by Stacey Hilliard | Dec 4, 2024 | Conversations
“The ritual of lighting candles at Advent is not a shallow exercise. It begins the Christian year with a clear reminder that God so loved the world Jesus came to provide the best example of how to find beloved community amid our challenges…It acknowledges, with the lighting of a simple candle once a week, that God is still in our midst, still calling us to be the body of Christ “\’until Christ comes in final victory, and we feast at his heavenly banquet.’”
Read Bishop Bickerton’s full Advent letter, HERE.
by Stacey Hilliard | Dec 3, 2024 | Conversations
On Sunday, December 1 – the first Sunday in Advent – we celebrated our annual “Blessing of the Greens.” It’s a fun, family-oriented service during which we learn about how the decorations we use, both inside and out, came to represent our faith. (Yes, even a Christmas Tree, with its Pagan roots.) We lit the first candle on our Advent Wreath, sang a lot of carols, and offered our blessing over it all. (You can watch a recording of the service here, or read the history of our decorations here.)
This Advent season, we will offer a special blessing on a different figure from our home nativity sets. Everyone is encouraged to bring figures from their home to be blessed each week. Sign up for our weekly newsletter, the Messenger, at https://crawfordmethodist.org/subscribe/ to find out which figures will be blessed next! (Spoiler: We’ll bless the baby Jesus on Christmas Eve.)
by Stacey Hilliard | Sep 2, 2024 | Conversations
The theme for Backyard Blessings this year was “Soaking in God’s Love” and it came from an experience I had a few Sundays ago.
I was dressed and ready for church but it was still early. It had been a difficult week and I felt the need for some alone time so I decided to drive to Horn Pond and enjoy the fresh air and sunshine and take a walk. The pond is my go to place for exercise, relaxation and enjoying nature. It is also a place that renews me and fills my soul.
When I arrived there instead of beginning a walk, I saw an empty bench near the water and decided to sit, enjoy the beautiful surroundings and say a prayer. All the while intending to be on time to worship at Crawford.
In that quiet time I felt such peace. I felt God presence right next to me on that bench. I sat in silence and soaked up the presence of God. I was unaware of the time and needless to say I missed church at Crawford. But I definitely worshipped.
– Sue DiMarzo
by Stacey Hilliard | May 20, 2024 | Conversations
A number of people came up after service asking about the piece Jenny and I played –
Spiegel im Spiegel – and its composer,
Arvo Pärt, who is actually my favorite living composer, in large part due to his spiritual transformation and the resulting pivot to mystic minimalism. (See and hear a recording on Crawford’s YouTube channel,
here.)
The title means “mirror in the mirror”, sonifying two mirrors facing each other, producing a cascade of identical images that appears to cascade infinitely ahead. The piece gives me the feeling of staring deeper into the reflection, looking for its origin, its starting place. The deeper I go, the more the ‘here and now’ reveals its infinitude.
As parents, we see ourselves mirrored in our son’s words and behaviors more and more (for better or worse). He embodies that which he reflects, just as we reflect our parents and mentors, and they theirs, ad infinitum. Our best glimpse of what unites us with all that came before, and with all that stretches far ahead, is the steady breath of the here and now, the Ruach, which is the Sancte Spiritu, the same reflection manifested in Acts, in Pärt’s personal spiritual transformation, and, hopefully, for you this very day.
Arvo composes from a place of mystic meditation and spiritual discipline, listening inwardly rather than projected outwardly. Through this act, we might recognize and resonate with the invisible spirituality of others. As he says, “We cannot see what is in the heart of another person. Maybe he is a holy man, and I can see only that he is wearing the wrong jacket.”
Here is a favorite recording of
Spiegel im Spiegel. Like most great recordings, the musicians aren’t simply playing notes, but sounding themselves, as if listening to a mirror of their own infinite reflection. To add to your listening, my favorite of Pärt’s works is his
Berliner Messe, which begins
with this stunning Kyrie. I imagine heaven sounding like this.
As for the
song “Breathe” from Sunday, it reflects this same Spirit. I only wish we could insert our choir in our recording. Actually, if you listen closely, you can hear me sniffling as Jenny marches down the aisle to
this wedding version I arranged for string quartet, sung by a friend one month shy of five years ago.
Thank you for reading. Whatever you face this week, don’t forget to breathe!
– James G.
Music Director
Crawford Memorial United Methodist Church
by Stacey Hilliard | Apr 18, 2024 | Conversations
The theme of Earth Day, April 22, 2024, is Planet vs. Plastics. It seems like a good time, with warmer weather approaching, to remind people to carry reusable containers for water. If you need to purchase water bottled in plastic, please don’t leave them in a warm place and of course, recycle the used plastic. I am very grateful that I can still bend down and pick up discarded plastic, but I would be much happier if I didn’t have to. There are still a lot of discards on the ground. This is Winchester and a river runs through it and that river reaches the ocean eventually.
Now that Earth Day is upon us, maybe we can renew our efforts to recycle, try to use less plastic, walk more and pick up more. My mother used to say that “every day was mother’s day,” true and it is also true, that every day is Earth Day. We are so blessed with this gift of God’s good earth.
– Janet Herrmann
Ways to Reduce Use (and Abuse) of Single-Use Plastics
If you have ideas for ways to reduce our use and abuse of plastics, let us know here, and we’ll add them to this list!
Refill shops (also known as zero waste stores)
These usually small, independently owned shops provide items commonly used in most households (dish soap, laundry detergents, shampoo, conditioner, and more). Customers bring their own containers which are weighed before and after filling, so they only pay for the product. I made the switch to my local refill shop’s shampoo and conditioner a couple of years ago, and love the products. Another thing I purchase from my refill shop is foaming hand soap refill tablets. While you can buy a stylish new bottle with a supply of tablets on Amazon, I simply use the refill tablets in my Method foaming hand soap dispenser. If you’re local to Winchester, here are two nearby refill shops to check out:
Wherever you are, Google “refill shops near me” to find your local shops.
– Stacey H.
by Stacey Hilliard | Aug 31, 2023 | Conversations
(Diana Butler Bass, August 31, 2023)
From September 1 to October 4, Christians around the world mark the Season of Creation, a relatively recent development in the liturgical calendar.
The practice began in 1989 when Ecumenical Patriarch Dimitrios I proclaimed September 1 a day of prayer for the environment. In 2000, a Lutheran congregation in Australia developed a four-week celebration of creation — and the idea spread throughout that nation and beyond. Eventually, the Vatican picked up the practice and the World Council of Churches promoted the new liturgical season.
During these weeks, Christians are urged to recognize the theological centrality of God the Creator, Creation itself, the human vocation of caring for Creation, and doing justice on behalf of the Earth and all of her inhabitants.
All creation is a temple, says St. Gregory the Great.
Every tree, stone, lizard, rabbit, meteor, comet, and star to us is holy.
—Ernesto Cardenal
For all of its struggles internally, especially in the West, Christianity remains the world’s largest religion — and it is incumbent upon people of faith to work for the Earth’s healing and renewal in this time of crisis. Christians bear the burden of being part of the problem as many Christian traditions have badly muddled their theologies of creation and promoted practices that colonized and destroyed the very world we were instructed to “till and keep.”
The Season of Creation is marked by repentance for that past, a call to deepen theological reflection and spiritual awareness of Creation, and engaging justice on behalf of nature and our neighbors. Attending to Creation in liturgy, prayer, scripture, and spirituality may be one of the most significant theological shifts in contemporary Christianity, and is certainly one of the most needed.
The World Day of Prayer for Creation is not a kind of off-handed “thoughts and prayers” dismissal. It is an invitation to experience faith differently, to center Creation and the Creator, and to learn the Bible and theology anew. This day invites us to metanoia — a profound change of heart and life, a genuine conversion toward a Creation-based vision of God, nature, and neighbor.
And, as I hope Cottage readers know, this invitation is not exclusive to Christians. The Cottage is, as always, open. Everyone is welcome to this month of creation reflection — whatever your faith, practice, or tradition. Please contribute insights from your sacred texts, offer prayers from your tradition, and share generously as we join this journey together.
We all need a new heart when it comes to the repair of this hurting, wounded world. And we need each other now — as urgently as the planet needs us.
For the next month, we will continue to explore the Season of Creation here at The Cottage — especially in Sunday Musings.
Read Diana’s post online here, or join Pastor Anne in subscribing to her blog/newsletter (“The Cottage”) for free, here. (It’s not a free trial, it’s free as long as you’d like to receive it.)
