The Twelve Days of Commission conclude today in the Ascension of Jesus. This feast day is one of the Four Great Thursdays of AUR, the other three being Garden Thursday, Declaration Thursday, and Harvest Thursday. Ascension commemorates the return of Jesus to Heaven between two angels. This imagery places a final seal on the importance [...]
Posts Tagged ‘jesus’
Reform Unitarian Symbols – The Chalice
Posted in holidays, teachings, Thursday worship, tagged chalice, christ, christian, da vinci code, dan brown, easter, gethsemane, jesus, lent, unitarian on 4 March 2010 | Leave a Comment »
During this Lenten season leading up to Garden Thursday, let’s discuss one of our key symbols in Unitarian Reform: the chalice. Now, the flaming chalice is known as a symbolism of post-Christian “Unitarianism” (absent the Unitarian meaning) with origins in the oil-burning lamps in Greek and Roman ritual. For AUR, however, the chalice is the [...]
Candlemas and Carnival
Posted in holidays, Thursday worship, tagged candlemas, carnival, christian, disputation with the elders, jesus, presentation in the temple, unitarian on 2 February 2010 | Leave a Comment »
As happens roughly once every four years or so in Reform Unitarianism, Candlemas is falling on Carnival Thursday. In most Christian churches, Candlemas celebrates only the presentation of Jesus at the Temple as a baby by Mary and Joseph. However, AUR also celebrates another Temple-related event on this day: the Disputation, when a 12-year-old Jesus debated the [...]
The Importance of Christmas
Posted in holidays, teachings, tagged adoration of the magi, christianity, christmas, christmas decorations, jesus, nativity, origen, rudolph the red-nosed reindeer, st. lucy, star of bethlehem, tertullian, three wise men, unitarian, yuletide on 13 December 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Today is St. Lucia’s Day, the first of the 12 Days of Light honoring the Star of Bethlehem. Time to put up the lit decorations! But, also a good time to reflect on the importance of Christmas. A celebration of the Nativity was never a foregone conclusion in Christianity. Tertullian’s list of major holidays among [...]
Unitarian Reform’s Lady of Guadalupe
Posted in holidays, teachings, tagged christianity, christmas, jesus, mary, mother mary, virgen de guadalupe, virgin of guadalupe on 12 December 2009 | Leave a Comment »
The AUR liturgical year opens with a series of holidays emphasizing the multi-cultural, multi-faith nature of American Reform Unitarian Christianity. All Corners Day on November 12 honors “Pious Outsiders” from other nations and faiths. The Thanksgiving season is famously devoted to peaceful cooperation between different ethnic and religious communities. And, these holidays culminate on January 6 with [...]
Andrew, Advent, and Annunciation
Posted in holidays, Thursday worship, tagged advent, annunciation, christ, christian, christianity, christmas, creche, disciple, jesus, nativity scene, st. andrew, unitarian, unitarianism on 29 November 2009 | Leave a Comment »
The Reform celebrates the transition from November to December with the feast of St. Andrew on November 30th (honoring the first disciple of Jesus) and Advent/Annunciation on December 1st. This differs significantly from other Christian traditions, which celebrate Advent four Sundays before Christmas, and celebrate the Annunciation (the day on which Mary was told by [...]
Ascension Thursday
Posted in holidays, Thursday worship, tagged ark of the covenant, ascension, book of numbers, christ, christianity, isaiah, jesus, messiah, moses maimonides, musa bin maimon, word of god on 21 May 2009 | Leave a Comment »
The Twelve Days of Commission conclude today in the Ascension of Jesus. This feast day is one of the Four Great Thursdays of AUR, the other three being Garden Thursday, Declaration Thursday, and Thanksgiving Thursday. Ascension commemorates the return of Jesus to Heaven between two angels. This imagery confirms the centrality of reconciled, complementary virtues [...]
Notional American Unitarian Reform Church No. 3
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged capernaum, gospel of john, jesus, st. andrew, unitarian christianity on 17 May 2009 | Leave a Comment »
This is the third in a series of light-hearted signs for hypothetical American Unitarian Reform churches, created using an online image generator. I hope to show a range of attitudes and ideas all possible within the scope of AUR. Today’s notional church is named in honor of the First Apostle, Saint Andrew of Capernaum. The [...]
There is no Plan C – Conquering False Hope with Faith
Posted in teachings, Virtues, tagged christ, epistle to the romans, faith, faith healing, hope, jesus, letter to the romans, logos, prayer healing, rationalism, son of god, st. paul, virtue on 30 April 2009 | 1 Comment »
Today is Loyal Thursday, and during these 12 Days of Trust — celebrating the virtue of Faith — it is important to remember the fallibility of Hope. Faith is the complement of Hope, and its antidote when Hope becomes false: Faith, rather than meaning credulous obedience to dogmatic authority, is simply what we modern Americans would call “stick-to-it-iveness”: [...]
