Religion and faith: Christmas traditions continue

Faith Community Church East, 8455 E. Golf Links Road, will present the second showing of its free Christmas musical at 7   p.m. Sunday, Dec. 20, according to press materials.

For more information, call 721-5017.

Grace St. Paul’s to host
Las Posadas celebration

Grace St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 2331 E. Adams St., will host a Las Posadas celebration at 6 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 19. The event includes a walk through the neighborhood, face painting and a meal, according to press materials.

Las Posadas celebrations re-enact Mary and Joseph’s walk through Bethlehem in search of a place to stay.

For more information, visit gsptucson.org or call 327-6857.

‘Quiet Christmas’ service offered

The Episcopal Church of the Apostles, 12111 N. La Cholla Blvd. in Oro Valley, will offer a reflective Christmas service at 6 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 19. The service recognizes the holiday season can be a time of grieving and loss.

For more information, visit ovapostles.org or call 544-9660.

St. Philip’s hosts talk
on Islam, nonviolence

A Muslim Sufi monk will speak on Islamic principles of nonviolence at a forum at St. Philip’s in the Hills Episcopal Church, 4440 N. Campbell Ave., at 10:15 a.m. Sunday, Dec. 20.

Moji Agha is an Iranian-American, an activist for cooperation and interfaith work and founder of the Circles of Nonviolence/Community Collaboratives initiative, according to press materials. The forum is titled “There Is No Other: Islam as Nonviolence.”

For more information, visit stphilipstucson.org or call 299-6421.

Churches to unite
to feed 130,000

Four Southern Arizona United Methodist churches are about to get serious about feeding people on Sunday, Dec. 27.

Two days after Christmas, St. Paul’s, Catalina, St. Mark’s and Santa Cruz Valley United Methodist churches will host “pack-a-thons,” inviting people to spend a few hours packing 130,000 meals of rice and beans or macaroni and cheese.

This is St. Paul’s fourth year packaging meals, but it is the first year doing so with other churches, said Nancy Scott, the overall coordinator of the pack-a-thon and the director of leadership development at St. Paul’s United Methodist Church.

Anyone is welcome, and Scott said the churches are expecting help from a nearby Baptist church and the Muslim Community Center, 5100 N. Kevy Place, and Temple Emanu-El, 225 N. Country Club Road.

The churches raised more than $32,000 to purchase the meals from Iowa-based Outreach Program, a nonprofit that distributes meals worldwide. Gospel Rescue Mission, The Salvation Army and Casa Maria will benefit from the pack-a-thon.

Contact the churches for more information:

• St. Paul’s United Methodist Church, 8051 E. Broadway, 296-6149, arrive at 11 a.m. for packing.

• Catalina United Methodist Church, 2700 E. Speedway, 327-4296, arrive at 11:30 a.m.

• St. Mark’s United Methodist Church, 1431 W. Magee Road, 297-2062, arrive at 11 a.m.

• Santa Cruz Valley United Methodist Church, 71 E. Sahuarita Road, 282-4085, arrive at 9 a.m.