Although the observation of Advent is not a tradition I was raised with, I have been trying to do this for the past few years as a family now that we have Alexander. This year, Alexander is four and is very much in the "absorbent mind" phase so I think this will be an especially important Advent. He's also wrestling with ideas about good and evil ( Read more... )

A news fluff piece I chanced across today was about the music chosen for funerals in recent years. The data came from a poll of 300,000 funerals in Britain commission by Co-operative Funeralcare. While certain standbys like "Amazing Grace" still top the "funeral charts" there has been a increased amount of pop/rock chosen either by the deceased ( Read more... )

Today was Good Friday. I went to church this morning. Last year's service was traditional and about 40 minutes long. This year's was a little different and was close to two hours. The entire harmonized account of the Passion was read aloud, with music - a couple specials, but mostly congregational singing - between each "movement" of the story ( Read more... )