The fourth Sunday of Advent provides the opportunity to ask more questions, something which no doubt delights you. Our search for Truth is scheduled to end at 11:59 pm this coming December 25. and that begs a question I have yet to have an answer for, What happened that reset the record of human history? As you read through this Wikipedia article about the Common Era in which we presently live, you may find yourself asking what happened to everything B.C.E.? When there is no shortage of explanations or answers, that initiates the process of seeking the truest, the most honest, the most accurate answer of all because our survival depends on choosing the most correct answer. You and I agree that today we've had the best Christmas ever! Why is that? I think there may be an answer to that question that justifies our continuing search for it which is:
Friday, December 25, 2020
Tuesday, December 8, 2020
Let Your Light Shine!
First, thank you for being such an inspiration! Not knowing what I'm even talking about is but one of many things about you that inspire me. This is going to be my first Christmas without Dad and that is surely upon my mind. Your great grandfather has been remembered for many things since his death last April 7, but as we proceed through Advent toward Christmas, I believe that his greatest gift to all of us was his Christmas Eve Candlelighting Service. Dad was appointed to the Arvada Methodist Church, then located at 57th and Webster in the town of Arvada (population of about 2500) in 1955. During my short ministry, I was appointed to six different parishes. The Arvada church was Dad's third appointment from which he retired thirty-five years later in 1990, making it most extraordinary in the annals of Methodist appointments. Employing this method of calculation I have twice the experience of Dad's in terms of moving to new appointments, but I digress.
The Christmas Eve custom at the Arvada church had been a cantata performed by the church choir. I remember surprisingly little about Christmas 1955. Kim and I somehow contracted Measles during the June move south from Platteville, and I managed a diagnosis of Nephritis from physician "Bart" Campbell, also a member of the church. Mom managed a birthday party for me in the dining room of the parsonage on Grandview Avenue. I remember Scott Price, Susie Wright, and the Townsend sisters, Nancy and Alice, being present. Only looking back now has given me the perspective to realize how many changes occurred by Christmas 1956. Lloyd M Collins was elected mayor of Arvada in 1955 and his wife, Blanche, had been acquainted with Dad at Colorado State College of Education at Greeley (now the University of Northern Colorado). Mrs. Collins became the church organist (and my organ teacher in seventh grade) and worked in concert with Dad until her retirement in 1976.
My memory of Christmas Eve 1957 is much clearer. All three children of Alex and Ethel Hanna (Esther, Dale, and Earl) and their seven grandchildren were present for Dad's first Christmas Eve Candlelighting Service at Arvada Methodist Church. Earlier in the Fall, Dad drove home to a new parsonage in a brand new two-tone blue and white Ford Fairlane four-door.! Uncle Dale was the most generous man I've ever known, and that included making sure that his younger brother always had a good car to drive. That afternoon the four of us headed north to Longmont to visit great-granddad who was living home alone at age 96! Dad redesigned the chancel area of the sanctuary so that the minister, organist, and choir were more clearly visible to the congregation. The new addition of an education wing was complete and a twenty-eight tradition was born.
Dad was the author, director, and producer of one of the most theologically progressive congregations in the metropolitan area, "a church where life, science, and religion are compatible". After adding an education wing to the building at 57th and Webster in 1957, he embarked on the building of a five-acre campus that included a new sanctuary and education wing with ample parking for the growing number of worshipers. Designed by Arvada architect and church member Harold R. Carver, the congregation moved to 6750 Carr Street in May 1963. No one knew then that President John F. Kennedy would be assassinated on November 22, 1963. I bring attention to this fact because the first Christmas Eve Candlelighting Services queue literally streamed out of the new sanctuary doors! One of the justifications for a new building was that multiple services were already required at the current location.
Masterfully weaving scripture, poetry, and choral, Dad engaged those attending in the powerfully profound experience of witnessing the light of a single candle lit in the dark and then passed person to person throughout the congregation to illuminate the cavernous new sanctuary. I include myself among the thousands whose lives were transformed in one way or another by the experience. I include myself among the thousands who miss him dearly, and who thank him for so wonderfully revealing a truer understanding of what Christmas really means.