Pastors’ Column

In our search for a Theologian-in-Residence who would not only honor the legacy of David and Ruth Watermulder that is woven into the fabric of our congregation, but also help us celebrate the vital and yet often quiet work of the Middleton Counseling Center, I am not sure we could have found a more thoughtful scholar than the Rev. Dr. Serene Jones.

It was a bold vision: a counseling center that was concerned with wholistic care – mind, body and spirit. Such a place sounds routine 20 years later, but when Session approved a new Pastoral Care Center at Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church on May 11, 1999, it was anything but common. Until that point, it was just a dream, a divinely inspired dream.

Where will you be for Christmas? We pose that inquiry to one another time and again, in this busy season of holiday abundance; many of us trying to carve out moments for visits with family and loved ones; making merriment over baked hams and sugary pies; attempting to keep our little ones entertained with gadgets and gizmos, so we don’t pull our hair out in frustration with them before New Year’s. But we all have some place to be for Christmas, don’t we?

“I know this story.”

Every year at some point in the first week of Advent, I hear the exasperated proclamation of a student, “But I know this story! I heard it last year. I know what happens.” 

Sometimes the holiday season can be too much overload: the lights, the decorations, the festivities – the joy. For some, this time of year is anything but celebratory and joyful. While we are assured of the birth of our Savior, some suffer without the birth of their desired child. While we proclaim the beauty of the holy family, some can only remember the difficult relationship they have with their own family. For some, Christmas is not jolly, and it can't end quickly enough.

This Sunday at 4:00 p.m., the family of BMPC choirs, along with the renowned Brandywine Brass, present its annual Christmas Concert. This concert, the third in this new season of “Concerts with a Cause,” will celebrate the Christmas season with the words of Mary’s “Magnificat” – My soul doth magnify the Lord. You’ll hear a spectacular setting of the Magnificat by Gerald Finzi, along with works by Franz Biebl, Paul Halley, Anton Bruckner, Johannes Brahms, William Dawson, and more. In the spirit of magnifying the Lord and in response to God’s incredible gift of love to each of us, 50 percent of the offering received at the concert will go to support Prevention Point Philadelphia.