easter 2015

I'm grateful to Carolyn Pritchard for sharing this video on Facebook, and wanted to share it with my blog readers, too. It has already been blogged about at  Pastoral Meanderings , who calls it  a testament to what children see, hear, and learn, and  Ex occidente ad orientem , who gives "Kudos" to their mother who probably took them to the vigils and the Divine Liturgy.  The video shows two Orthodox Christian children repeating what they have seen at church: crossing themselves, anointing each other, carrying a Gospel book, swinging a thurible (incense), chanting Alleluia, and kissing the hands of the priest. Their mother, while filming, sings.

Today Vandriver and I were in Denmark for a very special service- the licensing and institution of the new Anglican chaplain at St Alban's Church, Copenhagen. [This chaplaincy is part of the Church of England's Diocese in Europe.] Within the service was a "Rededication of the Ministry of the People of God". The archdeacon (leading the service, representing the bishop) invited representative members of the congregation to come forward and, one by one, offer their new priest an object symbolizing one aspect of ministry and ask him to take that on.  For example, the organist presented the priest with a hymnal and said, Be among us as a priest using the power of music to deepen our understanding of God's Word.  And then the whole congregation affirmed, Together, by God's grace, we will worship the Lird in the beauty of Holiness.  I was pleased to see that one symbol was to be of "ministry with young people", and that the congregation was to affirm,  Toge...

Last year, I heard one priest from the Diocese in Europe comment that his church budget would not stretch to a paschal candle with the year on it, and that even the purchase of the paschal candle he did have was something he'd had to defend. store display of paschal candles ( licensed photo by Gagorski , cropped by Storyteller) Just a few days later, I came across a lovely blog post, also from the Diocese in Europe, and I thought, Here is a possible solution to those financial concerns . Bishop David Hamid wrote that in St Margaret's Anglican Episcopal Church in Budapest, they have a tradition of buying a large, plain candle and having the children decorate it . Eurobishop: Children of St Margaret's Budapest prepare the paschal candle : Krisztus felt�madt! ... These photos show them hard at work in Sunday School on Palm Sunday and presenting the finished product to the congregation. Decorating actual candles, or doing paper-crafts of gluing bits of paper to reflect the way ...