Advent & Christmas Events
Christmastime Events of WYM:
Here is a brief listing of various events and special programs being held during the Christmas season by member Meetings (Monthly and Quarterly) and other Friends organizations with whom we are affiliated who have shared their holiday schedule! If your meeting has something special going on and you’d like it added to this list, please contact Mel at the office!
Friendsville Quarterly Meeting Christmas Program: Sunday, December 7, at 3 p.m. at Maryville Friends Meetinghouse. Friendsville Quarterly Meeting has held a Christmas program on the first Sunday in December for many decades! It’s always a rich and uplifting time for Friends from the Quarterly Meeting, and other F/friends, to share in a time of worship and fellowship. This year will be extra special as newly-created Lakeway Preparative Meeting will be participating as a member of the Quarterly and Yearly Meetings!
Chester Friends Advent Events: December 20 at 6:00 p.m. , Chester Friends will hold a Candlelight Nativity. Children and other participants should arrive at 5:30 p.m. for costumes and instructions. Light refreshments and fellowship to follow. Bring a snack to share!
Cincinnati Friends:
The Longest Night—A Worship Service to Support the Grieving, Sunday, December 21st at 6:30 PM.
Surrender to grief during the “Longest Night” with worship, fire and a coffee truck
Likely, we ALL have something to grieve: the loss of a person, pet, a job, relationship, our youth, the state of the world or something else. Please join your beloved community as Cincinnati Friends Meeting hosts a “Longest Night” to sit together in worship as we grieve in community Sunday, Dec. 21 beginning at 6:30 pm at the Meetinghouse.
Minister/Public Friend Jim Newby will open worship with some words of comfort. Spiritual Nurturer Cathy Barney will segue from silence to reflection after 45 minutes as we write down what we would like to surrender. At 7:30 we will walk together to the outdoor firepit to release what is heavy on our hearts and enjoy fellowship around Menk’s vintage Coffee Truck in our parking lot. Dress for the weather as the conclusion will be outside, though you can bring your coffee inside.
Menk’s has a special story connected to grief. Proprietor Jeanne was a barista downtown Milford when she met Dino Pelle, a local character that welcomed all. His smile would melt you. At the local coffee shop, Dino attracted a dedicated circle of all ages, who witnessed the decline and eventual passing of their dear friend earlier this year. Dino instilled his passion for friendship and coffee, which Jeanne and her blue truck “Bruce” continue.
For more information, contact Jim or Cathy. Cathy is launching a spiritual-nurture group on grief in the new year. Contact her, cathybarney@cincinnatifriends.
Cincinnati Friends Meeting’s Christmas worship service will begin with a medley of Advent and Christmas hymns at 6:45 and the Welcome will be at 7:00 pm on Wednesday, December 24. There will be a play by our Young Friends, special music by the Williams Family Singers, a Message by Jim Newby, and we will conclude by encircling the Meeting Room in candlelight singing Silent Night, Holy Night.
Jamestown Friends Participating in “Small-town Christmas”: On Saturday, December 13, Jamestown Friends will participate in the Village’s Small-town Christmas celebration from 2pm – 9pm. Friends will have an information booth (with balloons for kids) downtown and a truck in the parade (which starts at 6 pm). With this year’s parade theme being “Light Up the Night!” it seems a perfect opportunity to let the Jamestown area know that Friends are still there, seeking and sharing the Light!
Friends United Meeting Publishes Advent Devotional:
Now and then a Quaker, generally tongue-in-cheek, will refer to our December 25th festivities as “the day the world calls Christmas.” Referring to Christmas that way places Friends at a bit of a remove from the yearly cycle of Christian holidays. It reminds us that every day is one in which we should expect God’s arrival, that every day can overturn our expectations of power and mercy, that every day is a day in which God is incarnate with us.
And yet, Advent can be seen as the most Quakerly of the Christian seasons. It’s time set aside for quiet waiting—for experimenting with the openness to God that we seek in our times of silence each Sunday. Each Advent, as we take time to practice the art of waiting on God, we find an opportunity become better Friends.
We hope you will enjoy this series of Advent and Christmas devotions offered by Friends across the United States. It can be downloaded here. You’ll find many different ways of speaking about God, each pointing toward the same grounding truth that God is truly, miraculously, and lovingly as with us now as in the manger long ago.
May the grace and peace of Christ surround you in this season and always, and may your Christmases be merry and bright.
