Category: music
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Are Christians Escapists? Aliens? Crazy?
Before heading out of town for our family vacation I picked up the most recent issue of The Believer which happened to be the yearly music issue. I’d forgotten how odd (to me, at least) this magazine is but I enjoyed the interviews and essays, especially the one about Rev. C.L. Franklin, Aretha Franklin’s father and…
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Lianne La Havas
The past few days have been non-stop activity. Good stuff, this busyness: Good Friday and Easter Services to plan and lead, the highlight of the year for us with the transition from grief to celebration. We feasted around our table on Sunday afternoon with friends, delicious food, a lot of laughing, and an egg hunt…
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Endurance in Christmastime
Advent, the weeks leading to Christmas, is a time of anticipation- remembering the Israelites awaiting the Messiah and acknowledging our own waiting for his return. It’s a season with enough heft and depth to evoke and hold our grief. We remember the Israelits waiting and waiting for their deliverance. We remember the massacre of the innocents when word reached Herod…
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Endurance in Christmas Time
The Christmas album I’ve listened to the most this year comes from Hymns from Nineveh, the project of Danish musician Jonas Petersen. Unlike so much Christmas music, there is nothing precious about Endurance in Christmas Time; these are songs of exile and longing, with occasional whimsy and celebration. I know there’s only a few day’s…
David W. Swanson 