With Christmas we celebrate the birth of Light. This ancient tradition was adopted by the early Christians to coincide with the birth of Jesus. The symbolism is apt: Just as the sun passes through the winter solstice in the Northern Hemisphere, so the light of truth starts to exceed the darkness of ignorance. Truth in this context refers to that experience which has rendered its fruits into wisdom and not merely the belief of a dogma or doctrine. The message is again: By living consciously we become aware of the meaning of our experiences. May Christmas inspire you to consciously experience the birth of your inner light!
Christmas and all that surrounds it rather brings out my Puritan side. As we were reminded in a Unitarian service recently, the Puritan congregation that was to become Unitarian had a Sunday service that fell on 25 December conducted by the Reverend Samuel Charles. He did not mention the birth of Christ even once.
5 comments:
B
Hi Adrian, I did not know that particular bit of Unitarian history that you mentioned in the above post. I'm going to look it up, but I was wondering if you had a Link or any suggestions as to history I should be reading?
Thanks,
-Gene.
I thought you had marked it with a B!
The answer to your question is any standard English Presbyterian history (for example, the one edited by Bolam et al.), but also don't forget that in the United States a number of Puritan congregations went precisely the same way. I'm referring in my posting to primary documents of archives of the Hull Unitarian Church.
Sorry about that Adrian, A+ as usual. Its my typing skills that are B level, on a good day!
Thanks much,
-Gene.
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