You've read the Christmas collect, now for the Christmas collection!

Okay, so I posted a Christmas collect a tiny bit early. We have an early service tonight, that's my excuse.

And now for the collection. (What, you think progressive Anglicans are any different from their sistern and brethren of other persuasions?)

My cyberfriends and I are involved in a worthy appeal for the community of one of our friends in one of the poorest and most dangerous neighborhoods of Brazil, Cidade de Deus (City of God), served by the Anglican parish of Christ the King. (Yes, there are other churches in Cidade de Deus; we're just doing our small bit.)

I posted something about this waaaaay back -- or thought I had, but the travel gremlins made me save it instead of posting it. Now it's up.

The appeal began November 30, But remember, it's never too late, and this is called a Christmas Appeal, not an Advent Appeal, so let me remind you good liturgical types out there that CHRISTMAS IS A SEASON AND HAS TWELVE DAYS, despite what the deities of consumer capitalism might tell you.

So here is a reminder (but you may want to visit that link above):

The OCICBW... Community Christmas Appeal this year is raising money to help pay for the work being done by the Anglican Church of Christ the King in the City Of God district of Rio De Janeiro. Full details about the project and how to send your gifts can be found here.

Brought to you by our friends at OCICBW... (Of Course, I Could Be Wrong...) from the UK, Brazil, and around this round world.

It's God's money, not our money! Share the wealth!

In honor of the Twelve Days of Christmas, I will be posting short and not too obnoxious daily reminders accompanied by quotations from various Latin American Christians, beginning tomorrow, Christmas Day, through the feast of the Epiphany.

Quotations will be ecumenical, not just by Anglicans. (As the late lamented Dom Helder Camara, Catholic Archbishop of Recife and Olinda, once said to a roomful of us at the 1976 Eucharistic Congress in Philadelphia -- I was an RC in those days -- "When the Holy Spirit moves in the world, it does not ask 'where are the Catholics?'")

Here, as a preview, is a prayer-poem by this very same Archbishop Camara, may he rest in peace.

Come Lord

Do not smile and say
you are already with us.
Millions do not know you
and to us who do,
what is the difference?
What is the point of your presence
if our lives do not alter?
Change our lives, shatter
our complacency.
Make your word
flesh of our flesh,
blood of our blood
and our life's purpose.
Take away the quietness
of a clear conscience.
Press us uncomfortably.
For only thus
that other peace is made,
your peace.

*******Dom Helder Camara, The Desert Is Fertile (1974)