Our theme for this first Urban Hymnal service is "The longest night of the year," a concept found in the Celtic tradition (you may know the Over the Rhine album of similar name). We liked the sound of it as it spoke towards some of the ache and darkness of waiting. Of course, those in the Southern Hemisphere will be observing Advent on the shortest night of the year--I wonder how this affects the mood of Advent as the sun shines its brightest and ice tea is the drink de jour.

And I've posted an instrumental piece on the Urban Hymnal website that we may be performing. It is the same piece I performed at the Mars Hill Grad School Fall retreat for those of you who were in attendance. Word has it that KSER will be spinning "Sophia" this Friday evening.

It has been a busy few months here. Urban Hymnal proper is coming together and a month from now we will hold our first service. It will be at St. Mark's Cathedral, which is pure madness. We had hoped to have a service there in a few years, not debut there. The timing and connections are all wonderful graces: COTA had put together the area's first U2Charist at St. Mark's this past summer, it went very well, St. Mark's asked if they could do something of the sort every month, they couldn't, COTA referred them to us, and here we are. The date is set for Friday, December 14th, 8-9pm. We do hope you can attend. We are still hashing out themes as we pen our songs and prayers. Also, hoping that a few of our visual artists will come forward with some creations to present for the evening. Of course, Advent will be the general theme, but we hope to narrow it a bit and have something provocative or subversive to say on the idea of waiting and birth. Any thoughts on an Advent theme are most certainly welcome here.

And we're also on the prowl for a cellist and clarinetist, preferably of the female persuasion as we are hoping to bring some balance to this rather testicular group.

And in other news, we are helping out with Church of the Beloved's U2Charist this coming Sunday.

Do stay well.