{"id":8216,"date":"2005-12-10T00:09:04","date_gmt":"2005-12-10T05:09:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire\/?p=8216"},"modified":"2011-07-06T08:28:58","modified_gmt":"2011-07-06T13:28:58","slug":"4632","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire\/2005\/12\/10\/4632\/","title":{"rendered":"Early Risers Love the Julotta Tradition"},"content":{"rendered":"

CHICAGO, IL (December 10, 2005)\u00a0 – Although the Christmas Julotta service is a\u00a0 memory for many older Covenant churches, it continues to flourish in a\u00a0 number of congregations.<\/p>\n

The traditional Swedish service generally is held at 6 or 6:30 a.m.\u00a0 while it still is dark outside \u2013 and it ends by lighting candles held by\u00a0 each of the participants who then go out to greet the day.<\/div>\n
“We try to pick up the feeling of real early morning,” says Charles\u00a0 Olson, choir director for North Park Covenant Church in Chicago. “The\u00a0 new day of Christ’s birth is brought home in a real positive way.”\u00a0 Despite the early hour, the service is popular, drawing people from\u00a0 neighboring congregations as well.<\/div>\n
Olson says the church continues to hold the service every Christmas to\u00a0 stay connected with the past. “We have kinship with the Swedish\u00a0 heritage, and we believe it is important to continue that connection.”<\/div>\n
Keeping that connection also has been important for the Evangelical\u00a0 Covenant Church of Lindsborg, Kansas, but the congregation now\u00a0 celebrates Julotta every other year, including this year. “The flavor of\u00a0 our congregation has changed,” says Ruth Peterson, the church’s organist\u00a0 and worship planner, in explaining why the church has scaled Julotta\u00a0 back from an annual event. “We have so many non-Swedish people.”<\/div>\n
Julotta always has been an important service at the Lindsborg church.\u00a0 When the church was built, a funeral was delayed so that the first\u00a0 service in the building would be Julotta, Peterson recalls.<\/div>\n
Julotta services now include traditional carols, including some from the\u00a0 Swedish tradition. At least a stanza of some hymns are sung in Swedish.\u00a0 The Lindsborg church will include the Swedish hymns “When Christmas Morn\u00a0 Is Breaking” and “Listen, Listen, Hear the Angels Singing.”<\/div>\n
Following the service, churches often serve coffee and Swedish coffee\u00a0 cake. At North Park Covenant, the parlors where the reception is held\u00a0 are decorated festively and only with candle light,” says Olson.<\/div>\n
North Park Covenant also will celebrate a Christmas Eve service and a\u00a0 regular 11 a.m. Sunday service. Lindsborg Covenant will have a modified\u00a0 Sunday service at 9 a.m. that will include primarily singing and a short\u00a0 meditation.<\/div>\n
Lindsborg is a small community with a rich Swedish tradition. Three\u00a0 other churches in the area also celebrate Julotta. The day after\u00a0 Christmas, a community service is held, and done entirely in Swedish,\u00a0 although it also is translated. About 100 people attend the service,\u00a0 says Peterson.<\/div>\n
Many first timers to Julotta services leave saying the worship\u00a0 experience is wonderful. Some have difficulty waking up to attend, however.<\/div>\n
Paul Knight says that he overslept and missed the beginning of the\u00a0 service during his first year on staff in Duluth, Minnesota. The service\u00a0 started at 6 a.m. but he overslept until 6:45 a.m. “Made it to church\u00a0 during the benediction,” he says.<\/div>\n
“We had advertised the service in the paper and a dramatic dialogue the\u00a0 pastor and I were going to do,” Knight says. “The church was full and\u00a0 into the foyer. I was not there to hold up my end of the bargain.”<\/div>\n
Knight thought his ministry at the church was over. “I resigned my\u00a0 position that morning,” he says. “I was absolutely shaken. I missed\u00a0 Christmas my first year as a pastor.<\/div>\n
“(Pastor Kendall L.) Carlson laughed, hugged me and said go home and\u00a0 enjoy Christmas,” Knight recalls. “Paul Rees (Covenant pastor) mentioned\u00a0 to me one time that he and I have in common the fact that we both slept\u00a0 through Julotta.”<\/div>\n
<\/span><\/div>\n
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Copyright \u00a9 2011 The Evangelical Covenant Church.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Report This Post<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CHICAGO, IL (December 10, 2005)\u00a0 – Although the Christmas Julotta service is a\u00a0 memory for many older Covenant churches, it continues to flourish in a\u00a0 number of congregations. 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