Articles

Does your family have any special Christmas traditions? Perhaps you make cookies for all your friends at the holidays. Or maybe you volunteer at a soup kitchen on Christmas Eve, or buy a present for a kid who doesn't have as much as you do.

This time of year is special to so many people the world over. In New England, it's crisp, often dusted with snow, and the wonderful smell of hearth fires is in the air.

Christmas was coming . There were so many things I had to do.

"Talk me into Christmas," my friend said. "Sometimes I think Charles Dickens's character Ebenezer Scrooge was right.

Christmas Day 1966 —my first Christmas in Turkey. I was married and had a small child.

"Can we do christmas baking now?" my daughter pleaded early one December when she was eight years old. "I just love it when the house smells like spice and cookies.

A few years ago my wife and I were in Aleppo, Syria, at Christmas time. While most people think of Syria as a Muslim country—and it is—it also has a significant Christian population.

Recently, Journal staffer Thomas de France talked with Dr. Brian Stratton, professor of philosophy and religion at Alma College, in Alma, Michigan.

Transforming the world through prayer Virginia S. Harris Last October, representatives from The First Church of Christ, Scientist, were invited to participate in the Global Peace Initiative of Women Religious and Spiritual Leaders, held at the United Nations in Geneva.

A REFERENCE BOOK FOR LIFE The message of healing and comfort in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy comes alive for the first time in the hearts of new readers each day. Men and women around the world speak with deep gratitude about their introduction to its healing message, and of the moments of new insight they gain from the book each day.