Announcements
- New Faculty Appointment: Dr. Edward Marshall
- Prophesy to the Wind: The Full Text of Vincent Strudwick's Essay
- Now Online: Fall Newsletter
- New Faculty Appointment: Dr. Vassilios Bebis
- 2020 Oxford Summer School Cancelled
- New Doctoral Defense Protocol
- Certificate Program
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GTF Alumna honored as ‘Woman of Distinction’
GTF Professors Designated as Professors Emeriti
E-tutorials with Dr. Ann Graber or Sr. Dr. Carole Riley
2021 Summer Study Options in Oxford and Rome
New Students
GTF Names First Professor of Animal Theology in the United States
2020 Summer Study Opportunities in Oxford or Rome
GTF Administration Meets with SET Faculty in Cuba
Announcements
Registration is Open: Oxford Theology Summer School 2020
Christmas in Guyana: Preparation and Celebration
In Guyana, formerly British Guiana and a tropical country, the main thrust of the celebration of Christmas is to have the best home ready for the Christ Child. This home has two dimensions. It is external as well as internal.
First, the external home is the physical home. From mid-November, new curtains and chair coverings are made or, at the least, the old ones are washed and ironed. The same is true for bed sheets and pillow cases. The furniture is also stripped of varnish and polish from the previous year, sandpapered and refinished.
No celebration is complete without food and drink. Usually, two types of cakes are made, one with the red cherries and raisins and the other, known as “black cake” because of its color, is made with minced prunes and raisins which are soaked in rum since the beginning of the year. Local drinks are made separately from ginger, sun-dried sorrel, and the mauby bark, and wine from the jamoon fruit.
The Christmas Season at All Saints’ Anglican Church
The Anglican traditions around the seasons of Advent and Christmas typically include a good deal of music. At All Saints’ in Edmonton, Canada, we are very blessed to have Jeremy Spurgeon as our Music Director. In addition to leading an excellent choir and providing us with spectacular classical hymns on the organ and grand piano, Jeremy invites a brass band to join us for the 11 pm Christmas Eve service.
In the hours leading up to Christmas Eve services, the chancel and sanctuary areas are massed with poinsettias and cedar branches. A very large crèche (approximately 5 feet tall, four feet wide, and two feet deep) is placed below the chancel steps. This particular crèche has a special history for us because it was handmade by a parishioner many years ago. The figures of the Holy Family, the wise men, the shepherds, and the animals were all hand carved by this same fellow. Every year the service begins with the Bishop blessing the crèche. Then the lights are lowered and the service continues by candlelight.
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