Compelled by the Gospel, PPL equips Presbyterians
to champion human life at every stage
PPL ENEWS
December 2021
The Right Time
by PPL Executive Director, Deborah Hollifield
“But when the time was right, God sent his Son, and a woman gave birth to him...” Galatians 4:4
One of the paradoxes of the Christian walk is that God exists outside the constraints of time, yet governs our earthly lives inside of time. Over our lifetimes we spend plenty of frustrating hours alternating between the heavy sighs of “waiting on God’s timing” and the happy gasps that come with the surprises of answered prayer. It seems we never stop trying to reconcile our personal timelines with God’s timing. For many of us, this struggle has never been more obvious or spiritually exhausting than in the long, chaotic months since March 2020. We have prayed for this compression of crises to end, yet here we are. It seems that barring a mighty act of God, at least the first months of 2022 will follow the same foggy – and sometimes frightening - path.
It is tempting to think this time is unique in the history of the world. For some interpreters, God’s prophetic timeclock has picked up speed.
Related Article: "The Gift of Life"
by PPL Board Member Martha Leatherman, MD
In the Bleak Midwinter
The life of the composer of this Christmas carol challenges churches to
step up our ministries and outreach to women beyond the pregnancy care center
by PPL Executive Director Deborah Hollifield
English poet Christina Rossetti wrote the lyrics to “In the Bleak Midwinter” in 1872. In 1906 composer Gustav Holst set her poem to the tune “Cranham,” and the simple, mournful tune has been sung as a Christmas carol ever since.
Not everyone knows about the life of the poet – a story worth learning and pondering. Raised in London and homeschooled by religious parents, she was well-educated and pious. Her father suffered from tuberculosis and bouts of depression and the family struggled financially. Christina herself experienced bouts of depression as well, and later in life her physical health declined due to Grave’s Disease and Breast Cancer, which eventually took her life.
She began to write poetry in childhood and continued to publish prolifically throughout her life. She never married, and at the age of 29 began to volunteer with Anglican nuns in Highgate at the St. Mary Magdalene House of Charity - a rehabilitation home for former prostitutes and unmarried women – sometimes living there herself for weeks at a time. She was against the exploitation of women and girls, (particularly underaged prostitution), and worked with them to restore them to healthy lives, investing ten years of her life. Her ministry with the nuns involved reducing the women’s dependence on men, and improving conditions for the poor and young. She believed that most of the women she served had been forced into the self-harming choices that they made via poverty and the dominance of callous men. Her poem “The Goblins’ Market” is an allegory of the temptations of prostitution, its destructive effects on women, and the salvation and restoration available to them.
Additional Resources
Resources and Links to help you make informed choices about the available Covid vaccines, including our Guidance paper and its accompanying Discussion Starter for group study.
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