General Assembly of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) - Reece's Peace's

The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in the US and Canada General Assembly is in Louisville this year! The assembly will be held from July 29 through August 1, 2023. Louisville has hosted General Assemblies in the past, but it has been many years. The General Assembly is a gathering of Disciples of Christ from all over North America, where we come together as one large community.

This year’s theme is “Kingdom of God: Within Us and Among Us.” There will be a series of workshops and sermons based around seeing the Kingdom of God in everything we do. Many of the speakers and teachers will be prominent members of our faith community, including our general minister and president.

If you would like to attend, you can pre register by visiting www.ga.disciples.org. On that website, you will also find a full list of the various activities and workshops. For those of you who have never attended a General Assembly, it is important to remember that the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) is a large and diverse community.

The practices of our local church might be different in some ways than the practices of other churches in our denomination. For those of you who have attended general assemblies in the past, you may remember a time when speakers said something that made you slightly uncomfortable. However, just because an idea is expressed at the General Assembly does not mean Hurstbourne Christian Church must accept it. One of the beautiful features of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) is that we are a congregational denomination. We as a congregation can forge our own path. Often Hurstbourne Christian Church is in step with the national church, but occasionally we walk in our own direction.

In our general body meetings, you will hear various ideas from all around the nation. People From New York, California, Canada, Puerto Rico, Texas, and everywhere else in North America will share their ideas. However, no one person, not even our General Minister, Terri Hord Owens, speaks for all Disciples of Christ churches.

Still, through the process of coming together and sharing sometimes uncomfortable ideas, we can grow as a church in faith and spirituality. The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) was started by people with big ideas and it was only through their sharing of those ideas that we are here today. I hope that many of you will consider attending at least some of the General Assembly. We will have a guest preacher at Hurstbourne Christian Church on Sunday, July 30, who will preach about uniting with the greater Disciples’ world!

Patti's Positive Praise - Jan. 2022

Happy New Year to everyone at Hurstbourne Christian Church.

Each month I will Give Praise to things I have found enjoyable and I would like to share with you.

Movie: Ticket to Paradise

Book: The Boys From Biloxi-Grisham Good

News: Gas Prices Went Down

Places to Visit: French Lick West Baden

Favorite Scripture: Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. Proverbs 3:5

Send me any of your favorites too!

Blessings,

Patti

Silent Night - Marc's Music Notables

"Silent Night" is about a calm and bright silent night, and the wonder of a tender and mild newborn child, words written in 1816 by a young priest in Austria, Joseph Mohr, not long after the Napoleonic wars had taken their toll. The backstory is that the priest went for a walk before he wrote it, and he looked out over a very quiet, winter-laden town," says composer/conductor John Conahan, who co-organized the Silent Night Sing-In with WRTI in 2018 and 2019, and created a new arrangement of the famous carol. "He was inspired...the town was at peace."

It was Christmas Eve, 1818, when the now-famous carol was first performed as Stille Nacht Heilige Nacht. Joseph Mohr, the young priest who wrote the lyrics, played the guitar and sang along with Franz Xaver Gruber, the choir director who had written the melody. An organ builder and repair man working at the church took a copy of the six-verse song to his home village. There, it was picked up and spread by two families of traveling folk singers, who performed around northern Europe.

In 1834, the Strasser family performed it for the King of Prussia. In 1839, the Rainer family of singers debuted the carol outside Trinity Church in New York City. The composition evolved, and was translated into over 300 languages with many different arrangements for various voices and ensembles. It was sung in churches, in town squares, even on the battlefield during World War I, when, during a temporary truce on Christmas Eve, soldiers sang carols from home. "Silent Night," by 1914, known around the world, was sung simultaneously in French, German and English.

Over the years, the carol's mystique grew with its popularity. After the original manuscript was lost, for decades, some speculated that the music had been written by Haydn, Mozart or Beethoven. In 1994, an original manuscript was found in Mohr's handwriting, with Gruber named as composer.

Join Us to Welcome Regional Minister Rev. Donald Gillett - Reece's Peace's

On Sunday, January 8th, our new regional minister, Rev. Donald Gillett, will visit Hurstbourne Christian Church! It is always exciting for our church to host a regional minister, but hosting our new regional minister Don Gillett will be something even more special. Don has been working hard to build up the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Kentucky. Since being called as our regional minister on August 1, 2021, Don Gillett has helped to secure the regional budget, build up several struggling churches, plan a regional assembly, and a general assembly, and so much more.

Don has deep roots in Kentucky, having served 22 years as the pastor at East Second Street Christian Church in Lexington. Don is known for being a fiery and passionate preacher. As someone who has listened to his sermons, I can tell you that you can feel the spirit moving through him. But Don is more than just a fiery preacher. He is an extremely well educated man, and you feel that in each one of his sermons.

Theologically, he holds a Master’s Degree in Divinity and a Doctorate Degree in Ministry, but he also holds a Bachelors Degree in Mathematics and a Master’s in Business Administration. You will miss out if you don’t come in person to hear Don deliver our message on Jan 8 or at least tune in online if you are unable to come in person. It is an exciting time for our church and a great way to start the new year.

Why Do We Have Poinsettias at Christmas? - Reece's Peace's

Bright red poinsettias have become traditional in North America during the Christmas season, but why?

The tradition of poinsettias on Christmas Eve in Mexico can be traced to an old legend. A young girl, Pepita, was looking for a gift to give to Jesus on Christmas Eve. However, she was very poor and couldn't afford any gifts. So instead, she picked some weeds from beside the church and placed them on the church altar. From these weeds, a crimson blossom sprouted, and the weeds became a beautiful poinsettia. Beginning in the 17th century, Franciscan Friars in Mexico included poinsettias in their Christmas celebration. They viewed the star-shaped leaf pattern as a symbol of the star of Bethlehem and the bright red color as a representation of the blood of Jesus's sacrifice.

While poinsettias became integral to Mexican Christmas Eve celebrations, they were never seen as part of Christmas celebrations in the United States. That is, until an enterprising family, the Ecke family, decided to change that.

The Ecke family originally ran a vegetarian health spa in Germany in the early 1900s. However, they had trouble running a vegetarian spa in the sausage capital of the world. So, they moved to the United States where they began growing vegetables and flowers. They settled in California and became connected with the movie and television industry. They were looking for a flower to be marketed during the Christmas season. Unfortunately, not many flowers naturally bloom in the middle of winter. They noticed one flower that did blossom right around the Christmas season, the poinsettia. So, they began to market poinsettias as a Christmas tradition.

Their marketing campaign really began to take off in the 1960s. The family used their connections to Hollywood to make sure that poinsettias were featured prominently on all television Christmas specials. The family once claimed that poinsettias had even more screen time than prominent hosts like Johnny Carson. They even convinced popular magazines at the time to run spreads featuring Christmas trees, mistletoes, and poinsettias, saying that a Christmas spread needs more color than the Christmas trees and mistletoes can provide.

They began to advertise on television that they could ship you a poinsettia for free! Their family farm even bred their own kinds of poinsettias that would bloom three to four times more than a normal poinsettia, which would ensure plenty of red flowers for your house at Christmas. Until 1970, over 90% of all poinsettias came from the Ecke family farm.

In general, there is no biblical connection between Christmas and poinsettias. Even the creation of the tradition itself is a bit odd. Even still, Poinsettias do have an undeniable beauty and have become closely connected with Christmas. Whatever the reason, whenever we see those bright red blossoms, we know that Christmas is just around the corner.