Genesis 1:26-31
26 Ond cwæð, "Uton wyrcan man to anlicnysse ond to ure gelicnysse, ond he sy ofer ða fixas ond ofer ða fugelas ond ofer ða deor ond ofer ealle gesceafta ond ofer ealle creopende, ðe styriað on eorðan."
27 God gesceop ða man
to his anlicnysse,
to Godes anlicnysse
he gesceop hine;
werhades ond wifhades
he gesceop hi.
28 Ond God hi bletsode ond cwæð, "Weaxað ond beoð gemenifylde ond gefyllað ða eorðan ond gewyldað hi, ond habbað on eowrum gewealde ðære sæ fixas ond ðære lyfte fugelas ond ealle nytenu, ðe styriað ofer eorðan." 29 God cwæð ða, "Efne ic forgyfe eow eall gærs ond wyrta sæd berende ofer eorðan ond ealle treowa, ða ðe habbað sæd on him sylfum heora agenes cynnes, ðæt hi beon eow to mete, 30 ond eallum nytenum ond eallum fugelcynne ond eallum ðam ðe styriað on eorðan, on ðam ðe is libbende lif, ðæt hi habbon him to gereordigenne." Hit wæs ða swa gedon.
31 Ond God geseah ealle ða ðingc ðe he geworhte ond hi wæron swyðe gode. Wæs ða geworden æfen ond merien se sixta dæg.
The above is from the Bible in Anglo-Saxon. I could not find the Guðbrandur þorlaksson translation on the internet, though Bible Gateways does have a contemporary Icelandic translation online. But Anglo-Saxon (or Old English, as we say in the English biz) is so close to it that anyone who can read the one can read the other.
The alphabet: English at one time had four more letters, ash, yogh, eth and thorn. “Eth” or “ð” is the voiced “th” as in “then” “Thorn, “or “þ” is the unvoiced “th” as in “thin.” Let’s look at verse 27 above.
Gesceop. If you know German, you’ll recognize the “ge” as a sign of a past tense. In England circa 800 CE the “eo” diphthong would have been pronounced “eh-oh” which eventually morphed into “a” as in “shape.” The sound we represent with “sh” used to be written “sc”
Ða. You get to see a capital eth here, so you might deduce that this is the precursor of “the.”
"Man" should be self-evident, a common Germanic word. Anglo-Saxon has many words for “man,” most of them referring to humans of the male gender, and the subset of warriors.
Hine. I won’t bore you with accounts of how this morphed in “him” but it did.
Anlicnysse. Figure: “an” becomes “own,” “lic” is not far from “like” (not lice) and “nysse” isn’t far off from “-ness.” As a suffix, it still means "a kind or quality of," though as a noun a “ness” is a landform, a spit or point going out into the ocean.
Werhades. “Wer” is one of those words for “man” I was talking about. It’s the equivalent of the Latin vir or “guy” as opposed to homo or “human.”* Many languages make a similar distinction, such as Mann and Mensch, anhr and anthrwpos Greek transliterated. (“h” for the long “e” or “eta,” “w” for the long “o” or omega)
Wifhades. “Wif” lacks an “e” of its present spelling, though it is interesting that woman is seen in this language and culture in terms of her role. I’m not sure about “hades” because I don’t have an A-S textbook handy, but “had” is related to either “head” or “hood,” and therefore seems to allude to a social status more than a biological one.
Hi. See “hine” above. This is the plural, and it’s an accusative, therefore “them.” Similarly, “God” is nominative and “Godes” is genitive.
I won’t go through the whole passage, but will drop a few hints. Would you associate “cwæð” with “quoth”? That “ae” run together is the letter “ash” and usually has the sound of “a” as in “had.” (Couldn't find a yogh, but it looks sort of like the numeral 3 and we have a vestige of it in words like "enough" and "though." Nothing soft and Latinate about those A-S cats, except they loved Vergil and St. Augustine! “Creopende” is a present participle that should give you a laugh.
I’ll be interested to hear how you make out with this. Meanwhile, just for comparison I’ll try to find a Wycliffe text for this passage, but most available Wycliffes are New Testament only.
Acknowledgment:
http://wordhord.org/nasb:
The Bible Book Genesis is here represented in the translation by Ælfric. It has been transcribed and converted to HTML from the following edition:
The Old English Version of the Heptateuch, Ælfric’s Treatise on the Old and New Testament and his Preface to Genesis. Edited by S.J. Crawford. London: Early English Text Society/Humphrey Milford, OUP, 1922
*There has been some confusion about the noun “homo” meaning “man” and “homo– as a prefix meaning same. In the word “homosexual” it means “same” and can apply to either gender.
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Forthcoming essays
I did not post at all about my series of Wednesday readings during Lent, when I looked at seven things very profitably given up, though I did send an email to the members of my church. Unlike other series I've done, it wasn't planned from the start but rather was determined by immediate concerns and inspirations. It worked out well, and even generated an eighth, read on April 14, called in Mary Baker Eddy's words "Give up imperfect models." It dealt with the Second Commandment, and looked back to the previous week, which in honor of National Poetry Month dealt with the arts and creation, and forward to the 21st, which was on idolatry. Its title was "Idolatry: Slavery and Error." Any one of these titles has many possible topics.
However, rather than develop any of these further, I am going to devote the next few Wednesdays, possibly through all of June, to addressing the urgent problem facing my own branch church and the Church of Christ, Scientist as a whole: survival. Will this require change? Probably. Reorganization? Possibly. Renewal? Inevitably. I invite the members of my own branch to communicate to me anything they think should be included--but even better, attend the Wednesday services (no excuses) and contribute your testimonies.
However, rather than develop any of these further, I am going to devote the next few Wednesdays, possibly through all of June, to addressing the urgent problem facing my own branch church and the Church of Christ, Scientist as a whole: survival. Will this require change? Probably. Reorganization? Possibly. Renewal? Inevitably. I invite the members of my own branch to communicate to me anything they think should be included--but even better, attend the Wednesday services (no excuses) and contribute your testimonies.
Monday, April 26, 2010
New Kickstart
I've always found the starting of a motorcycle repugnant, when a violent kick or two followed by a loud belch from the somnolent engine which seems to be protesting being awakened into performance. That isn't exactly what this restarting is like. Actually I enjoy doing this blog, but I have to fess up.
I've been visiting another blog, The Broken Net. It is written by another Christian Scientist who reads books (I've sometimes felt I'm the only one) and writes--or wrote--facile "thoughts, observations and aperçus on the daily living of Christian Science. Good stuff. For months the only comments written on it were fawning and adulatory and had no substance at all. I thought the blogger, "Christian" after Christian of Pilgrim's Progress, was probably laughing up his or her sleeve, and was hoping for some more substantive discussion. So when I posted comments I tried to take a point forward and say something that was worth saying, complimenting Christian on his/her good writing. Then the last couple of weeks the blog got shrill and vituperative in a logomachy over the alleged turpitude of two members of the CS Board of Directors. The stories are never spelled out, no real documentation has been given except for a link or two and a hardly-official CS publication of dubious authoritativeness. Anyway, there were protests by Christian about people using his/her blog as their own bully pulpit, and a suggestion was made that such folks set up their own blogs. Now I'm not one of those people; my entries have been around 100 words max. But that, on top of a nagging conscience, prompts me to start this up again. I hope the belch of the kickstart won't be too repugnant.
I've been visiting another blog, The Broken Net. It is written by another Christian Scientist who reads books (I've sometimes felt I'm the only one) and writes--or wrote--facile "thoughts, observations and aperçus on the daily living of Christian Science. Good stuff. For months the only comments written on it were fawning and adulatory and had no substance at all. I thought the blogger, "Christian" after Christian of Pilgrim's Progress, was probably laughing up his or her sleeve, and was hoping for some more substantive discussion. So when I posted comments I tried to take a point forward and say something that was worth saying, complimenting Christian on his/her good writing. Then the last couple of weeks the blog got shrill and vituperative in a logomachy over the alleged turpitude of two members of the CS Board of Directors. The stories are never spelled out, no real documentation has been given except for a link or two and a hardly-official CS publication of dubious authoritativeness. Anyway, there were protests by Christian about people using his/her blog as their own bully pulpit, and a suggestion was made that such folks set up their own blogs. Now I'm not one of those people; my entries have been around 100 words max. But that, on top of a nagging conscience, prompts me to start this up again. I hope the belch of the kickstart won't be too repugnant.
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Lenten Lessons
Lenten Lessons
Christian Scientists don’t celebrate Lent. It focuses on the materialistic “things” that people give up in memory of Jesus’ forty days in the wilderness. I remember as a teenager the girls gave up such things as milkshakes and went to church every Sunday. Probably gave five minutes ‘thought to Jesus’ sacrifice, and perhaps 45 seconds to what God is. These were the ’50;s, that post war decade when everyone was glad to be done with the war and able to have gasoline and meat once again. No point in thinking much, we had to get on with our lives and back into production. Time for the girls to put on their white gloves again, guys to get crew cuts, for moms and dads to become Ward and June Cleaver instead of war heroes and Rosie the Riveter We found refuge in the conventional, the ordinary, and our happy countenances were never clouded by the unwelcome intrusion of a new idea. Unless some authority told us it was OK! Then came the 60’s, and we didn’t know how to handle protests, hippies, flag-burning. Some joined, most decried, and a few were on the fence. We were a little old for Vietnam, and fed as we had been while children on patriotism and censorship, we couldn’t understand draft-dodging, pot smoking, promiscuity. The ‘70’s emphasis shifted to the environment, bu we had been used to dealing with pollution by closing the windows and couldn’t understand why we shouldn’t continue taking the bounty of smokestack industry for granted. And there was much more: civil rights, the Red scare and McCarthy, the Bomb. In short, my complacent generation didn’t really feel we had anything to give up, and so Lent was irrelevant or at least not quite real.
Thus we don’t celebrate Lent, or anything else for that matter, in a ritualistic way. Yet it is in the public consciousness—an ever-diminishing portion of it, but significant nonetheless. So I suggest that we join the rest of Christendom and think about this. MBE does say: “A great sacrifice of material things must precede this advanced spiritual understanding.”
(16:1-2), “This understanding” is the kind of prayer described on pa. 15 and before. “Such prayer heals sickness, and must destroy sin and death.” (16:5-6) So Lenten sacrifice is not so much forgoing hot fudge sundaes as it is letting false, and deleterious beliefs fall away.
I’d like to go further into this idea during the next six weeks. It is not clear to me what each of the readings will be: I can’t give them titles yet, nor have explicit themes leapt out. For Wednesday 17 February, however, my title is “Lie not against the truth”: giving up anger and lying. It will be based on James 3.
I welcome your feedback onbased on your observations f specific false beliefs you individually and we as a congregation might burn on the altar of spiritual sense. Please let me know, either by replying to this email or commenting on my blog, which is now receiving a kickstart again.
Text of email sent Wednesday afternoon, February 17.
Christian Scientists don’t celebrate Lent. It focuses on the materialistic “things” that people give up in memory of Jesus’ forty days in the wilderness. I remember as a teenager the girls gave up such things as milkshakes and went to church every Sunday. Probably gave five minutes ‘thought to Jesus’ sacrifice, and perhaps 45 seconds to what God is. These were the ’50;s, that post war decade when everyone was glad to be done with the war and able to have gasoline and meat once again. No point in thinking much, we had to get on with our lives and back into production. Time for the girls to put on their white gloves again, guys to get crew cuts, for moms and dads to become Ward and June Cleaver instead of war heroes and Rosie the Riveter We found refuge in the conventional, the ordinary, and our happy countenances were never clouded by the unwelcome intrusion of a new idea. Unless some authority told us it was OK! Then came the 60’s, and we didn’t know how to handle protests, hippies, flag-burning. Some joined, most decried, and a few were on the fence. We were a little old for Vietnam, and fed as we had been while children on patriotism and censorship, we couldn’t understand draft-dodging, pot smoking, promiscuity. The ‘70’s emphasis shifted to the environment, bu we had been used to dealing with pollution by closing the windows and couldn’t understand why we shouldn’t continue taking the bounty of smokestack industry for granted. And there was much more: civil rights, the Red scare and McCarthy, the Bomb. In short, my complacent generation didn’t really feel we had anything to give up, and so Lent was irrelevant or at least not quite real.
Thus we don’t celebrate Lent, or anything else for that matter, in a ritualistic way. Yet it is in the public consciousness—an ever-diminishing portion of it, but significant nonetheless. So I suggest that we join the rest of Christendom and think about this. MBE does say: “A great sacrifice of material things must precede this advanced spiritual understanding.”
(16:1-2), “This understanding” is the kind of prayer described on pa. 15 and before. “Such prayer heals sickness, and must destroy sin and death.” (16:5-6) So Lenten sacrifice is not so much forgoing hot fudge sundaes as it is letting false, and deleterious beliefs fall away.
I’d like to go further into this idea during the next six weeks. It is not clear to me what each of the readings will be: I can’t give them titles yet, nor have explicit themes leapt out. For Wednesday 17 February, however, my title is “Lie not against the truth”: giving up anger and lying. It will be based on James 3.
I welcome your feedback onbased on your observations f specific false beliefs you individually and we as a congregation might burn on the altar of spiritual sense. Please let me know, either by replying to this email or commenting on my blog, which is now receiving a kickstart again.
Text of email sent Wednesday afternoon, February 17.
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Illustrations for PL
This is the best since Blake and Doré.
The painter has caught the essential allegory of Book I. For the majority of the world who do not share my enthusiasm for Milton's epics, Paradise Lost is a retelling of the first three chapters of Genesis, filling out the details and sweeping under it all of what Alexander Pope invited his readers to "expatiate fre" about.
Note the huge, naturalistic--almost photographic--eye that represents The Word. It is present in every panel of the scroll, but for all its realism its details are quite Egyptian in form and reminiscent of the All-Seeing Eye that dominates the Masonic-derived image on the one-dollar bill from the top of the pyramid. But there are plenty of counterfeits of The Word also, the eyes that occupy the whole heads of many of the creatures. It made me ask 'What is the opposite of the Word, the Truth? Obviously, the lie that is the truth of Satan the rebel, the destroyer who destroys for the sake of destroying.' As a story, Milton's verse is so compelling that you want to know the ending, even if you already know what it is. But is it a necessary outcome?
I was first struck by the similarity, even identity, of detail in the tees, the vines, the branches in the first details we see, and no surprise, it morphs into the scales of the serpent.
The council of Pandemonium contains angels who look much like contemporary demons, and it's no joke just what Satan and his rebel angels may have morphed into. That is the value and the delight of allegory: to hold up the mirror to nature by identifying qualities that are so complete in the personification in essences and personae not of our direct experience as to give us back an image of our own collective and individual mind.
As I sat here watching the YouTube video, I had to read the printed text aloud, with great fervor, and it shivered me like a great peal of organ music that vibrates through your seat. This has extraordinary power. Are you up for it?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCLUAAfPzUw&feature=channel
The painter has caught the essential allegory of Book I. For the majority of the world who do not share my enthusiasm for Milton's epics, Paradise Lost is a retelling of the first three chapters of Genesis, filling out the details and sweeping under it all of what Alexander Pope invited his readers to "expatiate fre" about.
Note the huge, naturalistic--almost photographic--eye that represents The Word. It is present in every panel of the scroll, but for all its realism its details are quite Egyptian in form and reminiscent of the All-Seeing Eye that dominates the Masonic-derived image on the one-dollar bill from the top of the pyramid. But there are plenty of counterfeits of The Word also, the eyes that occupy the whole heads of many of the creatures. It made me ask 'What is the opposite of the Word, the Truth? Obviously, the lie that is the truth of Satan the rebel, the destroyer who destroys for the sake of destroying.' As a story, Milton's verse is so compelling that you want to know the ending, even if you already know what it is. But is it a necessary outcome?
I was first struck by the similarity, even identity, of detail in the tees, the vines, the branches in the first details we see, and no surprise, it morphs into the scales of the serpent.
The council of Pandemonium contains angels who look much like contemporary demons, and it's no joke just what Satan and his rebel angels may have morphed into. That is the value and the delight of allegory: to hold up the mirror to nature by identifying qualities that are so complete in the personification in essences and personae not of our direct experience as to give us back an image of our own collective and individual mind.
As I sat here watching the YouTube video, I had to read the printed text aloud, with great fervor, and it shivered me like a great peal of organ music that vibrates through your seat. This has extraordinary power. Are you up for it?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCLUAAfPzUw&feature=channel
Merry Christmas!
Here is my Christmas card, with brave expectation of keeping this spirit thoughout the new year whose number would seem to proclaim half-sight. May all our "inward sight" be clear.
The Mystic's Christmas
by
John Greenleaf Whittier
"All hail!" the bells of Christmas rang,
"All hail!" the monks at Christmas sang,
The merry monks who kept with cheer
The gladdest day of all their year.
But still apart, unmoved thereat,
A pious elder brother sat
Silent, in his accustomed place,
With God's sweet peace upon his face.
"Why sitt'st thou thus?" his brethren cried,
"It is the blessed Christmas-tide;
The Christmas lights are all aglow,
The sacred lilies bud and blow.
"Above our heads the joy-bells ring,
Without the happy children sing,
And all God's creatures hail the morn
On which the holy Christ was born.
"Rejoice with us; no more rebuke
Our gladness with thy quiet look."
The gray monk answered, "Keep, I pray,
Even as ye list, the Lord's birthday.
"Let heathen Yule fires flicker red
Where thronged refectory feasts are spread;
With mystery-play and masque and mime
And wait-songs speed the holy time!
"The blindest faith may haply save;
The Lord accepts the things we have;
And reverence, howsoe'er it strays,
May find at last the shining ways.
"They needs must grope who cannot see,
The blade before the ear must be;
As ye are feeling I have felt,
And where ye dwell I too have dwelt.
"But now, beyond the things of sense,
Beyond occasions and events,
I know, through God's exceeding grace,
Release from form and time and space.
"I listen, from no mortal tongue,
To hear the song the angels sung;
And wait within myself to know
The Christmas lilies bud and blow.
"The outward symbols disappear
From him whose inward sight is clear;
And small must be the choice of days
To him who fills them all with praise!
"Keep while you need it, brothers mine,
With honest seal your Christmas sign,
But judge not him who every morn
Feels in his heart the Lord Christ born!"
I can't get it to load on here except in this plain-Jane layout. I had it in double columns and a picture, but alas.
The Mystic's Christmas
by
John Greenleaf Whittier
"All hail!" the bells of Christmas rang,
"All hail!" the monks at Christmas sang,
The merry monks who kept with cheer
The gladdest day of all their year.
But still apart, unmoved thereat,
A pious elder brother sat
Silent, in his accustomed place,
With God's sweet peace upon his face.
"Why sitt'st thou thus?" his brethren cried,
"It is the blessed Christmas-tide;
The Christmas lights are all aglow,
The sacred lilies bud and blow.
"Above our heads the joy-bells ring,
Without the happy children sing,
And all God's creatures hail the morn
On which the holy Christ was born.
"Rejoice with us; no more rebuke
Our gladness with thy quiet look."
The gray monk answered, "Keep, I pray,
Even as ye list, the Lord's birthday.
"Let heathen Yule fires flicker red
Where thronged refectory feasts are spread;
With mystery-play and masque and mime
And wait-songs speed the holy time!
"The blindest faith may haply save;
The Lord accepts the things we have;
And reverence, howsoe'er it strays,
May find at last the shining ways.
"They needs must grope who cannot see,
The blade before the ear must be;
As ye are feeling I have felt,
And where ye dwell I too have dwelt.
"But now, beyond the things of sense,
Beyond occasions and events,
I know, through God's exceeding grace,
Release from form and time and space.
"I listen, from no mortal tongue,
To hear the song the angels sung;
And wait within myself to know
The Christmas lilies bud and blow.
"The outward symbols disappear
From him whose inward sight is clear;
And small must be the choice of days
To him who fills them all with praise!
"Keep while you need it, brothers mine,
With honest seal your Christmas sign,
But judge not him who every morn
Feels in his heart the Lord Christ born!"
I can't get it to load on here except in this plain-Jane layout. I had it in double columns and a picture, but alas.
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
The Next Eight Wednesdays at Sixth Church
I've been having more ideas for Wednesday readings than I can handle, and I'm sure I'll use most of them sometime, but here is the agenda through the end of 2009. I'm sure there will be more notes to come, and I will put them on the blog. Here, titles are in bold, topics in all-caps.
11/11
War To End All Wars
November 11 is the anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Versailles that concluded "the war to end all wars." It seems it didn't accomplish that end, and so the name of the holiday was changed from Armistice Day to Veterans' Day in the USA and to Remembrance Day in the UK and elsewhere. The lesson will demonstrate, among other things, the impossibility of using war/sin/crime/evil/error to end war/sin/crime/evil/error.
11/18
The Bible: Our Precious Treasure
National Bible Week is November 22-28.
This title alludes to the opening phrase of Hymn #114, with which we will open the service. (It's also a harbinger of Christmas, being the tune of "The Friendly Beasts.")
Please ponder the attributes of the Bible that this hymn praises.
11/25
From Froward To Toward: Disobedience to Full Obedience
Dictionary definitions:
froward: habitually inclined to disobedience
toward: primarily, in the direction of. But if "untoward" means "difficult to guide, manage, or work with" or "marked by trouble or unhappiness," might not "toward" imply just the opposite?
And of course, poet John Milton is never far from my thought, especially as I reread Paradise Lost in full or in part in May and November when the Adam lesson comes 'round. This time I focused on Book IX, where the Serpent's arguments convinces Eve and "Earth felt the wound," and Books XI and XII, which deal with the seven deadly sins and the virtues that obliterate them--themes of my reading last Wednesday. So, if mankind lost Paradise through "One man's disobedience" (PL I.1) it is restored "By one man's full obedience fully tried/ Through all temptation" (Paradise Regain'd I.4,5) which lines are echoes or allusions to Romans 5:17-19 and I Corinthians 15:20-22--which I used in the Scriptural Selection last Sunday.
December has five Wednesdays, four of which fall during the season of Advent.
Last year during Advent we considered some the the things of which Jesus said "I am the ____".
This year we'll focus on the celebration of Christmas. It cries out for a more spiritual sense of the things we cherish about this season--and which seem sometimes to cause friction and trouble. Please ponder these topics and be prepared to give testimonies centered upon them. Titles are drawn from familiar hymns.
12/2
MUSIC
"Heaven and nature sing" (417)
12/9
GIFTS
"The wondrous gift is given" (222)
12/16
FAMILY, FOOD, FUN
"Keep while ye need it, brothers mine" (170)
12/23
LIGHT AND ANGELS
"The midnight clear" (158)
12/30
nEW YEAR'S DAY
"Thy mercies are new every morning" (Psalms, many occurrences of this trope)
I look forward to a season to be jolly, grateful, healed and healing!
11/11
War To End All Wars
November 11 is the anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Versailles that concluded "the war to end all wars." It seems it didn't accomplish that end, and so the name of the holiday was changed from Armistice Day to Veterans' Day in the USA and to Remembrance Day in the UK and elsewhere. The lesson will demonstrate, among other things, the impossibility of using war/sin/crime/evil/error to end war/sin/crime/evil/error.
11/18
The Bible: Our Precious Treasure
National Bible Week is November 22-28.
This title alludes to the opening phrase of Hymn #114, with which we will open the service. (It's also a harbinger of Christmas, being the tune of "The Friendly Beasts.")
Please ponder the attributes of the Bible that this hymn praises.
11/25
From Froward To Toward: Disobedience to Full Obedience
Dictionary definitions:
froward: habitually inclined to disobedience
toward: primarily, in the direction of. But if "untoward" means "difficult to guide, manage, or work with" or "marked by trouble or unhappiness," might not "toward" imply just the opposite?
And of course, poet John Milton is never far from my thought, especially as I reread Paradise Lost in full or in part in May and November when the Adam lesson comes 'round. This time I focused on Book IX, where the Serpent's arguments convinces Eve and "Earth felt the wound," and Books XI and XII, which deal with the seven deadly sins and the virtues that obliterate them--themes of my reading last Wednesday. So, if mankind lost Paradise through "One man's disobedience" (PL I.1) it is restored "By one man's full obedience fully tried/ Through all temptation" (Paradise Regain'd I.4,5) which lines are echoes or allusions to Romans 5:17-19 and I Corinthians 15:20-22--which I used in the Scriptural Selection last Sunday.
December has five Wednesdays, four of which fall during the season of Advent.
Last year during Advent we considered some the the things of which Jesus said "I am the ____".
This year we'll focus on the celebration of Christmas. It cries out for a more spiritual sense of the things we cherish about this season--and which seem sometimes to cause friction and trouble. Please ponder these topics and be prepared to give testimonies centered upon them. Titles are drawn from familiar hymns.
12/2
MUSIC
"Heaven and nature sing" (417)
12/9
GIFTS
"The wondrous gift is given" (222)
12/16
FAMILY, FOOD, FUN
"Keep while ye need it, brothers mine" (170)
12/23
LIGHT AND ANGELS
"The midnight clear" (158)
12/30
nEW YEAR'S DAY
"Thy mercies are new every morning" (Psalms, many occurrences of this trope)
I look forward to a season to be jolly, grateful, healed and healing!
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