Speaker and Worship Leader:- Rev. Clay Nelson

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Rev. Clay Nelson © 18th December 2022

I don’t consider it Christmas until I have watched It’s a Wonderful Life. I ticked that off last Sunday. So, for me, it’s now Christmas.

I don’t know when it became one of my treasured Christmas traditions, but I can’t remember when it wasn’t. When my kids were teenagers, there was lots of eye-rolling when I insisted that watching it was a family event. Something about it appealed to my Unitarian heart, and I wanted to inoculate theirs. They would ask me when I would find a new tradition. My answer was, “When I stop tearing up at the end.”

with Rev. Clay Nelson

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Follow this shortcut to the bottom of the page for the various readings, videos, etc. shared in the service.

Clay Nelson © 19 December 2021

I need to begin this musing with a warning to those who might be triggered by words like Jesus or Christianity. On the Sunday before Christmas, I give myself permission to express some of my thoughts and ideas about progressive Christianity, which are the foundation of my faith. My justification is that both of the denominations that make up Unitarian Universalism were progressive Christians before we had a term for it. While Unitarian Universalism no longer identifies only with Christianity, many of our members are progressive Christians or Christians without God as I like to call them. For those who are repelled by Christianity either because they have experienced toxic Christianity or count themselves amongst rationalists and humanists or follow another faith tradition they bring to the mix, I hope learning about the scholarship that has revealed a very different Christianity from what we normally see around us will be both enlightening and beneficial.

with Rev. Clay Nelson

No video or audio this week.

But you can still read below, or download the PDF.

Follow this shortcut to the bottom of the page for the various readings, videos, etc. shared in the service.

Clay Nelson © 20 December 2020

On this last Sunday that I will be sharing my musings in 2020, I thought I would make it as Covid-free as possible. I decided to muse on why Unitarians still celebrate Christmas against all reason.

with Rev. Clay Nelson

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Clay Nelson © 15 December 2019

People sometimes wonder why Unitarians celebrate Christmas. Even some Unitarians do. It’s quite understandable considering our scepticism about Virgin births, moving stars, the birth of Saviours of the World, divine babies in human form, and whether or not any of it is history. I, however, wonder why Christians celebrate Christmas (and of course they didn’t for the first few centuries after the birth of Jesus). Christians have struggled with Christmas ever since the Emperor Constantine declared December 25th to be the day of Jesus’ birth. Well, somebody had to decide. The Gospels certainly didn’t tell us when the blessed event happened. Since then how to celebrate it or whether or not to celebrate it at all has consumed untold hours of theological debate.

With no carols, except near the end.