UUMH 236 Commercial Street • Provincetown Newsletter • Massachusetts

December 2020

“The members of the UU Meeting House hold sacred each individual’s spiritual and ethical development. We welcome all and seek unity in diversity. We commit ourselves in service to the wellbeing of the congregation and to all of life.” ~Mission Statement of the Unitarian Universalist Meeting House of Provincetown

UUMH : A Sacred Waiting

Our modern society is not conducive to waiting. May- be this is why I treasure Advent so much. It’s a time of sacred waiting, candles-lit, prayers, contemplation, and beautiful music. A gracious pause to what can too often be a hectic time of year--a time to intentionally slow down and connect with the divine. It’s a healing balm for a trou- bled world. We wait in anticipation of our celebrating a most special birth. The birth of , and perhaps our own “births”... as in, what will we bring into the world? Birthing can be painful and difficult in both the the literal and figurative sense... and yet we know when our hearts are directed towards the light of God’s love, that what we birth into the world will be good for ourselves and our communities. We hold onto this knowledge, this deep wisdom to get us through the difficult times so that we may celebrate what we “birth.” Like Mary, it is up to each of us to answer God’s call with a faithful “yes.” May our waiting and “birthing” bring forth beautiful fruit- fulness, and may we all enjoy a blessed Advent and a joyous this year, even if the Covid version is different than we are used to.... God’s love is always with us.

--April Baxter “Einstein said, ‘We can believe nothing is a miracle or everything is!’

“Many UUs don’t believe in. . .virgin births. But many do believe in the miracle of birth and the hope that every child can make a differ- ence. . . .UUs [in fact] helped create how Christmas is celebrated in the USA. For 200 years the Puritans squelched Christmas cel- ebrations due to too much drinking, partying and overeating. Uni- versalists openly celebrated Christmas for years in New England in the 1780s. In the 19th Century they actively pushed for Christmas celebrations. Unitarians called for public observance of Christmas around 1800. It was not Biblically sanctioned and they wished to cel- ebrate a secular holiday. Our founding fathers were UUs, free-think- ers and Deists. Franklin, Jefferson, John and John Q. Adams gave us freedom of religion and separation of church and state. Jefferson hoped in this blessed free-thinking country all would become Uni- tarians.

“Charles Dickens said, ‘For much of my life I was drawn to a Unitar- ian faith.’ Dickens wrote that Christmas is a kind, forgiving, charita- ble, pleasant time – the only time people open up their hearts freely and think of those less fortunate. UUs practice the religion of Jesus rather than a religion about Jesus, [in that w]e celebrate all world religions, spirituality, humanist teachings, words and deeds of pro- phetic women and men and the experience of mystery and wonder. We celebrate Christmas, because Jesus was an enlightened per- son, who taught by word and example how to overcome oppression without violence; how to build an inclusive community. “UUs have contributed significantly to some of Christmas’ most enduring customs and themes.

• In 1881, a UU minister, James Pierpoint wrote “Jingle Bells.”

• UU minister Charles Follen was one of the first in the USA to decorate an indoor .

• UU Noel Regney wrote “Do You Hear What I Hear” during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

• Abolitionist Edmund Sears, a UU Minister, wrote “It Came Upon A Midnight Clear” as a protest against the Mexican American War, calling for peace, goodwill and justice.

“We feel Christmastime is about joy, hope, wonder, love, com- passion and peace. Christmas belongs to all who recognize Je- sus as an inspiring, significant historical figure, [as well as to those who believe Jesus is Divine. Editor’s note.]

“As Transylvanian Unitarian Minister Francis David said, ‘We need not think alike to love alike.’”

Written by or for St. George News, St. George, Utah December 25, 2014 (some editing by KMH) Worship Worship Worship Worship Worship Worship Worship Worship Worship December

On Zoom Sundays No Masks Join in at Required 11 am at www. uumh.org

Click on Sermons

(Also available as usual online afterward.)

“Come” to coffee hour after service on Zoom A note from Rev. Kate A note from Rev. Kate A note from Rev. Kate

A Different Kind of December

As a minister, December is normally my most stressful month. Each year I create a calendar for the month, with to-do lists for each day. With so many winter holidays to plan for, each hour is jam packed with very little time to spare or to be present or to appreciate the season.

Wrapping presents sometimes happens at midnight. Holiday cards get left unsent. Usually at the end of the month spent celebrating Hanukkah and Solstice and and Christmas Day and Staff Brunch and Seashore Point Holiday Tea and family to visit in six different towns in two different states, I am exhausted and come down with a nasty cold to boot. I typically spend the first week of the new year sleeping and re-couping.

Maybe your Decembers have been like this too. Maybe in the past your calendar and to do lists have overwhelmed your ability to be present, to enjoy, to connect.

We know that December 2020 is going to be very different from years past. This is sad and there are many things we will miss. But I, for one, am not going to miss the hectic speed of the season. I’m ac- tually looking forward to a December with a slower pace, less to do, more time to reflect.

Recently my colleague, Rev. Debra Haffner, shared the idea of creating a different kind of December calendar. Based on the idea of an , she called it the December Connections Calen- dar. Instead of to-do lists on every day, or a little window to open with chocolate behind it, there is one idea for each day of the month that will help you feel connected… to yourself and your spirit, to your friends and family, to your religious community. Debra asked colleagues to share ideas about what to include in the calendar and she encouraged us all to make similar ones.

So, dear ones, here I offer you a December Connections Calendar. You are invited to try out as many of the ideas as you feel called to. Perhaps you will draw on this calendar each and every day or per- haps you will turn to it when you are having a disconnected feeling day.

Either way, I invite you to deepen into this different kind of December with me.

Happy Holidays! Rev. Kate

SUN MON TUE WED THU FRI SAT

01 02 03 04 05 Look up Send a Throw out or Eat by Read the UUMH at the poem give away one candlelight Newsletter night sky! to a friend thing you do not use

06 07 08 09 10 11 12 Attend the Write down the Hug a tree or try Call someone you Read the story Say the UUMH Put a sign in UUMH Annual name of someone to draw one don’t know very of Hanukkah Covenant your front Meeting on who needs your well and introduce window that prayers and tape it yourself Zoom! spreads love to your fridge

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 Notice someone at Create a home Send a Thank Pick some Look through old Pass along a Leave someone coffee hour and altar You note to greenery from pictures and favorite holiday a small gift send a note to say someone outside to reminisce recipe to a friend anonymously it was good to see or family member decorate them 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 Light a candle in Take a bag of Savor a cup of Look out your Attend the Call someone Take a walk or the dark for canned goods to tea while doing window and candlelighting who lives alone take a minute to Winter Solstice the UU for the nothing else describe what ceremony at the and wish them a remember your Little Free Pantry UU or light a you see Merry Christmas favorite spot candle at home 27 28 29 30 31 Eat something slowly Hum a favorite song Draw a snowflake Name 5 joys Tell someone “I Love You” Christmas Eve Candlelighting Ceremony on the Lawn of the UU Meeting House While we cannot gather inside for our traditional Christmas Eve Service this year, we are excited to preserve every- one’s favorite piece of the evening the candlelighting ceremony.

To do this safely, we will hold this ritual on our front lawn.

With social distancing protocols, the capacity of our lawn is 46 attendees, so we will be holding two ceremonies, one at 5pm and one at 7pm. The gathering will be fairly short (about 15 minutes), but will be filled with the beauty of community and the magic of candle- light! Register: Five pm ceremony: https://wsh2.formstack.com/forms/christmas_eve_5pm OR, Register: Seven pm ceremony: https://wsh2.formstack.com/forms/christmas_eve_7pm

Meeting House Members/Active Friends: Please Register by Dec. 15. If there are still open slots on the 15th, we will open up the event to the community. A few notes about safety: Because our capacity is limited, registration is required for this event.

The UUMH lawn will be sectioned off into distanced cubes and ushers will show you to your place. Consistent with the Governor's order, masks covering both nose and mouth are required.

The Meetinghouse is closed to the public, so there will be no access to the restrooms.

Guests will stand for the ceremony's duration, but there is an option on the reservation form to let us know if you need a chair or other accessibility assistance. The dominant culture’s temperature starts rising to a Christmas fever pitch before Halloween, sparked and revved by commer- cials and songs on the radio--even in these pandemic days. Even though our modern UU’ism is not Christian in the way it once was, Christmas is a holiday we UUs celebrate--often even with an Ad- vent wreath lead-up. While many UU meeting houses will also have a menorah and the Kwanza candles on display as our own UUMH always does at this time of year, that inclusion seems so tiny in comparison to the society’s overwhelming Christmas tide. I once asked a dear friend of mine who sings with me in the Outer Cape Chorale and who is Jewish, did it bother him to sing so many Latin Masses and Christmas carols (because choral rep- ertoire is overloaded with that music). He answered quickly in the negative. “Not at all,” he said. “The philosophy of Jesus is about love and goodness. Who wouldn’t want to sing about that?” My friend’s generosity of spirit and willingness to allow the vicious sins of anti-Semitism in the history of Christian religiions to not rob the religion’s philosophy of its deeper meaning, touches me deeply. In the hubub of the red and green, let’s take a good, long moment to breathe in deep the blue air, let’s center ourselves by gazing at the menorah’s flames. Let’s bring to mind the Hanuk- kah song, Dayenu, which means “it would have been enough,” the 1,000 year old song which celebrates all the blessings received from God, any one of which “would have been enough.” In the con- text of Hanukkah, granting enough oil for just one more night--let alone eight-- “would have been enough.” How many gifts we are given every single day and sometimes it seems our impatient, needy selves believe we need more, and, more. When we think abundantly, abundance is our reward. Let’s breathe in deep, and think, Dayenu, and breathe out, Thank you. (KMH) t came upon the midnight clear, IThat glorious song of old, From angels bending near the earth, To touch their harps of gold: "Peace on the earth, goodwill to men, From heaven's all-gracious King." The world in solemn stillness lay, To hear the angels sing.

Still through the cloven skies they come, With peaceful wings unfurled, And still their heavenly music floats O'er all the weary world; Above its sad and lowly plains, They bend on hovering wing, And ever o'er its babel sounds The blessed angels sing.

Yet with the woes of sin and strife The world has suffered long; Edmund Sears composed the Beneath the angel-strain have rolled five-stanza poem in 1849. It first Two thousand years of wrong; appeared on December 29, 1849, And man, at war with man, hears not in The Christian Register in Boston, The love-song which they bring; Massachusetts. O hush the noise, ye men of strife, And hear the angels sing. Sears served the Unitarian congrega- tion in Wayland, Massachusetts, be- And ye, beneath life's crushing load, fore moving on to a larger congrega- Whose forms are bending low, tion in Lancaster. After seven years of Who toil along the climbing way hard work, he suffered a breakdown With painful steps and slow, and returned to Wayland. He wrote Look now! for glad and golden hours It Came Upon the Midnight Clear come swiftly on the wing. while serving as a part-time preacher O rest beside the weary road, in Wayland. Writing during a period of And hear the angels sing! personal melancholy, and with news of revolution in Europe and the United For lo!, the days are hastening on, States' war with Mexico fresh in his By prophet bards foretold, mind, Sears portrayed the world as When with the ever-circling years dark, full of "sin and strife", and not Comes round the age of gold hearing the Christmas message. When peace shall over all the earth Its ancient splendors fling, Sears is said to have written these And the whole world give back the song words at the request of his friend, Which now the angels sing. William Parsons Lunt, pastor of Unit- ed First Parish Church, Quincy, Mas- sachusetts, for Lunt's Sunday school. [Wikipedia] Introducing the Little Free Pantry at the UU Meeting House! In mid-December we will be rolling out our latest UUMH project… the Little Free Pantry! We are excited to engage our whole community in making this work! Recent meetings with the Board of Health and other town agencies and non-profits have identified mental health and food security as two of the main challenges facing Provincetown and the Outer Cape in the coming months. Here at the Unitarian Universalist Meeting House of Provincetown we are developing a virtual Winter Spirituality Series that will be open to the community to foster connections during the isolated winter months (to address mental health) and we are also beginning a Little Free Pantry project (to address food security). The Little Free Pantry will be located on our UUMH property and will be completely accessible to the public. It will be stocked with non-perishable food items, toilet paper, masks, and sanitizer. It will es- pecially include healthy options, food items that are accessible to our homeless community members (such as soups with pull tops rather than cans requiring a can opener) and items that will appeal to children and families. While there are several food pantries in Provincetown already, most have requirements such as being a client of a particular agency or pre-registering with the organization. We feel it will be helpful to have an additional pantry that has no barriers to access and which can supplement these other resources.

We would be grateful for any support you are able to give with this project. A member of our congre- gation has already sponsored the physical equip- ment needed to begin the project (an outdoor shed that will protect the food from the elements and the animals) and we have received funding from the Covid-19 Task force that has allowed us to create signage and stock the pantry initially.

What we could use help with once the pantry is up and running: -Donations of non-perishable food items delivered to the UU Meeting House during office hours (Mon- day-Thursday 9:30-4pm). We will be able to provide lists of the most popular items after a few weeks of operation. -Financial Donations (checks made out to the UUMH with “Little Free Pantry” in the memo line) -Help getting the word out about the pantry (we have posters, etc…) -Occasional volunteers to sort through food donations and physically stock the pantry. If folks are interested we can create a roster of volunteers. This is going to be a hard winter for many in our community. The Little Free Pantry is a way for us to act out our faith and to show that we care! Together, we will make it through!

Thank you!   A SILENT VIGIL  

              

  

   Photo of Pastor Brenda: Marty Cowden Together Nance Marks Boston artist undated ww2 poster

Among Ourselves

Welcome home little Buddy and congratulations to Pat Medina on her new kitty. And, on that note, welcome home little Louie, Marsha Morello’s new puppy. We could all use a little bundle of joy these days! Buddy, newest congregant

Prayers go out to Moses Kafka and the well-being of his friends, Albie and Allen. May they heal. Also, Ronnie, Moses’ partner has a sister, Nicky, who is exhibiting signs of COVID. She is a front line worker and we send her all our love and grat- itude. We pray for good health for all.

We love you Mel Dwyer and know that your daughter and her family are in very rough going right now. Please know you and Alison are in our hearts.

We send love to our community member, Hilde Olsen and all those close to her. She is moving on to New Hampshire to be with her son.

We send prayers to Rev. Kate’s cousin, Robin, who has COVID. She works in the school system in CT, which leads us to extend our prayers to all teachers and staff workers in all school systems. What a time…

We send love and prayers to Will Hildreth’s friend, Jeff and his family. Jeff’s dad just passed away and his family are in NC trying to stay safe, attend to business and deal with grief. Love is the Spirit of this Meeting House of this Meeting is the Spirit Love Into infinity. Until one day we away sail Upon thistracklesssea We’re builttocruiseforbutawhile They’re shouting,“Hereshecomes!” And whilewe’recrying,“Thereshegoes!” Resound thewelcomedrums, Beyond thedimhorizon’s rim To othereager eyes. That shipwillsomewherereappear And fromourfarewellcries; Gone where?onlyfromoursight Then someonesays,“She’s gone.” Until atlastshe’s butaspeck, As shemovesonandon, I watchherfadingimageshrink, And slipsawayfromme. She spreadshersailsandsniffs thebreeze As shesetsouttosea; Along theshoreIspyaship The ShipofLife–JohnT. Baker crew ofthefishingboatEmmyRosewhichsank20 While theirhomeportwasPortland,Maine,weandall fishing communitiesunderstandthisparticulargrief. Our heartsgoouttothefamiliesofcaptainand miles offourshoreontheMondayof Thanksgiving week.

Love is the Spirit From the Board

From the Board

From the Board

We are approaching the Winter Solstice on Dec 21st, the shortest day of the year when the sun reverses its course, climbing higher in the sky. Darkness slowly gives way to light.

The Solstice seems even more significant this year. We have been living with many layers of darkness for many months, if not years: a pandemic, a political environment that often separates us from each other and challenges our values, a deepening awareness of our personal and structural racism, climate change, and each of us with our own struggles.

Through the ages many cultures have celebrated Solstice as a time of rebirth, a time of new beginnings.

What may be our new beginnings,our return to the light? --a vaccine, more dedication to becoming antiracist, to easing the political fractures we have been living with, a renewed commitment to protecting our planet…?

Perhaps the darkness has given us pause, a time to reflect and now we can begin again.

Susan Downey

If you need help during the crisis call Rev. Kate at 617-823-7204 The Great Music on Sundays @5 YouTube page is filled with seven concerts, all filmed safely last summer, available for viewing anytime. Such variety! Marimba, cello and piano versions of beautiful film music by Ennio Morricone and rhythmic composi- tions from Argentina, Romania, Bulgaria and the United States… the music of Bulgaria and Serbia and Macedonia, presented in the style of an evening gathering in a local mehana… the swirling sounds of soprano voice and trumpet in a candlelit salon… a wonderful potpourri of performers singing “Broadway for One!”… wild flute compositions from the Bach family and Frederick the Great… Cape Cod singer-songwriter Alex Brewer’s concert with guest musi- cians in a post-modern nighttime ranch setting… and exalted piano compositions celebrating faith and action… This truly is music without borders.

Find the concerts by going to ptownmusic.com for the links… or directly to YouTube and type in “Great Music on Sundays @5” in the search bar. While you are in our virtual concert hall, please “subscribe” to the YouTube channel. We’ll be adding interesting content through the winter months, including a very special full concert film that you’ll want to enjoy for the first time, or again if you were at that historic event with us at the UU Meeting House on the Friday evening after Labor Day in 2018.

Celebrate life!

May music bless your life every day. Announcements Announcements

I shall remember you and trim my tree, One shining star upon the topmost bough; I will hang wreaths of faith that all may see — Tonight I glimpse beyond the here and now.

And all the time that we must be apart I keep a candle in my heart. (from Candlelit Heart, by Mary E. Linton)

"WORLD AIDS DAY - Dec.1st - A Virtual Book Talk - free and open to all. --This Tuesday, December 1st from 4 to 5 PM, please join my friend Elena Schwolsky (author of “WAKING IN HAVANA: A Memoir Of AIDS And Healing In Cuba”) in a FREE, virtual event hosted by the City University Of New York School of Public Health in hon- or of World AIDS Day 2020. --Elena will be sharing her experience work- ing in Cuba’s AIDS program, a decades-long, -To register for this free event unique and highly successful public health and/or for more information approach to HIV/AIDS that holds many les- sons for the current global COVID pandem- go to: https://www.eventbrite. ic we are facing. She will be joined by Lynn com/e/world-aids-day-book- Roberts, Dean of Student and Faculty Af- talk-with-elena-schwolsky-tick- fairs at CUNY/SPH, Deborah A. Levine, Dir. CUNY/SPH’s HARLEM HEALTH INI- ets-129661343569 TIATIVE and Claire A. Simon, co-founder of --Michael Fernandes YOUNG WOMEN OF COLOR HIV/AIDS COALITION.

- !

UU and Christmas Long, long ago, the Puritans came to this country and they banned Christmas because back in England, Christmas was . . . a wild public party . . .and not religious at all.

The Puritans understood the pagan roots of Christ- mas, noted that the Bible never mentioned cele- brating Christ’s birthday and insisted that everyone should simply ignore it. In 1621, when some of the colonies’ newer residents tried to take Christmas day off the governor ordered them back to work. . . .For nearly 150 years, celebrating Christmas was illegal in New England. But by the 1800s, things had changed.. . . by the early 1800s Puritans no longer had the moral and political authority to hold off Christmas. They were no longer a unified group and had divided into conser- vative and liberal factions. And the liberal Puritans, who were on the verge of becoming Unitarians, began to call for the public ob- servance of Christmas.

Conservative and liberal Puritans divided on their beliefs about the nature of people and the nature of conversion. Conservatives believed people were naturally bad, based on the doctrine of orig- inal sin, but liberals believed people were naturally good because all people were created by God. . . .So, Christmas, the Unitarians believed, could be a holiday to promote their values of generosi- ty and charity and social good, and would be a wonderful way to build these values, particularly in children. In the 1800s, the Unitarians were trendsetters! They were well-educated, often wealthy, and had access to and control of the media. Unitarian thinkers began to write about Christmas, bringing their values and theology to the forefront of the conversation. One of the most influential moments in this transformation of Christmas was the publication of “A Visit from St. Nicholas” in 1823 by Clement Moore, a Unitarian. Moore invented the we all know and love. Before that there was no unified tradition of a Christmas visitor bringing gifts to all. Later it was another Unitarian, Thomas Nast, a cartoonist, who placed Santa on the North Pole as a message that he existed for all the children of the world. The Unitarians also brought the USA the Christmas tree. . . a symbol of the holiday in Germany in the 1700s. . . .Charles Follen, a German immigrant, a Unitarian and the first German professor at Harvard, invited colleagues to his home where he had a tree lit with candles and covered with ornaments as he remembered from his childhood. And. . .family gift giving, that was a UU innovation, too, especially the tradition of children giving to parents. . . .Samuel Coleridge, the Unitarian poet famous for “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” trav- eled to Germany one winter, and there he saw a ritual around a fir tree, where not only did the children receive gifts from their parents, but they also gave their parents gifts. Unitarians also brought us [what we think of as] Christmas char- ity. They believed our responsibility as a religious people was to follow the teachings of Christ, and an important part of those teach- ings was care for the poor. The publication of The by Charles Dickens, a British Unitarian, brought charity to the fore- front of Christmas. is steeped in the Unitarian theology of the spirit of Jesus and that how we treat each other matters deeply.

It was Unitarians who wove together Santa Claus, Christmas trees, gift giving around the tree, a focus on charity, and peace and goodwill toward all to create the Christmas that the majority of Americans celebrate today. And while the story of the baby Jesus was not left out, what was central to this holiday was not the coming of God in a human form for the atonement of human sins, as it was for conservative Christians, but Unitarian values and theology.

And..God bless us, every one! edited excerpt from Quest Article, Spiritual Themes, Whole-Hearted Living by Rev. Tracy Springberry. Quest is the publication of the UU Church of the Larger Fellowship at www.questformeaning.org Every month, it seems, we have a page commemorating yet another life lost or tragically wounded be- cause of systemic racism. If we fight the good fight together, if we make “good trouble,” we can change the world.

This month, to my knowledge, no death of a black person at the hands of the police has made it to the national headlines. While this doesn’t mean there were no such atrocities, I send out a prayerwould like to take this page this month to recom- mend a book that speaks to the issue in an historical context.

Caste, The Origins of Our Discontents, by Isabel Wilkerson, is perhaps known to you because it is an Oprah pick for her book club. It is said she bought hundreds of copies and sent one to each member of Congress and to others in power. The think- ing behind that, I imagine was, in capital (capitol) letters:

EVERYONE MUST READ THIS BOOK.

It is the way I feel about this extraordinary Pulitzer prize winning book, for sure.

It is written almost too beautifully for the nature of its subject matter. Its prose is so fluid and descriptive, it is not a typical non-fiction book. It plunges readers into the historical moment and carries us to the current day aftermath of generations upon generations of salvery. Wilkerson im- merses us. Her research clarifies how the inhumanity of the kind of slavery practiced in what became the United States of America was substantially different than slavery at any other time in history. She details how our laws and culture fascinated the Nazis and how some were even rejected by the Nazis as being too stringent for their purposes.

If you have ever wondered why you are said to share responsibility for the slavery that took place hundreds of years ago, or why, if your forebears came from overseas in the 19th century/post Civil War era you nevertheless do too, read this book. It is not about blame or shaming of the domi- nant caste, but rather a vivid and fact-based explanation of how our current society has come to exist. Without an understanding of that, our society will remain trapped in the existing system. This book unlocks the possibilities of the future.

So: EVERYONE MUST READ THIS BOOK! Caste, The Origins of our Discontents, by Isabel Wilkerson. Then, let’s talk! Every month we devote this page to the previous month’s theme-- we encourage you to submit com- ments, poems, photos, etc. Next month, we will publish your re- sponses to “A UU Christmas.”

November Issue: Gratitude

I have huge gratitude for my abundant, supportive, loving friends and family — including two kids, six brothers and a sister and twelve sisters/brothers-in-law, innumerable nieces, nephews and cousins, and a father celebrating 98 years on 11/25! Lucky me to ride these turbulent times connected to such a strong crew. I also have great thanks for my UU fam- ily who check in, listen, support and do so much to make this world a better place for all of us. I am in awe and so blessed. Thank you one and all! (from Kate Wallace Rogers)

“Thanksgiving will be so quiet this year--most years

I am surrounded by the “We are learning that many people laughter and shouting of are “food insecure,” a new term to me...it says it all. We think about lots of kids and the adults this at Thanksgiving time, but I’d batting around the politics like to keep it in my mind all the time. I support our Food Pantry. I of the day. This time I plan can’t imagine what being insecure to center in on the quiet about where my next meal will come and make the whole day a from would do to me.” kind of prayer time.” In Roquemaure at the end of 1843, the church organ had recently been renovated. To celebrate the event, the parish priest persuaded poet Placide Cappeau, a native of the town, to write a Christmas poem. Soon afterwards that same year, composed the music. The song was premiered in Roquemaure in 1847 by the opera singer Emily Laurey. Unitarian minister John Sullivan Dwight, editor of Dwight's Journal of Mu- sic, translated the song into English in 1855. [Wikipedia]

O Holy Night [Editor’s note: This third verse is my favorite.]

Truly He taught us to love one another. His law is love and His gospel is peace. Chains shall He break for the slave is our brother And in His name all oppression shall cease. Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we. Let all within us praise His holy name. Christ is the Lord! Then ever, ever praise Him. His power and glory evermore shall reign. His power and glory everymore shall reign.

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Kathleen Henry, Editor

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