I entered parish ministry with a fair amount of idealism, particularly liturgical idealism. Inconveniently, the liturgical proclivities I picked up in seminary were not especially popular with my ...

Here are our favorite new releases by Christian artists, including The Porter’s Gate, Chris Tomlin, and more. Last year at this time, my family was weighing decisions about whether to have Christmas ...

When I told a friend I was writing about “Advent and irony” he suggested that would be a good name for a rock band or a bar. How can Christianity, and particularly the Advent season, be associated ...

Advent is a time for renewal, a time of new beginnings. It is, after all, the start of a new liturgical year, which brings with it an opportunity for personal assessment and even goal-setting akin to ...

On Friday, people young and old started to take part in the holiday time tradition of the Advent calendar. So what is the story behind this time-honored tradition and how did it come to mainstream ...

It was usually the last Sunday of Advent, and sometimes even Christmas Eve, that my parents would put up the tree. The familiar crackling sound of the antique record player and Andy Williams crooning ...

As Americans count down shopping days until Christmas and ABC Family's "25 Days of Christmas" movies, many Christian citizens are also marking the season of Advent, reading Bible passages each day and ...

Pope Benedict XVI released his new encyclical letter, “On Christian Hope,” Nov. 30, just two days before the beginning of Advent. Not surprisingly, the Holy Father’s timing was perfect because Advent, ...