Milwaukee County Secure Detention Facility. Wikipedia Commons
After attending a New Year’s Eve protest at a medium security prison, a writer reflects on shouting out love and finding hope -- with joy -- in a new year.
Photo by Jessamyn Rubio
Getting ready to host an immigrant family, a writer and speaker reflects on the book of Acts and the post-holiday question of “now what?”
This year, viewers from 30 countries watched St. Olaf College's five choirs and orchestra in a live stream of the festival’s final performance. Photos courtesy of St. Olaf College
The St. Olaf Christmas Festival, one of the oldest and most highly regarded musical Christmas celebrations in the country, is a constantly changing ‘global event,’ bringing a message the world wants and needs to hear.
Madonna and Child by Fra Angelico
This Christmas, what are we as church leaders painting, praying, preaching, proclaiming or prophesying that will endure for another 500 years? Are we conveying the hope of the Christ child that keeps us alive despite the darkness that threatens to overwhelm us?
Bigstock / Balyasina
This worship service is based on Puerto Rican Christmas traditions, which include joyful gatherings of friends and family, music, and a soup called asopao.
Visitors to the spontaneous Puerto Rican Christmas-season parties called parrandas often play the güiro, the instrument pictured here. Creative Commons / le Guiro
A pastor shares the traditions of her native island, where big parties with steaming bowls of delicious soup called asopao symbolize abundance, hope and resistance.
This Chrismons ornament is called "Pelican in Her Piety." It's part of a series representing the seasons of Christmas and Lent called the "Christian Year Series," designed by Frances Spencer, who created the first Chrismon tree in 1957. Photos by Jessamyn Rubio
Chrismons -- white and gold ornaments representing the story of Christ -- are part of the identity of the Lutheran congregation in Virginia where they originated six decades ago.
Bigstock/Paha_L
Mary and Joseph lost Jesus amidst the Passover crowds. They tried their best but weren’t perfect, and I don’t have to be either, writes a pastor.
Bigstock/Oleg Golovnev
In this excerpt from her book “The Weight of Mercy,” the pastor of Triune Mercy Center recalls the church’s first mid-week Christmas Eve service and the homily she delivered on her favorite Christmas subject, shepherds.
Jesse Lawton German collects the offering during services at Triune Mercy Center, an active, vibrant church that is both a place of worship and a thriving hub of ministries.
Photos by Ken Osborn
More than just a ministry to people who are homeless, Triune Mercy Center in Greenville, South Carolina, is a vibrant -- and sometimes messy -- church where rich, poor and those in between worship and serve together.