring your own Bible.  My Bibles are either too bulky or falling apart, but I have an old 1928 Book of Common Prayer, which is smaller and contains the Psalms and the words of hymns.  And the instructions on how to calculate the date of Easter were very helpful for getting sleepy.

5.       This is a good time to read, but don’t try anything too complicated.  Forget about Jane Austen and Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.  I prefer cozy mysteries.  But if you have a book with an interesting title, put it on your bedside table.  It’s a good conversation piece.

6.       Don’t feel guilty about enjoying the less awful parts of your recuperation, like being waited on.  Your job is to get well and you can’t do that if you feel guilty.

I hope you never need to use these tips.   But if you do, I hope they help.  Now I have to practice going up and down the stairs.

But how about the Great Pumpkin?

How did you hear the “Truth” about Santa Claus?  I never got the Santa talk, because it had been worked out when I found out there was no Easter bunny.  (I automatically assumed that if there was no Bunny, there was no Santa.  It did not occur to me that that meant there was no Jesus.  I’m not sure why.)  I was devastated; I cried and cried.  It did not occur to me that I wouldn’t get an Easter basket.  But the Bunny was more important.

Trying to analyze this, I wonder if I wanted to hold on to the Easter Bunny because giving him (I always saw the Bunny as male) up meant giving up magic and the idea that something that didn’t make sense if I thought about it was really true.

Well, this weekend, I had another Easter Bunny experience.  Have you ever tried to pin a pastor or theologian down about the truth of the Bible?  They may say that it is divinely inspired or that we have to allow for cultural differences.  It’s kind of like the way parents hedge when they don’t think a child is ready to know the truth about Santa.

But this weekend, I was told.  “It’s all made up.”  It was a churchlady bull session at a retreat.  We were all pretty much agreed that we didn’t believe in creationism.  The New Testament was trickier.  I said that I didn’t have any problem with the virgin birth or the star of Bethlehem.  One of my friends, who knows a lot more than I do, said very seriously, “It’s all made up.”  I felt like I was back in second grade talking about the Easter Bunny with my best friend Lorraine.  “But the Resurrection . . .” (“You just mean the Bunnies in the stores aren’t real, don’t you?  I know that.”)  She repeated, “It’s all made up.  The stories are just details.  It’s what they represent that’s important.”  I might have disagreed.  But somehow I knew that as much as I didn’t like it, she was right.

I didn’t burst into tears or run out of the room.  I just sat there.  “But God is real,” she said.

That was kind of like “Santa Claus is the spirit of giving.”  Yeah, right.

“I’ll have to think about that,” I said.

So I’ve been thinking about it.  My friend and the new theologians and the priests who agree with them are probably right.  I don’t like it, but I have decided to make it my opinion, if not my belief.

I still got Easter baskets and Christmas presents.  I still have God.  But doesn’t that sound a bit wistful?



 

 

Warning: This may turn into a rant.

When people are lamenting war, poverty, ignorance, the destruction of the environment, or even the Tea Party, I want to yell,

“I’m not a legislator!
I’m not a journalist!
I’m not a billionaire who could be making big political contributions!
Why are you telling me this?”

(Who am I kidding?  I have yelled it.  Numerous times.  And wanted to even more often.)

We seem to be living in a world of discouragement, frustration, and fear.  And of course we think things have never been this bad in the history of the universe.

My first response is to read a “cozy” mystery novel featuring sweet old ladies and/or soccer moms who are always eating but never gain weight.  (Sometimes the books include recipes.)

But what is the Christian response? We are told to trust God and to do what we can to help improve things.  But what is the best thing that we can do?

There are those who think that giving a homeless person the apple you didn’t eat for lunch or organizing a food bank only offer temporary help, when it is Society that needs to be changed.  How about with each bowl of lentil soup served at the soup kitchen, we give the guest a pamphlet on community empowerment and a list of phone numbers of the local activist organizations?

Others say, “If those people would spend the time they waste demonstrating or lobbying working in a homeless shelter or tutoring in a GED program, they might be accomplishing something.”

Since this has turned snarky, I might as well say that my thought about trusting God is “Good luck with that, honey.”

A priest once told me that is it a sin to worry because worry comes from a lack of faith.  This made me feel good for a while, since people who do worry have said that I’m lazy and uncaring because I won’t join in.  But then when I did worry, I felt guilty.

And of course I’ve been feeling liberal guilt for years.  (I can’t help wondering if one of the reasons conservatism is growing in popularity it that you don’t have to feel guilty about anything.)

I am not offering any solutions as a Christian or a concerned person.  I apologize for ranting and I realize that you probably aren’t a legislator or a journalist or a billionaire.

But I am asking:  What do you think?

Some cozy heroines in case you want a break from thinking:

Miss Jane Marple – Agatha Christie’s queen of the sweet old ladies.

Miss Maud Silver – Not as well-known as Miss M., but just as much fun. She’s a former governess who turned detective.  Created by Patricia Wentworth.  The series ran from 1928 to 1961.

Magdalena Yoder – Mennonite owner of the Penn Dutch Inn in Hernia, Pennsylvania.    The books have great Pennsylvania Dutch recipes.  Created by Tamar Myers.

Lucy Stone – Reporter in Tinker’s Cove, Maine.  Each book centers around a holiday.  Created by Leslie Meier.

Kathryn Koerney – An Episcopal priest in a small New Jersey town, who works with the local police captain.  Author Cristina Sumners is an Episcopal priest.

For more on cozies, see Cozy Mystery www.cozy-mystery.com

 

 

 

"Going Up" Mortified



 



As I child I was fascinated by faith healers on television.  I thought the ones who told you to put your hand on the television to be healed were silly, but it looked kind of neat when people would be stuck by the Holy Spirit and fall over backwards.  Kathryn Kuhlman seemed like a sweet, if slightly eccentric aunt.  (I just watched some videos of her.  She was more than slightly eccentric . There is a look of madness in her eyes.  And with all the money she supposedly made, couldn’t she have done something with her hair or paid someone to do something with it?  Or asked God to do something with it?)

Of course I “knew” that it wasn’t real.  At the very least people appeared to be healed because they had been caught up in the moment and their own belief.  Somehow their minds made them feel better.  Or everything had been psychosomatic in the first place.  Or they were part of the show.

At best, the faith healers were well-meaning, delusional people, who had been tricked by their minds into believing they could help others.  At worst, they were cynical, hypocritical frauds, with great acting skills.

That made me sad.  I wanted to believe that people could be healed through belief.  It was like magic.  And I hated to think that those charismatic people who seemed so sincere were simply exploiting other people’s misery.

As I got older, what made me even sadder was that I wanted to believe.

Episcopal healing services aren’t like that.  Or at least I’ve never been to any that were.  My church has a healing service about once a month, and I usually "go up."   The priest puts his or her hands on one's head and asks for healing.  Since I have arthritis, I usually have something that needs some work, even though my arthritis is "mild to moderate". (One time I even had lice! I was so mortified! I asked the priest not to touch my head and later at coffee hour, when I was sure no one would hear, I explained. Of course, probably having heard a lot worse in his career, he wasn't shocked and was very understanding.)

 And receiving a blessing does help me -- physically. If a more “rational” friend says the whole thing is in my head, I will say that God is causing my mind to think that I feel better.  And I will take that.  It’s certainly better than a headache or nausea.  (This is not to say that I don’t use medicine and doctors.  They are also available because of God.) 
  
 But what is even more important is that by going up, I am telling myself that I can receive healing and the healing is from God and this affirms not just my belief, but the fact that I believe. By acting as if I believe, I will come, through God’s grace, to believe even more strongly.



 

Our Circus, Our Monkeys, Our Selves

 

 

 

One of the things the Episcopal Church says about itself is that it is “a big tent.”   As Paul M. Spellings writes in his blog (http://paulmspellings.wordpress.com) that means “we like to see ourselves as almost obsessively accepting.” (“Big Tent Church:  Possibility and Hypocrisy” February 6, 2014)  Everyone is welcome and everyone is part of the church:  people of all races, ages, nationalities, sexual preferences, those with disabilties, the poor, the homeless, and even the rich.  At least this is the ideal.

(I did not give that last sentence its own paragraph, because this is not about the failure of the church and of individuals to live up to the ideal.  We are trying, if not always successfully.)

When I first saw the phrase, I thought of the tents of the Israelites.  But those tents, even if large, were not inclusive.  And then I thought of a circus tent.

For what are religion and Christian life if not a circus? 

We can look at the circus metaphor in two ways (probably more, but I haven’t thought of them yet.)  A circus is a place of wonder, full of miracles where people fly through the air, twist themselves into unimaginable shapes, and squeeze themselves and a dozen friends into tiny cars.  There are beautiful costumes, processions, and music.    Does that remind you of anything?  (Not the flying, twisting, or car loading, at least in my experience.)  There is manmade magic in the circus and God-made magic in the church.

Then there is another meaning of circus, the half humorous chaos that inspires us to sigh and say, “That was a real circus.”  I’m thinking particularly of getting the family off to school and work in the morning, creating the best Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter, or Halloween ever, or going on vacation, when a day at the beach is no day at the beach.  Your whole life can be one big circus.  And it doesn’t stop after the children are grown!

And isn’t church life one big circus?  Not just the Churchianity, worrying about roofs and furnaces, and pageants and candles, but the Christianity, too.  How can we best love God, our neighbors, and ourselves, especially when the church offers so many ways to do it and so many opinions on each way?

Not only do all kinds of people make up the church, but they bring with them all kinds of beliefs.  My small church contains creationists and literalists.   There are those who say that Bible is allegory and symbolism.  And, of course, there are the different tastes in worship.

How do we handle this?  (I apologize if this sounds like a sermon.  What I am really trying to do here is show my struggles with the circus, not offer any suggestions or solutions.)

There is an old Polish saying, (I found it on Facebook) “Not my circus.  Not my monkeys.” That can be very helpful when it comes to feuds with distant relatives or office politics or just as a reminder to stay out of other people’s business.  But how does it work in the Big Tent?

It can be easy to say which things are not your circus.  Creationism isn’t mine.  Neither is the Rapture.  My laissez faire attitude about theology is not the circus of some of my friends.  And other denominations and other religions aren’t our circuses either.

But aren’t we all each other’s monkeys?  Under the big circus tent we are to love and care for each other, even if we disagree.  We can ignore or celebrate differences because as Christians we share more similarities.  And this goes for those outside the tent, too.

 There are many circuses inside and outside the big tent.  We don’t need to claim them all.  But we do need to claim all those monkeys.

 

 

 

Yes, I Know This Is Just a Cartoon

I like to think that I don’t waste energy getting offended.  I once owned three volumes of Truly Tasteless Jokes and I love South Park.

So I was a little surprised when I felt uncomfortable and almost angry at a religious cartoon in Episcopalians on Facebook, so much so that to try to figure out my feelings I am writing a post (Or is it a rant?) about it.

 

 

I have always been told that it was rude to ask what a person “did”, but I never agreed with it, even in the sense of asking about someone’s job.  Since you probably spend eight hours a day at it, you should have some opinions or stories to share.

But the last two panels seem rude.  There is a condescending smugness as the tie guy (Let’s call him Ty) corrects the other person (We can’t tell if it’s male or female, so he or she can be Pat):  “Oh, I didn’t mean what you do for money.”  (You get the feeling that he wants to add, “Stupid.”)  Then he sounds like the Pharisee who gave thanks that he was not like “that pitiful tax collector” (Luke 18:9-14, my paraphrase) as he explains “I mean what do you do for the world?”

Why did he have to know?  It may be all right for a pastor to ask that question, but Ty is not wearing a collar.  It seems that he is setting Pat up to be the object of his criticism.

The fact Pat is a cashier adds to the discomfort.  Would Ty have asked the question of a pastor or doctor or teacher?  To Ty, a person who works in a store, living off America’s obsession with consumption and who did not need a degree to get the job needs to be made aware that there are more important things than making money.  This is insulting.  We could even call it classist and politically incorrect, but I'd rather just complain about rudeness.

We can and many of us do do things for the world.  We can treat people kindly.  We can do charitable or political work.  We can pray.  In fact, we can offer our work as an unceasing prayer.  But we don’t need or want to be quizzed about it.

How long would Ty last as a cashier on Black Friday or even a regular Friday night?

If this is Ty’s first date conversation, I don’t think he gets many second dates. 



Episcopalian Rap-- Really!



We love our church and we cannot lie

Episcopalians can’t deny

With the smells and the bells                                                           

When you’re in your place                                                          

With a prayer book in your face

You won’t be bored,

When we glorify the Lord!

 

We never falter

When we go up to the altar.                                                          

And we don’t mind it

If you get behind it

Because the presence of God

Is where you find it!

 

Our priest wears a collar

But we won’t holler

If you dress really dapper

Or like a rapper

Or an nerdy Bible scholar.
 

 We baptize babies!
                                                                                                                         

We ordain ladies!  

    

 

 

 

                                                                                                            

 

                                            

We’ll bless your cat!                                                           

And more than that

We’ll bless your backpack.

And that's a fact, Jack.

Do we have a Pope?

Nope!

But we have got faith and hope.                                         

And from above                                                                        

                                                                                                           

The Lord sends down his love.

 

So fellas!  Ladies!

If you don’t want to go to Hades                                                       

               

 And you’re looking for a church

That won’t leave you in the lurch

But you don’t know what to do --

The Episcopal Church welcomes you!                                                                     

                                                                          
 

Alleluia!

(Ending for Lent and Advent:  The Lord Be With You)

 

 

 

Apologies and Thanks to Sir Mix-A-Lot

 

Does anyone want to make a video?