In this Year of Covid nothing is as normal. nothing. at. all. nothing.
Some of you may already have all you services pre-recorded; others will be “going live” on the day. And some, like me, may be somewhere in between. I have a live service tomorrow where we will attempt to do a “DIY Isolation Nativity” – I have no clue if it will work, but I do know that we will have no room if anyone arrives without booking (here in Scotland the maximum number allowed into the building is 50)
Because of the strangeness and unpredictability of this year, this is your do-it-all Christmas Preacher Party, we are going to keep this going for as long as you all need it. It will cover your thoughts, questions, search for resources for Christmas Eve, Day and Christmas 1 on Sunday 27…
So please do share your questions, links to blogs or YouTube channels, your highs and lows… we are all in this together, and together we CAN do this!!
Julie Rennick is a Church of Scotland minister – working in Central Scotland. She is waiting to see just what Christmas will bring this year!
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I am sitting in the quiet of the church office after helping with once-a-month food distribution trying to wrap my head around how to finish the Christmas Eve service and looking for something we can use in place of a sermon from Christmas 1. I’m recording different members singing carols for Christmas Eve tomorrow afternoon and families are recording themselves reading scripture. We will record the remainder of both services on Tuesday.
Meanwhile the stack of end-of-semester things-to-grade in my in box is pretty deep. With the end of the semester converging with Advent and Christmas Eve, I think this is the hardest week of every year to be my particular blend of part-time pastor, part-time professor, and parent. Fortunately, my kids are pretty easy going about Christmas (they’ve had to be, and they’ve never known it to be different.) –Wendy
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my goodness! That’s a lot of things to balance. blessings as you navigate that each part gets what is needed, and that you have time for you in all of that
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We are having live services, videoing parts of them (the parts without the pesky copyrighted music) for people who aren’t coming to church for whatever reasons. Wrapping up my sermon for Advent 4 on Mary and a non-sentimental kind of love. Doing a wedding for a childhood friend Sunday afternoon. It has been moved from a tiny chapel to the outside steps of said chapel. Hoping it doesn’t rain. One of the church members wants to talk about an encounter he had with a man who needed a pair of shoes. I think I may let him talk about this on Christmas Eve and punt my sermon on “The People Who Walked in Darkness” (as good a description of 2020 as any). Then hubby (the volunteer videographer) and I are taking a long-delayed, much needed week’s vacation. We are going to a small planet in the Alpha Centauri system where they don’t have the coronavirus. Actually we’re staying home and staying in. Maybe binge watch a few things. If we have a few decent days, I’ll tackle cleaning up the garden. (New Orleans during the week after Christmas tends to be gray, foggy, and rainy.)
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I think I’d take Alpha Centauri! We have just been put back into lockdown, effective from midnight Christmas Dy; it means my son and grandson who were travelling here are now staying home. We are all sad. But trying to find some hope.
We’d like some dry days for garden and garage work… seems highly unlikely!
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We are pre-recording everything, which is not what I dreamed of for my first Christmas with a new congregation–but safety matters. Next year!
I had to write 3 xmas eve sermons before I had one I liked, so I will record that tomorrow when I go to church to pass out Christmas Eve candles and gifts in a ‘drive by’ activity in front of the church. We did it last week too, and it was great. 70 cars came through last week, and I’d probably only met 25% of them before that.
We’ve recorded all the liturgy through Jan 3 so we can all take some vacation time. My family arrives on the 23rd and I’m excited to see them, even if all we’ll be doing is taking walks and staying in my apartment.
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tomorrow will be my last live service for at least three weeks; the new restrictions means we can only have 20 people in the building – but it doesn’t start until next weekend. Christmas Day is recorded but not edited, same for 27th, Christmas Eve gets recorded on Tuesday. Then once it is all uploaded, I am off until January 4. But restricted on where we can go
2020 just doesn’t let up!
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I was sad when we went back on lockdown, but once we knew, it made the planning easier. And now I find myself a pastor without much to do right now. So I’m delivering Christmas Eve candles today to some homebound members who didn’t come by the church this weekend.
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Yāall…I think this is going to be one of the best Christmas eveās my family has ever had. My clergy spouse and I are usually not together on Christmas Eve, and our children (6 and 3) are stuck at church for hours when they just want to be home in jammies around the tree. This year, we have one live streamed service at 7pm. The other 2 ppl in the church building are some of our favorite people to spend time with. The service will be amateur and bumpy and not as good as being all together but it will also be beautiful and creative. And then Iāll get to be home with my family. There is so so much that is hard about this but also: I am really looking forward to it. ā¤ļø
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I hear you! Itās now the 23rd here. This was supposed to be āChristmas morningā for my oldest and his son, my 4yr old grandson. They were going to be here a couple days and head on home again tomorrow for Christmas
But the new Scottish lockdown has stopped that. Instead we are heading on a road trip today to exchange gifts in a shopping mall car park that is half way between each of our homes. But… we will still cook turkey for the two of us, and the dogs! And we will have a quiet day and eat good things, and FaceTime our grownup kids. And wonāt be exhausted on Christmas Day for the first time in years!
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