{"id":460,"date":"2009-12-19T23:38:00","date_gmt":"2009-12-19T23:38:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2009\/12\/winter-solsticelebration\/"},"modified":"2009-12-19T23:38:00","modified_gmt":"2009-12-19T23:38:00","slug":"winter-solsticelebration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2009\/12\/winter-solsticelebration.html","title":{"rendered":"Winter SolstiCelebration"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p><a href=\"https:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/_cpRXT6ZSHTw\/Sy2-RriRC9I\/AAAAAAAAAWg\/YkkQSU5_ryU\/s1600-h\/Winter+SolstiCelebration+2009.JPG\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"><img decoding=\"async\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/_cpRXT6ZSHTw\/Sy2-RriRC9I\/AAAAAAAAAWg\/YkkQSU5_ryU\/s400\/Winter+SolstiCelebration+2009.JPG\"><\/a><span style=\"font-size:85%\"><em>The Wandering Druid, Father Winter (Ed Townley), and Mother Winter (<\/em><\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.guignon.com\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span style=\"font-size:85%\"><em>Valery Guignon<\/em><\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-size:85%\"><em>). Photo by <\/em><\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/picasaweb.google.com\/Walz.Jennifer\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span style=\"font-size:85%\"><em>Jennifer Walz<\/em><\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-size:85%\"><em>.<\/em><\/span><br><span style=\"font-size:85%\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The theme of this year\u2019s Winter SolstiCelebration was \u201cjoy and wonder\u201d. It was joyous and wonderful.<\/p>\n<p>Winter SolstiCelebration is not a Pagan event, though there were plenty of Pagans involved. Amy Martin\u2019s tribe is a smorgasbord of alternative religions. It\u2019s always been an interfaith event \u2013 this year it seemed more interfaith than most. Perhaps that\u2019s because it was co-produced by the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.csldallas.org\/csld1\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Center for Spiritual Living<\/a>. Whatever the reason, it worked. Of the five SolstiCelebrations I\u2019ve attended (including participating in the last three) this was the best.<\/p>\n<p>For me, the highlight of the service was the choir, a combined effort of the Center for Spiritual Living and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.unitydallas.org\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Unity Dallas<\/a>. They did a unique arrangement of \u201cAmazing Grace\u201d and a rendition of \u201cHalleluiah Anyhow\u201d that got everyone on their feet quite spontaneously.<\/p>\n<p>It wasn\u2019t a cure for work-related stress, but it helped. A lot.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Wandering Druid, Father Winter (Ed Townley), and Mother Winter (Valery Guignon). Photo by Jennifer Walz. The theme of this year\u2019s Winter SolstiCelebration was \u201cjoy and wonder\u201d. It was joyous and wonderful. Winter SolstiCelebration is not a Pagan event, though there were plenty of Pagans involved. Amy Martin\u2019s tribe is a smorgasbord of alternative religions. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1129,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Winter SolstiCelebration<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Wandering Druid, Father Winter (Ed Townley), and Mother Winter (Valery Guignon). Photo by Jennifer Walz.The theme of this year&#039;s Winter\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2009\/12\/winter-solsticelebration.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Winter SolstiCelebration\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Wandering Druid, Father Winter (Ed Townley), and Mother Winter (Valery Guignon). Photo by Jennifer Walz.The theme of this year&#039;s Winter\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2009\/12\/winter-solsticelebration.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"John Beckett\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-12-19T23:38:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/_cpRXT6ZSHTw\/Sy2-RriRC9I\/AAAAAAAAAWg\/YkkQSU5_ryU\/s400\/Winter+SolstiCelebration+2009.JPG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"John Beckett\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"John Beckett\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2009\/12\/winter-solsticelebration.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2009\/12\/winter-solsticelebration.html\",\"name\":\"Winter SolstiCelebration\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2009-12-19T23:38:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2009-12-19T23:38:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#\/schema\/person\/b4c8980dc36f971434424c304ca429ad\"},\"description\":\"The Wandering Druid, Father Winter (Ed Townley), and Mother Winter (Valery Guignon). 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