Christmas Eve Service

Details
Tuesday, Dec. 24th at 8.00 PM
1080 Kailua Rd, Kailua

What to Expect
Candle light vigil + Eucharist Celebration

The Big “Why”
On December 24th we will gather in the darkness of the deepening night. We will hear the Story of God unfold, culminating in the birth of our Savior. Then, in a burst of light, the old darkness will be flooded with the brightness and the radiance of Jesus. And we shall stand in the dizzying wonder as paradox upon paradox wash over us. On that night we remember the mystery of his first coming; how it overwhelmed all of our expectations. On that night also, we look forward to the majesty of his second coming.

Christmas Eve finds us in the middle of a very good Story.

The Great Feast of Christmas

Details
Wednesday, Dec. 25th at 10.30AM
1080 Kailua Rd, Kailua

 What to Expect
Christmas Eucharist + Catered Brunch

The Big “Why”
The Feast of Christmas Day carries-on the joy and the paradox of the previous night’s mystery. It is the glad and joyful response to the outrageous generosity displayed by God in the Incarnation. It is neither some bad pageant based on some shaky and groundless myth, nor is it something that has been ruined by commercialism. It is the day on which we celebrate God’s glad clemency in becoming man that mankind might become like Him.

Join us as we make merry in the memory of that first Christmas.

St. Stephen’s Day

Details
Thursday, Dec. 26th at 4.30 PM
The Brians’ House

What to Expect
Pajamas & Leftovers + Martyrdom of St. Stephen Reading + Caroling

The Big “Why”
The day after Christmas is the Feast of St. Stephen, the first deacon and martyr of the early church. It is historically a time of almsgiving, charity, gifts, caroling, etc. (think of the carol, Good King Wenceslaus)—all ways of proclaiming “my life for yours.” To do so we will have a “passion reading” in parts like we do for the Palm Sunday. But whereas on Palm Sunday we read from the Gospels of the narrative of The Passion, on St. Stephen’s day we read of the lesser passion of St. Stephen.

Tired as we may be from the Christmas celebrations, we must remember: Christmas is not over! It is a 12-day feast of which St. Stephen’s Day is only the 2nd. Come in whatever condition the day-after-Christmas finds you: bed-headed, pajamaed, groggy.

For St. Stephen’s Day finds us like it found Mary and Joseph and the Shepherds many years ago: glad, thankful, and quite tired. It all seems too glad to be true.