Photos courtesy Aldersgate United Methodist Church Members of Aldersgate United Methodist Church invited neighbors to the church’s community garden on Dec. 9 for the lighting of a Christmas tree. The lights are set on a timer so that they will come on each night. Church members and guests enjoyed hot chocolate, candy canes, and singing of Christmas carols. The
Read moreNancy Patrick at new home in Illinois, far from home, on Christmas 1974. Nancy and her husband, Mike, had just moved to Illinois for Mike’s first pastorate and they were among strangers for the first time. By NANCY PATRICK Every year by Thanksgiving, our society transforms into a charitable, adoring, nostalgic, and sentimental group of people who seem to
Read moreBy DARRYL TIPPENS The week before Christmas in 1999 Madeleine L’Engle, the author of the classic novel A Wrinkle in Time, lost her son, Bion. This was not the first, nor would it be the last, of the great sorrows endured by this gifted author. I caught a glimpse of her challenges when I met her a few months before
Read moreBy DANNY MINTON When Kathy and I first got married, we lived in a little house on Orange Street in Abilene. We didn’t have much. She was working for $50 a week at the public relations department at Abilene Christian. I was going to school and working part-time at Gibsons Discount Center. We didn’t have a lot of bills,
Read moreBy OMER HANCOCK Waiting makes life difficult. Some people have two seasons of the year. One is the Christmas season. The other – waiting for Christmas. Yes, waiting isn’t easy. Threaded throughout the Old Testament and the Intertestamental period (between the Old Testament and the New Testament) God’s covenant people continued to accelerate their hope in waiting for the Messiah, the anointed one, the
Read morePasted below is a link to an article by Loretta Fulton that was published in the Friday, Dec. 7, issue of the Abilene Reporter-News. The article, about the spirituality of President George H.W. Bush, is based on an interview with the Rt. Rev. Claude Payne of Abilene, retired Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Texas. Payne also formerly was rector
Read more
Many of the world’s religions observe holy days and holidays during the month of December. Click on the link below to read Loretta Fulton’s story in the Dec. 1 Spiritual Life section of the Reporter-News. https://www.reporternews.com/story/life/faith/2018/11/30/wreath-making-just-one-fun-derful-christmas-activity-abilene/2130643002/
Read more