Storrsmas: Coming Sunday, December 9th…

Categories: Carillon Newsletter,Music,News,Worship

Over in Cambridge, England, where Pastor Matt spent a part of his sabbatical a year ago, they have a week in early December each year known as “Bridgemas”.  What’s “Bridgemas,” you ask?  It’s Christmas in Cambridge, of course!  You see, just like here, the fall academic term in Cambridge concludes well in advance of the Christmas holiday, typically by the first full week of December or thereabouts.  So, at the various colleges and other institutions around Cambridge, that week gets filled with the Christmas parties, the carol services, and other such celebrations of Christmas in the university community.

This year, in morning worship on December 9th, which is the last Sunday here in Storrs before the conclusion of the fall semester at UConn—and thus the last Sunday of the term with our choral scholars and other UConn student congregants—we’re going to take a page from Cambridge’s book and celebrate a bit of “Storrsmas”:  Christmas in Storrs.  Or at least a nod toward Christmas… we will be holding off on the Luke 2 nativity story and the singing of some of the most festival-day-type carols (like “O Come, All Ye Faithful” and “Hark! The Herald”) until Christmas Eve.  But we will be celebrating a wonderful Lessons-and-Carols format service, weaving together from across both the Advent and the Christmas seasons scripture readings, poetry, contemporary voices, and many, many gifts of music (including—yes!—some Christmas carols).  While we’ll still be in the season of Advent, and thus called to prepare and watch for Christ’s coming, preparation can indeed happen through remembering, as well as through waiting and foreshadowing.

So, do plan to come—and invite others—as we together celebrate “Storrsmas” on December 9th!

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