Salute the Happy Morn

 

The link for this week's live-streamed Sunday morning service is here

The link for the live-streamed Christmas Eve service is here

Ed. Note: Thanks to our clerk of session for this Christmas morning post.

My Favourite Christmas Hymn is, "Christians Awake, Salute the Happy Morn".

Here is the story of how it became so special to me.

 

One of my loveliest Christmas memories took place in the late 1960's when I was the assistant house mother at Dr. Barnardo's in Canterbury.

It was Christmas Eve and so the house parents, who were Anglicans, took the older children to the early Christmas Eve service at the Cathedral while I stayed home with the younger ones and got them off to bed. 

When the other children arrived home, they got themselves off to bed and I was then free to go to the Methodist Church that I attended at that time, for the 11:00 pm service.

It was a beautiful service and it was timed so that the last hymn was sung just after midnight (now Christmas morning) & that hymn was, "Christians AwakeSalute the Happy Morn."

It just felt right to me at that time and really touched my heart.

After all our Christmas greetings to one another, we came out of church and it had just begun to snow, it was almost magical and as I walked home alone, through the now quiet city streets, that just a few hours earlier had been all of a bustle with shoppers buying last minute gifts, up through the city's West Gate, there was a really quiet peace. I can't explain it but all seemed right with the world, right at that moment, it was Christmas and Christ was born!

The words of this hymn are very meaningful to me and still fill my heart with hope, peace, joy and love, a real hymn of praise for Christ's birth.

 

Year End Wrap Up

   

 December was a busy month at SPPC.  As we prepared to celebrate the birth of Jesus our Sunday worship took on a tone of expectation.  Lighting the first candle of Advent, the candle of hope, set a small flame in the sanctuary that grew Sunday by Sunday.
    On the second Sunday we lit the candle of peace, and held our "Christmas Celebration" concert in the evening.  The beautiful carols reminded us all of the peace Christ promised.

    Joy is the theme of the third Advent candle.  That day we presented our white gift offerings.  Those little parcels wrapped in white brightened Christmas for eighteen families on our list, with more left over for the Sidney Lions Food Bank.  Service was followed by a bake sale, in aid of the mission trip to the Dominican Republic.  We are getting very close to our financial goal for that endeavour.  Another reason for joy.

     The fourth Sunday, we lit the candle of love and enjoyed the Sunday School's presentation of the Bethlehem Story.   The smiles around the sanctuary shone with love.
   

 On Christmas Eve, we lit the Christ candle, the culmination of all our expectation.  The light from that candle circled the sanctuary. We have 120 candles, but the worshippers outnumbered the candles!  Still, the light was shared with all as the choir and congregation sang "Silent Night," one of the best loved carols of all time.

     Christmas morning we gathered once again, a much smaller crowd and most were a little sleepy, but we heard again the news of Christ's birth in Bethlehem, greeted friends and visitors and went home to Christmas dinner with the gifts of hope, peace, joy and love in our hearts.

    The Sunday after Christmas is considered a "low" Sunday in the year, but the choir turned out and sang an anthem, Rev. Irwin delivered a thoughtful sermon, the organist prepared a beautiful Bach number for the postlude.  The children's story recalled the anticipation of Christmas morning and it was food bank Sunday, reminding us all that gifts are not just for one day in December but all year long, just as the gift of Christ is forever.  
     Perhaps Dec,. 28 is a low Sunday in terms of attendance, but not in terms of meaningful worship.
     Happy New Year everyone!