The “good news of great joy” of which the angels sang is that God is not aloof or remote. In that single word, Immanuel, resides the essence of what Christians believe happened at the birth of Jesus. In a divine descent,
“He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities.” It should be noted that the sign given of the Savior’s birth is not a child enfolded in Tyrian purple, but one wrapped in rough pieces of cloth.
Bishop Anderson, the first Bishop of Rupert’s Land, visited The Pas in 1850, and on that occasion decided to admit Mr. Budd to Holy Orders. After his ordination to the Diaconate and subsequently to the Priesthood, Mr. Budd remained at The Pas, assisting Mr. Hunter in the work of the district.
I’ve never been one of those who can anticipate Christmas unhesitatingly and with impunity. It’s one of those anxieties that I wish I could cover up or hide, the kind that causes as much shame as discomfort. . . .My discomfort with the gifts was a result of the circumstances that rendered me impotent to deal with buying them.
At the heart of this momentous event, the child Mary is singing a song about a child. An exceptional young girl, chosen to be the Mother of this child Messiah, she is called in tradition Theotokos, the God-bearer.
Come, ye saints, who disciplined yourselves in mountains and caves and dens of the earth, who honoured my name by continence and prayer and virginity. Come, ye maidens, who desired my bride-chamber, and loved no other bridegroom than me, who by your testimony and habit of life were wedded to me,
“What went ye out into the wilderness for to see?” (Luke 7:24). It’s Christ’s ancient question about John the Baptizer, but it always plagues my early Decembers as if I were hearing it each year for the first time. Whatever else Christmas may be, it is surely the one time of year when everyone celebrates the rurality in which I daily live. The folks in Luke’s narratives went to the wilderness looking for a prophet. But for me and my family the trek to the wilderness was a journey to a broader focus, not penitential experience. . . .
I am of a strong opinion that the day on which we unite heart and soul, and turn our attention to knowledge and improvement, that day the hissing and reproach among the nations of the earth against us will cease. And even those who now point at us with the finger of scorn, will aid and befriend us.
So what is this process of giving a soul to a building? Soul can incarnate progressively into a building as it progressively gains substance from wish, through idea, planning, constructional design, building and occupation. Each stage develops, deepens and extends that which had come before. They are not stages which alternate from aesthetic to practical but, with these aspects inseparable throughout, are stages of continuous process of incarnation into substance until we architects complete our task, leaving a shell for life which will continue to grow. . . .
His day’s work amongst them was much as follows. At six in the morning he began with a service for the Eskimo, to which some came “dressed very much like working men in England,” in imported garments; others in the seal-skin clothing popular amongst them; and one woman in “an English gown, of which she seemed not a little proud.” The service was a mixture of worship and instruction, with as much singing as possible.