Between services

Join us this Sunday between services for our monthly First Sunday Breakfast.

Enjoy our standard breakfast of pancakes, eggs, sausage and bacon.

And, of course, we'll have plenty of hospitality and good fellowship as well!

The Very Funny History of Lessons and Carols

Few holidays are as widely loved as Christmas, and 9 Lessons and Carols is one of the most beloved Christmas traditions to have come from England and our church. However, the history that gave rise to Lessons and Carols is a bit of a surprise to most of us today.

When most people think of Christmas today, they seem to think of wholesome family time, presents, and church (I hope). However, this was not always the case. For most of English history, Christmas was first and foremost a drinking holiday. This is also the origin of caroling.

Commoners would go to pubs and drink until they were… relaxed. They would sing as they drank. Carols were very popular, but they were not sung in churches until the late 1800’s. They were pub songs.

Once the carolers were sufficiently warmed up and inebriated, they would go to the houses of the gentry they worked for. They would sing carols, and the expectation was that the gentry would provide them with more alcohol. After singing and drinking, the group would move along. Some took the view that it was harmless fun. Many, however, thought it was immoral and took offense at it. English newspapers of the era always had many articles condemning the behavior of those celebrating Christmas.

This is a large part of the reason why, for example, when the Massachusetts Bay Colony was founded in 1628, Christmas was banned, with fines for celebrating it enforced. Later, in Victorian England, people slowly but surely sought to take caroling out of pubs and into the church.

In 1880, the Right Rev. Edward White Benson, at that time Bishop of Truro, conducted the first formal service of "Nine Lessons and Carols" on Christmas Eve (24 December) 1880. It is clear from what he wrote that he viewed it largely as an anti-public-drunkenness measure. However, it quickly proved so popular that it spread throughout the whole Church of England and even become very popular in Roman Catholicism. This movement of taking Christmas out of the pubs and into churches was a big part of the shift to how we understand Christmas today, and we gained a wonderful celebration from it.

Come this Sunday at 10:30 and hear the story of God’s acts in history, accompanied by beautiful music from our choir. Make a morning of it.

Come to our 8:00 am service and celebrate the eucharist. Stay for fellowship, eggs, and sausage during our first Sunday breakfast. Then, enjoy the spirit of the season with Lessons and Carols at 10:30 am. I can’t wait to see you there.

Peace of Christ,

Fr. Jonathan +

Make Christmas brighter

Community Services League's Christmas Store is a long-time tradition to provide Christmas assistance to our neighbors in need. This wonderful event allows parents to find a toy or gift for their children to open on Christmas day who otherwise would not receive a gift.

Resurrection supports this outreach by asking parish members to take a tag from our gift tree and purchase the item on the tag. Then place the unwrapped gift under the tree before Monday, December 8. We'll take it from there and deliver the donations to CSL to brighten the Christmas morning of many families!

If you are interested in helping sort gifts or escort recipients through the Christmas Store on Friday, December 12, please call Amanda at CSL at (816) 690-8213.

To benefit the Community Services League

The Daughters of the King are sponsoring a Reverse Advent Calendar this year to benefit the Community Services League (CSL) of Blue Springs.

A reverse advent calendar is a way to give back during the holidays, where instead of receiving an item each day, you add one item to a box or container to donate. At the end of the countdown to Christmas, the DOK will collect and deliver the items to CSL.

Pick-up the list of suggested items to donate each day in the Narthex.

Sunday, January 18

We will have an Instructed Eucharist on Sunday, January 18 at both the 8:00 am and 10:30 am services.

An Instructed Eucharist is an opportunity to learn more about the worship we experience every Sunday. Verbal explanations of the parts of the service will be offered throughout the service.

If you have some curious questions you would like answered during the instruction (like why we do we do something specific in the service) feel free to respond to this email with your question.