Christmas in Decatur...

After all the adventures of driving on the wrong side of the road, I returned to Atlanta ready to enjoy a nice quiet Christmas.

An example of a Chrismon tree

  The festivities began with the Christmas Eve carol service at church.  Due to the popularity of the service they hold identical carol services one at 4pm and one at 6pm.  I was at the later service and the church was packed - and I understand it was similar at the earlier one as well.  There was a makeshift choir which met the day before to rehearse and then a tableau was created at the front by the characters of the nativity service as each reading was delivered.  The service ended with the lights being dimmed and every member of the congregation had a candle which was lit, and then we sang 'Silent Night' by candle light - a beautiful experience.  The other interesting thing of churches here over Christmas is the use of Chrismon Trees.  Apparently it is a Lutheran idea originally but they have standard Christmas trees but decorated with Christian symbols, which actually was really effective.

  After the service I went to a Christmas Eve party being hosted by a lady from the church.  As I still had a car I drove to it following someone else from church who knew the way.  After a lovely evening with good food and meeting some interesting people, I went to leave - without anyone to follow.  It had become very foggy and so I became quite disoriented and convinced that I had missed my turning.  I started getting slightly nervous as I was in an unfamiliar part of town - but thankfully then my turning appeared!  So I made my way back to church in time for the 11 o'clock service.  This was held in the old chapel and so there was a far more intimate atmosphere for the service.  I was involved in leading some of the Communion liturgy and also serving Communion - and then it was time to head home to the comfort of my bed!

The Mobley family

The Decatur blanket

  I had a lazy start to the morning.  Listening to the radio and having a late breakfast.  A family from church had invited me round for dinner, but they weren't eating until the evening.  Having read all the posts from friends who are now probationer ministers on Facebook about how busy those few days around Christmas had been, I felt truly blessed to have a quiet one to enjoy.  In the evening I headed back to Decatur for dinner with the Mobley family.  They have become good friends since I arrived here so it was great to share Christmas with them.  We had a traditional American Christmas dinner (so I'm led to believe) of ham, turkey, spinach casserole, sweet potato casserole and salad.  It was quite a dramatic mealtime with thunder rolling and bright lightning flashing throughout.  Not only did they cook a lovely dinner, but they also bought me a wonderful Decatur blanket with pictures of various Decatur landmarks.  I am really lucky to have been sent to Decatur First United Methodist Church partly because the church is great, but also because its in the middle of such a nice community - it is the one place I've been around Atlanta that feels like a British town.

Close up of the blanket

  I did also get an invite on the Friday after Christmas for dinner with a couple in Decatur who have links with the church, although they attend a different church.  The husband is a professor at Candler (which I didn't know until I got to their house!) and the wife works at the Decatur First pre-school.  I was surprised at how they had kept their English accents despite having lived in Decatur for 21 years.  The meal was capped with a home-made minced pie (and another to take home) - my only ones of the season.

Picture on front of the church bulletin

  My Decatur Christmas ended on Sunday 30th when I led the service at the contemporary Come As You Are (CAYA) service.  We had a number of people involved in the worship reading Scripture and reading reflections based on various characters from the Nativity story as we considered who we were in the Nativity story and why it was still important to engage with it.  With the regular CAYA band playing it was great time of worship - the first I have led since coming here.  Then I just had time to rush home, have lunch and pack before my ride to the airport arrived as I flew off to St Louis...