December 24, 2022

Classic Christmas card from my Mother’s card drawerToday is Christmas Eve Day and (if the weather cooperates) our Candlelight Christmas Eve Service is 4PM this afternoon in the sanctuary. To be honest, it would have to be a very bad storm for us to cancel the Christmas Eve Service. We’ve missed the last two Christmas Eve Services due to covid, so we are preparing every way we can to make it happen this year. We will send a four-wheel drive vehicle to pick up our church organist if necessary! The forecast is calling for icy conditions by late Saturday afternoon so we plan to have escorts available to assist people from the parking lot to the well-salted ramp. We can also assist with getting food and crock-pots safely into the building. A pot-luck supper follows the service in the fellowship hall. All are welcome!

Our YouTube service for this week was filmed by Fen Carmichael to be viewed on Christmas Day. The Christmas Eve service will not be available until next Sunday, but Fen has something special in store for us. 

You will find the link listed below.  

There are still several special events and services happening at UUHoulton during the holidays. Here is a Calendar of Events so you can be sure to add them to your holiday schedule. Happy Holidays everyone!

In Ministry,

Dave

CALENDAR OF EVENTS

December 24 Candlelight Christmas Eve Service in the sanctuary   4PM

Potluck following the service in the fellowship hall.   All are welcome!

December 25 No Sunday Service on Christmas Day

January 1 New Year’s Day Brunch 9AM

New Year’s Day Service 10AMTHIS WEEK’S YOUTUBE SERVICE:

HERE IS THE SERVICE LINK FOR THIS WEEK’S YOUTUBE SERVICE

(Please note it won’t be active until 10AM on Sunday morning) https://youtu.be/EyevZE_wEOA THERE IS NO ZOOM COFFEE HOUR ON CHRISTMAS DAY.

Virtual Offering Plate
If you would like to send in your pledge or donation simply drop an envelope in the mail. The address is listed below.  You can also send your donation electronically with our new payment system on the church website.  Simply go to uuhoulton.org  and click “Donate” on the menu and it will explain how the system works. You can set up a regular monthly payment plan or donate in single transactions.  Thank you for your generous support!  
UU Church of Houlton, 61 Military Street, Houlton, ME  04730

OUR PLEDGE DRIVE IS CURRENTLY IN PROGRESS. IF YOU HAVE NOT RECEIVED A PLEDGE LETTER AND WOULD LIKE TO MAKE A DONATION, PLEASE VISIT OUR WEBSITE AND CLICK “DONATE.”  EVERY DOLLAR IS APPRECIATED…

Christmas Eve Candlelight Meditation

By Rev. Gary Kowalski

Once more the year’s turned round.

We’ve come full circle on this small planet,

Spinning down the grooves of change,

Another revolution completed around the sun.

Another year older …

Another set of rings on the tree …

As seasons parade in endless procession

The people’s troubles and prayers remain the same:

The worries don’t change.

Generation after generation making the same mistakes,

So many thousands of circuits in a world filled with war and woe,

Full of sound and fury,

Bleared, smeared with toil,

The ebb and flow never-ending,

The grating sound of pebbles which the waves draw back

And fling at their return up the high strand,

Begin, and cease, and then again begin

With tremulous cadence slow,

But bringing us always back to Christmas

Back to a place we’ve always known

Where we’ve never been before,

Back to a time that stands outside of time:

Not part of the regular orbit, but the axis of the year,

A still point, a fixity, the center post and ridge pole

Around which all the rest revolves.

Christmas: Telling us that history isn’t just chasing its tail,

Not merely repeating the same old tired story, over and over

Of dog-eat-dog, might-makes-right, every-man-for-himself, blow

for-blow,

Not a tale told by an idiot,

But assuring us that history has a direction and time has a purpose,

That lines are real, as well as circles

That the human saga has a goal

Still to be realized

Yet mysteriously present, already here among us,

That the Holy is enacting a new story on the earth.

Christmas is not a creed we have to believe in,

It’s not a feeling that comes and goes.

Christmas isn’t something that happened long ago,

Or didn’t happen, as the case may be.

Christmas isn’t a story we tell

So much as a drama in which all of us have become participants

Whether we feel like it or not,

Whether we believe in it or not,

Whether we like it or not.

Christmas is a reality, here-and-now

Just as love is a reality

And compassion a possibility hidden inside every interaction

Of how we choose to be with one another.

For whether we feel like or not, we are all brothers,

And whether or not we believe it, we are sisters, born of a single womb.

Whether we like it or not

We are all one tribe and share one fate.

Separateness is the illusion,

While interdependence is the plainest fact.

We know it in our heads

And when we know it in our hearts,

Then the center will be everywhere

And the circumference will have no boundaries

And the sun will rise on a new and different kind of dawn.

We join now in meditation.

In this moment of half light, half shadow,

The glow of candlelight and starlight,

We are able to look out upon the world

Not with the eyes of day

But with another kind of vision,

The illumination of faith, not sight,

A twilight where edges soften,

Harsh outlines begin to gentle

And the colors start to fade:

No more white or black, red or yellow,

But one common race of humankind,

And peace descends on all.

In this half light the familiar becomes strangely unfamiliar.

What we thought we knew seems more wonderful and sacred.

Our lives, the people who share our world, the things we took for granted

Seem more precious, more beloved,

And good will is a presence we begin to sense,

Palpable like a pulse, the heartbeat of a great organism, a world praying in unison

For a kinder earth, a more humane future.

Spirit of Candlelight,

Be with us, we pray

When this night has come and gone.

In the glare of conflagration,

In the harsh combustion of events,

Kindle these friendly lights

To guide us on the path.

About the Author

The Rev. Gary Kowalski is a Unitarian Universalist minister and author of many books, including Revolutionary Spirits, Science and the Search for God, and The Bible According to Noah. He served congregations in Vermont, Washington, Tennessee, Massachusetts, and New Mexico.

O Holy Night

Rev. Joanna Fontaine Crawford 

I’ve always loved the song “O Holy Night.” Learning its origin story only made me love it more. The story goes like this:

As a child in Rocquemaure, France, Placide Cappeau received a private school education, where he developed his talents as an artist and a writer. In 1843, the priest of Rocquemaure asked the now-famous Cappeau to write a poem commemorating the renovation of the church organ. Cappeau said yes and wrote “Minuit, chrétiens” (“Midnight, Christians”). Cappeau then asked composer Adolphe Adam to put his text to music.

“Cantique de Noël” was born. It swiftly became popular, sung at Christmas Masses across France.

Unitarian Universalists often struggle with questions about whether we should separate art and artist. In nineteenth century France, the Church hierarchy made evident their own answer: when it was discovered that Placide Cappeau was an open atheist and socialist, and Adam was Jewish, they banned the hymn from being used in any church services.

Meanwhile, in the United States, newly-ordained Unitarian minister John Sullivan Dwight—whose stagefright prevented him from preaching—turned to his love of music, which led him to discover “Cantique de Noël.”

Dwight was an ardent abolitionist, so Cappeau’s words about Christ breaking all bonds and seeing a brother where once was a slave, struck a chord with him. He loosely translated the song into English, including the third verse: “Chains shall he break, for the slave is our brother, and in his name all oppression shall cease.”

Sometimes, the story of the artist makes the art even richer. Knowing this song came from a socialist atheist writer, a Jewish composer, and a Unitarian minister—all of them abolitionists—makes me cherish it even more.

Every year, I find a version of “O Holy Night” that includes the third verse and I sit alone in the dark, letting it fill me. If love is a law, how may I follow it with more faithfulness? What might it look like for me to love better?

I know that I am not alone. Across the ages, I’m connected to artists and activists who have used the story of a humble birth to inspire them to greater acts of compassion and justice.

Prayer

May our deepest held values shape the work that we do. May we create art that reflects the best of our character, and may we celebrate all that is goodRev. Joanna Fontaine Crawford is minister of Live Oak Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Austin, Texas.

Here are two photos of our UUHoulton creche (donated by Ann Rheinlander) that is set up in the church basement for the Advent and Christmas season. We don’t always set up the entire creche scene, but this year we did! Make sure you take a closer look when you are in the building leading yup to New Year’s Day. 

Candles lighting the longest night of the year at our Solstice Celebration Wednesday night.

Prayer List

For those recovering from COVID-19 in the state of MaineLocal emergency personnel and hospital staffFor our state and national leaders as they respond to the current coronavirus crisis

For those working for social justice and societal change 

Pray for peaceful action and democratic process in our nation

The war in Ukraine is now in its ninth month 

Prayers to ease the political unrest in the Middle East

Prayers for those suffering from seasonal flu and continuing covid cases

Prayers for peace and hope during the holy month of December 

Prayers for those who are alone this Christmas or suffering from the seasonal blues

The Four Limitless Ones Prayer

May all sentient beings enjoy happiness and the root of happiness.

May we be free from suffering and the root of suffering.

May we not be separated from the great happiness devoid of suffering.

May we dwell in the great equanimity free from anger, aggression and exclusion.