Christmas Eve 2012

Merry Christmas! Our entire family attended the Christmas Eve Divine Service tonight at Lutheran Church of the Incarnate Word in Rochester Hills. In the photo on the right, Alex (in his Acolyte robe) and Jill posed in front of the Christmas Tree after the Service.

At the beginning of tonight's Divine Service, Pastor Allen Lunneberg chanted "The Proclamation of the Birth of Christ" which you can see below.

Today, the twenty-fifth day of December,
unknown ages from the time when God created the heavens and the earth
and then formed man and woman in his own image.
Several thousand years after the flood,
when God made the rainbow shine forth as a sign of the covenant.
Twenty-one centuries from the time of Abraham and Sarah;
thirteen centuries after Moses led the people of Israel out of Egypt.
Eleven hundred years from the time of Ruth and the judges;
one thousand years from the anointing of David as king;
in the sixty-fifth week according to the prophecy of Daniel.
In the one hundred and ninety-fourth Olympiad;
the seven hundred and fifty-second year from the foundation of the city of Rome.
The forty-second year of the reign of Octavian Augustus;
the whole world being at peace,
JESUS CHRIST, eternal God and Son of the eternal Father,
desiring to sanctify the world by his most merciful coming,
being conceived by the Holy Spirit,
and nine months having passed since his conception,
was
born in Bethlehem of Judea of the Virgin Mary.
Today is the nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ
according to the flesh.

The YouTube video below features Pastor Lunneberg chanting "The Proclamation of the Birth of Christ" in 2011. If I find this year's video, I'll post that here instead.