Let Christmas Bells Ring

The bells have been ringing out this Christmas despite the Pandemic shutdown that has loomed over us in Ontario and other parts of Canada – and much of the world.  The Bishop of Huron Diocese decided to closedown face-to-face worship on the Sunday before Christmas.  However, we were still able to ring the church bells (or in the case of St. James, Parkhill bell) on Christmas Eve at 6;30 and Christmas Day at noon as requested by Archbishop Linda Nichols, Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada.  The Christmas Day bell ringing can be seen on the St. James Anglican Church Facebook Page https://www.facebook.com/St-James-Anglican-Church-Parkhill-114562600251874.  We had a simple liturgy with the opening sentence and collect for Christmas Day from the Book of Alternative Services:

Sentence
I bring you good news of a great joy which will come to all the
people; for to you is born this day a Saviour, Christ the Lord.
Luke 2.10–11
Collect
Almighty God,
you wonderfully created
and yet more wonderfully restored our human nature.
May we share the divine life of your Son Jesus Christ,
who humbled himself to share our humanity,
and now lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

This was followed by the ringing of the church bell to celebrate the birth of Jesus in lowly estate in the stable in Bethlehem.  The ringing of church bells has been part of the tradition of worship and is used to mark occasions both joyous such as Christmas Day and weddings as well as those more solemn occasions such as the tolling of bells at funerals.  I listened to a program on C.B.C. radio recently (I’m not sure which one) that told of the foundry in Italy that has been making bells for a thousand years.  It has been owned and run by the same family for all that time.  Anglicans are often accused of being focused on our traditions but you can’t get much more traditional than that – it is truly amazing.  The bells forged by this foundry can be found all over the world.  The reporter for this story advised that she was reporting from Rome and noted that there are over one thousand churches in Rome.  Consequently, the sound of bells being rung can be almost defining at times. 

Our single bell at St. James church makes only a small but perhaps not significant sound compared with that.  However, there were thousands of bells which rang out throughout Canada and the world on Christmas Day.  They all announced the Good News of the birth of the Prince of Peace. 

I will close with the word from that wonderful carol which celebrates the bells that are rung on Christmas Day announcing the birth of the Prince of Peace.

 

 

I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day

 

I heard the bells on Christmas day
Their old familiar carols play
And mild and sweet their songs repeat
Of peace on earth good will to men

And the bells are ringing (peace on earth)
Like a choir they’re singing (peace on earth)
In my heart I hear them (peace on earth)
Peace on earth, good will to men

And in despair I bowed my head
There is no peace on earth I said
For hate is strong and mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good will to men

But the bells are ringing (peace on earth)
Like a choir singing (peace on earth)
Does anybody hear them? (peace on earth)
Peace on earth, good will to men

Then rang the bells more loud and deep
God is not dead, nor does he sleep (peace on earth, peace on earth)
The wrong shall fail, the right prevail
With peace on earth, good…

 

May you have blessings of peace throughout this Christmas Season

ZOOMing With God

Last week, I was attending the Summer Dream and Spirituality Conference presented by the Haden Institute.  I am not sure if ‘attending’ is the correct word – perhaps ‘participating in’ is better because I was participating via ZOOM.  I have attended the Conference many times since my first time in 2005, but those have always been attendance that was on site at the Kanuga Conference Center in Hendersonville N.C. 

This was my first experience of any such endeavor by electronic means and I was very aware of both he positive and negative aspects of using a such a means of coming together.  Many of us are now getting very familiar with ZOOM (is Zooming or ZOOMing the verb) and similar ways of being in community in the time of COVID 19 with many worship services being so offered and meetings utilizing the internet for meetings.  It is something which will become to a lesser or greater extent the “new normal” in the post COVID 19 shut down.  As the Rev. Sherry DeJonge noted yesterday when four of us gathered at St. James Anglican Church, Parkhill in the traditional way yesterday to worship (keeping social distancing) while Donna Lamb-Gunness recorded the service for Facebook, we will need to continue providing worship services electronically after the shut down is eased as many people will be reluctant to attend church physically  - at least initially.

In addition, it was announced at the end of the Conference that next year, the Conference could be attended either in person or electronically for the first time.  This option, which has been used in a limited way in many instances I past years will, I believe, become the new normal way meeting in the years to come.

That being said and turning to the Conference itself, it is a wonderful exploration of ways that we can enhance our connection with God or the Divine - however you personally define it.  One of the primary ways which is offered at the Conference, is through dreams which we consider to be God’s forgotten language.  In addition, there are many ways included such as prayer, meditation, art and poetry to name a few.   

On reflection, it struck me that ZOOMing (or Zooming) is a great metaphor for how God communicated with us.  I believe that God is continually trying to connect with us – to ZOOM - in many different ways.  Unfortunately, we are not willing or able to be open to many of those ways.  Sometimes we will be open to a few familiar ways in which God speaks to us such as in scripture or music or prayer.  However, we can both deepen those ways though those ways through practice, participation and reflection, as well as exploring other ways in which we are naturally not as attuned to.  I believe we can do both, that is, deepen the ways which we have been accustomed to in our lives as well as explore new ways which we haven’t considered as possibilities for God speaking to us.  I have found the Conference to be a wonderful way of exploring both possibilities. 

I will close with a short poem which was offered to me - possibly from a divine source in one the workshops during the Conference which explored this avenue for communication with the Divine.  It explores the idea of our names being formative to who we are and the reality of my life that I almost was named after my father rather than someone else.

In the Name of the Father

What if my father,

Who was the one who baptized me,

Had honoured his agreement

With my mother

And had named me Milton

After my father,

Instead of Gregory after

His philosophy prof.

Would I be the same person

I am now,

Or would I be someone else?

Blessings on you journey.