We had been posting regular updates to explain the AUR liturgical calendar, but the calendar is now complete!
So, expect fewer updates from now on. And, likely, the updates will be posted as pages with additional information on AUR themes, practices, and values.
From everyone at unitarianreform.com, we thank you for you continued support!
The American Unitarian Reform website will resume posting at the beginning of the liturgical year!
In the ancient church, the 6th of January was observed in celebration of not only the birth of Jesus and the adoration of the Magi and shepherds, but also other events such as his baptism by John and the wedding at Cana.
Taking a narrative view of ritual, Unitarian Reform collects all of the birth-related events together in the Advent/Christmas season, reserving the stories of Jesus’ adulthood for the more solemn Lenten season.*
For this reason, Reform Unitarian Epiphany — closing out the Christmas season — commemorates the Adoration of the Magi and Shepherds, celebrating the universality of the Christian message, from high priests to herders, and from Jesus’ fellow religionists to representatives of a completely different ethno-religious tradition.
The local Jewish shepherds create a spiritually and morally significant contrast to the foreign Magi, high priests of Zoroastrianism: both the breadth of cultural idiom and the heights of socioeconomic class are bridged in their Adoration. As the shepherds were guided by an angel who spoke to them, while the Magi were guided by a star they studied, these two visitations also represent personal and impersonal idiomatic approaches to truth.
May you have a Joyous Epiphany!
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* The Temple-related events of Jesus’ childhood, including his presentation and later disputation, are collectively celebrated on Candlemas, the first Thursday in February.
[An earlier version of this article was posted on Epiphany, 2010]
The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:
The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Fresher than ever.
In 2010, there were 49 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 134 posts. There were 34 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 2mb. That’s about 3 pictures per month.
The busiest day of the year was May 31st. The most popular post that day was FAQ.
The top referring sites in 2010 were aureform.com, new-uu.blogspot.com, facebook.com, the-ucu.blogspot.com, and twitter.com.
Some visitors came searching, mostly for liturgical calendar, palm sunday, palm sunday pictures, liturgical calendar 2010, and american unitarian reform.
Below is the American Unitarian Reform liturgical calendar for the Christmas Season.
Since this season is not fixed, the ultimate Thursdays for the first two dozenals are not identified on the calendar. The last dozenal, the Twelve Days of Christmas, has no ultimate Thursday as such.
Advent Eve / Feast of Andrew – (Nov 30) Anticipation of Advent and commemoration of the first disciple of Jesus.
12 Days of Gold – (Dec 1-12) Celebration of Mary’s Motherhood, time for unlit Christmas decorations, and for placing Mary and the Angel in the crèche.
~ 1st Day / Advent / Annunciation / Feast of Eligius – (Dec 1) Commemoration of the revelation of Jesus’ coming to Mary, and celebration of St. Eligius, patron of goldsmiths.
~ Golden Thursday / Observation of Advent– (Ultimate Thursday in the Dozen)
~ 12th Day / Feast of the Virgin of Guadalupe – (Dec 12)
12 Days of Light – (Dec 13-24) Celebration of the Star of Bethlehem, time for lit Christmas decorations, and for placing Joseph and the Star in the crèche.
~ 1st Day / Feast of Lucia – (Dec 13) Celebration of St. Lucia, matron of light and sight.
~ Lightened Thursday / Observation of the Star – (Ultimate Thursday in the Dozen)
~ 12th Day / Christmas Eve – (Dec 24)
Christmas Day – (Dec 25)
12 Days of Christmas – (Dec 26 – Jan 6)
~ 1st Day / Feast of Stephen – (Dec 26) Celebration of the first martyr.
~ 6th Day / New Year’s Eve – (Dec 31)
~ 7th Day / New Year’s Day / Resolution Day – (Jan 1)
~ 12th Day / Epiphany – (Jan 6) Commemoration of the Adoration of the Magi and interfaith communion.
Many readers may recall the line “over the river and through the wood” as part of a song called A Merry Christmas at Grandmother’s, but the song was originally a Thanksgiving tune, with the ultimate destination Grandfather’s house.
And, the song was originally a poem called “A Boy’s Thanksgiving Day” written in the 1840s by Lydia Maria Child, a remarkable Unitarian who advocated for women’s rights and the rights of Native Americans. A novelist ahead of her time, she also followed the track of abolitionism in the 19th Century, first advocating a pacifist approach yet later accepting the unfortunate need for violence to effect the liberation of African-American slaves.
As we celebrate the 12 Days of Thanksgiving, it is important to honor the author who wrote the most well-known Thanksgiving lyrics, and who exemplified the Reform Unitarian approach to this season, open to the joy and practical virtue of meetings between cultures, while still keeping eyes open to the tragic consequences that often attend to those meetings.
May God bless the memory of Lydia Maria Child.
This blog is being discontinued, but old posts may be republished for holidays.
Apologies for the inconvenience. Thank you for reading, and may God bless.
In honor of St. Justin, today we re-post a selection of quotes from his writings, originally posted in 2008.
Justin is important not only because his feast day begins the 12 Days of Unity, the “Bud Dozenal” of the Spring Rose Season, but because Justin is the earliest writer explaining and defending the theology of Christianity as if to an outsider.
After taking a brief dip during February, the American Unitarian Reform zoomed to over twice its normal readership in March!
Most of the gains were due to the Palm Sunday homily explaining how Reform Unitarianism’s idiomatic (rather than dogmatic) creedalism clarifies the purpose of religion and allows us to see the good and truth in other religions.
However, there was also significant interest in the homilies on homosexuality, the history of Unitarian Universalism, and the ancient origin of celibacy, authoritarianism, Trinitarianism, and sectarian hostility.
We would like to thank the readers who took the time to read our homilies, and especially those who shared them on Facebook, Twitter, and by email.
God bless!
AUR is proud to present our new blog banner, combing symbols throughout our history that demonstrate dedication to true Christian monotheism.
The Two Trees symbol, drawn from the allegory of humanity’s dawn in the Garden of Eden, stresses Reform Unitarianism’s emphasis on complementary virtues, which are seen in the Two Trees of Eden, the serpent and dove of Jesus’ ministry, the twin cherubim atop the Ark of the Covenant, Faith and Hope, and the Lion-Lamb/Alpha-Omega imagery associated with Christ. It is only by reconciling what seem to be contrary virtues that one can find the One God behind all things.
On the far right is an ancient Macedonian image of Jesus praying to God in the Garden of Gethsemane, not only a key passage demonstrating the subordinate relationship between God the Father and the Son of God, but also the climax of the moral and spiritual ministry of Jesus, the moment of “Thy Will Be Done.”
On the far left is an Arian church in Ravenna (now controlled by Trinitarians and called San Apollinare Nuovo) built during the reign of Theodoric, representing the continuation of original Christianity into the early Middle Ages before the complete suppression of Unitarian theology and the beginning of the Dark Ages.
Finally, at the bottom is a portrait of Jonathan Mayhew, the Father of American Unitarianism, who coined the battle cry “No taxation without representation” and wrote a sermon against the Divine Right of Kings entitled A Discourse Concerning Unlimited Submission and Non-Resistance to the Higher Powers, which president John Adams later called the “spark that ignited the American Revolution.”
