Christmas Eve Communion Service 2013

The Memorial Church before the communion service in 2012

On Christmas Eve at 6.30pm at the Memorial (Unitarian) Church, Cambridge we will be celebrating, by candlelight, a service of liberal Christian communion. It lasts about fifty minutes and is followed by mulled wine, mince pies and some festive conversation. Below I have posted a link to the full order of service in case anyone out there wishes to look at it beforehand or even, should you wish, to use it yourself. The liturgy is entirely composed of Unitarian and Free Christian sources except for the table prayer at the beginning, which comes from the Dutch Remonstrant Church. Over the years I've met a few of their ministers and been very impressed by them and their liberal, tolerant way of doing things. As I did last year, I paste below their current (2006) Confession, which I, personally, find very congenial.

CHRISTMAS EVE COMMUNION SERVICE

Click here for the PDF

Please also join us for our Christmas Day service at 10.30am.

-o0o-

New Confession of the Remonstrant Church, 2006

We are aware and we affirm

that we do not find our peace in the certainty of what we confess,

but in wonder of what befalls us and what we are given;

that we do not find our destination in indifference and greed,

but in vigilance and in connection with all that lives;

that our existence is not fulfilled by who we are and what we possess,

but by what is infinitely greater than we can contain.

Guided by this awareness, we believe in God's Spirit

who transcends all that divides people

and inspires them to what is holy and good,

that in singing and in silence,

in prayer and in work,

they worship and serve God.

We believe in Jesus, a Spirit-filled human,

the face of God, seeing us and disturbing us.

He loved humanity and was crucified

but he lives, beyond his own and our death.

He is our holy example of wisdom and courage

and he brings God's eternal love close to us.

We believe in God, the Eternal,

who is love unfathomed, the ground of being,

who shows us the way of freedom and justice

and beckons us to a future of peace.

We believe that 

weak and fallible though we are,

we are called to be church,

connected to Christ and all who believe,

in the sign of hope.

For we believe in the future of God and the world,

in a divine patience that gives time

to live and to die and to rise,

in the kingdom that is and will come,

where God will be for eternity: all in all.

To God be the glory and honour

in time and eternity.

Amen