This beautiful service of light and communion is full of our favourite carols and readings. We conclude the service in darkness with candlelight as our way of announcing that light has shone in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. Bring your neighbours!
Why do we gather each year to hear the same old stories and sing the same old songs? There are a number of answers to this question.
First, we do it because it connects us with our past: our parents and grandparents and their parents and grandparents. Gathering to listen and sing is a way to recall where we’ve come and how we got here.
Second, we do it because we want the next generations to have the opportunity to connect to their past. We want to ground our children and their children in a story and in music that reminds them of their origins and the love that has surrounded them from an early age.
Third, we do it because in these stories and songs are glimpses of both the past and the future as envisioned by God, the Creator. For God made this world and called it good; God established this world on an eternal foundation of love and justice; God helps us uncover these ancient foundations obscured through the passage of time by violence, injustice, hate and apathy; and these ancient foundations guarantee a good and solid future for God’s children: a future of hope, peace, joy and love.
This is the story of Jesus. A story to come back to, to set our feet firmly on a solid foundation and to propel us into a future where goodness overwhelms evil, love extinguishes hate, light eclipses darkness and life is lord over death, through Jesus Christ, our Friend and Helper.