An Adventure in Ministry

  One of the things that I love about Christmas, particularly as someone within the Salvation Army, is carolling. I play in our brass band and I love when the time comes to begin to play carols! Often we sing Christmas carols but don’t really take notice of the words or where they came from. Recently as I have been looking at some of the Christmas Carols we sing, I have found some fascinating stories. For the second Carol in my series of Christmas Carols unwrapped we are looking at a beautiful carol - ‘It came upon a midnight clear’ This carol was written by Edmund Hamilton Sears in America the 19th Century. It was written at a time of great personal turmoil. He was a pastor and had recently suffered a breakdown as a result of the stresses of ministry and had moved back to a congregation he had previously shepherded.  Sears was also struggling with the state of the world around him. The United States were at war with Mexico and further afield there was revolution in Europe. Th...

  Recently I have been doing a deep dive into some of the hymns and songs that we sing in church, considering the stories behind them and how they impact our understanding of the song and indeed faith itself. As the season of Christmas approaches (or if you are anything like me, it is well and truly here already!) I thought it would be interesting to do a blog series on some of the songs and carols we sing at Christmas and using their backstories, see what God might teach us anew.  Our first Christmas song is one that most would never consider a carol about Jesus, but is one with plenty of hidden meanings! If you know me in person, you will know that I am one of those people who can never simply sit still and do nothing, I always have something on the go! So one way in which I have found really useful as I try and switch off is by doing cross stitch. In the last few years I have completed some pretty complicated projects (see the photos below) Currently I am working on a Chris...