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Early Risers Love the Julotta Tradition
CHICAGO, IL (December 10, 2005) - Although the Christmas Julotta service is a
memory for many older Covenant churches, it continues to flourish in a
number of congregations.
The traditional Swedish service generally is held at 6 or 6:30 a.m.
while it still is dark outside – and it ends by lighting candles held by
each of the participants who then go out to greet the day.
"We try to pick up the feeling of real early morning," says Charles
Olson, choir director for North Park Covenant Church in Chicago. "The
new day of Christ's birth is brought home in a real positive way."
Despite the early hour, the service is popular, drawing people from
neighboring congregations as well.
Olson says the church continues to hold the service every Christmas to
stay connected with the past. "We have kinship with the Swedish
heritage, and we believe it is important to continue that connection."
Keeping that connection also has been important for the Evangelical
Covenant Church of Lindsborg, Kansas, but the congregation now
celebrates Julotta every other year, including this year. "The flavor of
our congregation has changed," says Ruth Peterson, the church's organist
and worship planner, in explaining why the church has scaled Julotta
back from an annual event. "We have so many non-Swedish people."
Julotta always has been an important service at the Lindsborg church.
When the church was built, a funeral was delayed so that the first
service in the building would be Julotta, Peterson recalls.
Julotta services now include traditional carols, including some from the
Swedish tradition. At least a stanza of some hymns are sung in Swedish.
The Lindsborg church will include the Swedish hymns "When Christmas Morn
Is Breaking" and "Listen, Listen, Hear the Angels Singing."
Following the service, churches often serve coffee and Swedish coffee
cake. At North Park Covenant, the parlors where the reception is held
are decorated festively and only with candle light," says Olson.
North Park Covenant also will celebrate a Christmas Eve service and a
regular 11 a.m. Sunday service. Lindsborg Covenant will have a modified
Sunday service at 9 a.m. that will include primarily singing and a short
meditation.
Lindsborg is a small community with a rich Swedish tradition. Three
other churches in the area also celebrate Julotta. The day after
Christmas, a community service is held, and done entirely in Swedish,
although it also is translated. About 100 people attend the service,
says Peterson.
Many first timers to Julotta services leave saying the worship
experience is wonderful. Some have difficulty waking up to attend, however.
Paul Knight says that he overslept and missed the beginning of the
service during his first year on staff in Duluth, Minnesota. The service
started at 6 a.m. but he overslept until 6:45 a.m. "Made it to church
during the benediction," he says.
"We had advertised the service in the paper and a dramatic dialogue the
pastor and I were going to do," Knight says. "The church was full and
into the foyer. I was not there to hold up my end of the bargain."
Knight thought his ministry at the church was over. "I resigned my
position that morning," he says. "I was absolutely shaken. I missed
Christmas my first year as a pastor.
"(Pastor Kendall L.) Carlson laughed, hugged me and said go home and
enjoy Christmas," Knight recalls. "Paul Rees (Covenant pastor) mentioned
to me one time that he and I have in common the fact that we both slept
through Julotta."
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