‘The Heart Of Christmas’
AREA CHURCHES INCORPORATE QUIET, REFLECTION AMID BUSY TIME
Posted: December 10, 2011 at 5:08 a.m.
The simplicity of “The Heart of Christmas” service is reflected in the silhouette illuminated behind the musicians on the unadorned stage.
Last year, as the contemporary worship team at Central United Methodist Church in Fayetteville sang “Winter Snow,” fluffy white flakes drifted from the ceiling.
Jim Hightower, director of contemporary worship and counseling at Central United Methodist Church in Fayetteville, works Wedn...
SCROOGE SAVES CHRISTMAS
Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” is credited with revitalizing the celebration of Christmas, scholars agree.
The holiday had fallen out of favor in post-Puritan, industrialized England, writes Michael Patrick Hearn, author of “The Annotated Christmas Carol.” Published in 1843, the novella sounded an impassioned plea to return to the older traditions of charity and goodwill.
In the words of Scrooge’s nephew, Fred: “I am sure I have always thought of Christmastime when it has come around ... as a good time: a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time: the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys.”
SOURCE: STAFF REPORT
The Rev. Jan Butin, co-pastor of First United Presbyterian Church in Fayetteville, is using “The Annotated Christmas Carol” t...
“The book is full of enduring themes - wealth and greed; guilt, remorse and repentance; transformation and redemption - as we watch Scrooge move from that ‘Bah, humbug’ attitude. All the big (themes) are there.”
REV. JAN BUTIN First United Presbyterian Church in Fayetteville
“Mr. Fezziwig’s Ball” and the title page of “A Christmas Carol in Prose,” first published in 1843.
AT A GLANCE
BLUE CHRISTMAS SERVICES
The Longest Night
Date: 6:30 p.m. Dec. 22
Venue: First United Methodist Church in Rogers, 307 W. Elm St., in chapel
Information: 631-7997, www.fumcrogers.org
Service of Hope and Healing
Date: 6 p.m. Dec. 18
Venue: Central United Methodist Church in Fayetteville, 6 West
Dickson St., in chapel on first floor of Wesley building
Information: 442-4237, www.centraltolife.com
Blue Christmas Service
Date: 7 p.m. Dec. 19
Venue: St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 224 N. East Ave. in Fayetteville
Information: 442-7373, stpaulsfay.org
Candlelight Service For Those Who Have Lost A Child
Date: 7 p.m. Sunday
Venue: Rolling Hills Baptist Church in Fayetteville, 1400 E. Rolling Hills Drive
Information: 521-2660, www.rollinghillsbaptistchurch.net
SOURCE: STAFF REPORT
FAST FACTS
CHRISTMAS HAPPENINGS
‘The Heart Of Christmas’
Time: 9:40 and 11 a.m. Sunday
Venue: Central United Methodist
Church, 6 W. Dickson St. in Fayetteville
Event: Contemporary worship service in church activities center
‘A Christmas Carol’
Time: 9:30 a.m. Sunday and Dec. 18
Venue: First United Presbyterian Church, 695 Calvin St. in Fayetteville
Event: Book study of Charles Dickens’ classic
SOURCE: STAFF REPORT
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Religion, Pages 10 on 12/10/2011
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