Last year, Starmount held a service for wholeness and healing that is commonly known as “The Longest Night.” Sometimes these services are also called a “Blue Christmas” service or a “Service of Hope and Remembrance.” In them, we acknowledge, as the Body of Christ, that there are many for whom the holiday season is not a joyful time. Many of us are lonely, mourning, or feeling alienated from family or friends. Some people experience depression and sadness and yet often feel compelled to “put on a happy face” for others, denying our true feelings. Some may be celebrating the holidays for the first time following the loss of a loved one.
I want to invite you all to join us for this special service of worship, in which we are all invited to be our true selves and to allow our true feelings to be expressed, trusting that this caring, Christian community is a safe place to feel our hurts and sorrows. This service gives us space to share and time to live with all the feelings we have. As we worship, we embrace and claim the darkness that is present both in the world and in our own lives. As people who are familiar with the darkness, we also know that we gather to be illumined by the light of the Christ Child this Christmas season. May the Christ Child, born in a lowly stable, himself an outcast and marginal, bring light, comfort, peace and joy this holiday season.
We will hold “The Longest Night” service on Sunday, Dec. 22rd at 4:00pm. It will be a brief, intimate, and contemplative service held in the sanctuary filled with readings and music. We hope you will join us.
In Christ,
Charlie Lee
