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Free Stuff

My sheet music and other free resources are available here. Just follow this link, and enter your Merry Mystic password when requested.

These things are under a Creative Commons license that allows you to download them and copy them freely—for any non-commercial use.

Enjoy!

Store

I have books, CDs, and a video series for sale from my store page. (I wish I could just give everything away, but one must eat!)

I’m especially excited about my new book, now available: My Burden Is Light: A Pastor’s Plea for Rationality, Honesty, and Humility.

About

 Adam Brooks Webber
Adam Brooks Webber
When I was a boy, I couldn’t wait to grow up so that I could A) move away from small-town Illinois and B) stop going to church. Consequently, I am now a pastor in a small town in Illinois.

Merry, Mystical Missives

Here you’ll find everything I’ve sent out to the mailing list for The Merry Mystic.

Christmas Song: All Shall Be Well, Noël

Hello, friends!

Here’s the fourth in my series of five new songs/carols/hymns for Advent and Christmas. This one draws on a phrase from the writings of Julian of Norwich, an English woman who lived from 1342 to 1416. Julian was an anchoress—that is to say, she was a sort of hermit who lived in a cell built into the wall of a church. She had many visions, and she wrote them in her book Showings, which might be the first book written by a woman in the English language. In chapter 27 of the long text of Showings, she wrote:

But Jesus, who in this vision informed me about everything needful to me, answered with these words and said: Sin is necessary, but all will be well, and all will be well, and every kind of thing will be well. … These words were revealed most tenderly, showing no kind of blame to me or to anyone who will be saved.

Julian accepted that “all will be well,” and trusted in God to know better than she how this is to be accomplished. I think there’s something very beautiful, and rather Christmas-like, in that moment of enlightenment and acceptance.

All Shall Be Well, Noël (full score) (letter size)

All Shall Be Well, Noël (vocal parts) (legal size, for folding)

 

By |November 26, 2024|Categories: music, The Merry Mystic|0 Comments

Christmas Song: Star-Struck by the Stable Gate

Hello, friends!

Here’s the second in my series of five new songs/carols/hymns for Advent and Christmas. This one is a different take on the old story of the Animals’ Christmas. What if the animals at the stable were just waiting for human beings to finally get a clue? The sheet music with hymn parts is here:

Star-Struck by the Stable Gate (legal size, for folding)

Star-Struck by the Stable Gate (letter size)

By |November 23, 2024|Categories: karatedo, music, The Merry Mystic|0 Comments

Christmas Song: Be Born in Us Tonight

Hello, friends!

I’m working on five new songs (hymns? carols?) for Advent and Christmas. Here’s the first: Be Born in Us Tonight. There’s a verse for each Sunday in Advent, and one for Christmas Eve. The “full” sheet music has a keyboard accompaniment; the “voice” sheet music  has just hymn parts, and it’s laid out for a US legal-size sheet, to print and fold.

By |November 23, 2024|Categories: music, The Merry Mystic|2 Comments

These are the (mostly video) messages sent out to The Merry Mystic mailing list.

Sermons and Such

Every week, I preach in the Open Prairie United Church of Christ in Princeton, Illinois. I’m not sending most of these out to The Merry Mystic mailing list; but on the outside chance you’d like to see a sermon, here they are.

Sermon and Song: Be Born in Us Tonight

For the First Sunday in Advent, I introduced a new hymn, “Be Born in Us Tonight.” It treats the presence of Christ, not as something that happened in the past, nor as something that might happen in the future, but as something that can happen in us right now.

By |December 1, 2024|Categories: karatedo, sermons|0 Comments

Crown Him (or Not)

We have a lot of rousing hymns about crowning Jesus king. They’re fun to sing, but Jesus always preferred more humble metaphors.

By |November 24, 2024|Categories: sermons|0 Comments
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