Holy Day Trend, in the Dec. 16 'Reporter'

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Christmas week services are seeing higher attendance even than Easter services in some UM churches. Staff writer Mary Jacobs talks to a range of sources about the trend, including the addition of Christmas Eve Eve services – held on Dec. 23^rd.
 
UM clergy and churches of a social activist bent have become involved in the Occupy movement, mainly by serving as chaplains or opening their church doors for meetings. Our story draws on interviews from a range of pastors.
 
In the New York Conference, there’s open conflict among clergy about officiating at same-sex unions, something prohibited by church law. A traditionalist group is saying it will seek to have charged under the Book of Discipline clergy colleagues who have vowed to conduct such ceremonies.
 
Methodism is showing growth and vibrancy in Cuba, according to an essay we have from the Rev. John Page, who traveled there recently with a group from his UM church in Georgia.
 
This week’s commentaries include a couple on the Christmas theme. Retired Bishop Woodie W. White devotes his “Reflections” column to noting how this year Christmas has a different feel for him, given the death of one close friend and another’s struggle with Alzheimer’s. Special contributor John Dowell recalls how his stint as Santa Claus for a pub led to an encounter that put him on the path to faith.
 
We have the Rev. Eric Van Meter’s essay arguing that the UMC’s revival depends on finding inspiring, outward-focused ideas, not growth-for-growth’s-sake reforms. And the Rev. Michael Ratliff of the General Board of Discipleship makes the case for the UMC’s Youth Service Fund.
 
There’s plenty more in this edition, including a review of Carrie Newcomber’s latest recording, C. Michael Hawn’s History of Hymns column (this time on the German carol “Joseph Dearest, Joseph Mine”), and a feature on a UM Church in upstate South Carolina whose ministry brightens Christmas for many hard-up families.
 
We welcome story tips, comments, and brief, civil letters to the editor. Send to news@umr.org.
 
Thanks, as always, for keeping the faith with us.
Sam Hodges, managing editor

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Comments

[Gary Bebop]

Hopping on the Occupy movement is an enticing digression for the church, a wild goose chase quite predictable and dull. Occupy has no "center," as such, no rallying point except fountains of diatribe. UMCers need to come back to the real good news this Advent: God's incarnate revelation in Jesus Christ. It's not Occupy, it's Christ, who refuses to be co-opted by Occupy.