December 22, 2021

Beloveds, 

The big news locally is that we will gather to celebrate Christmas Eve on Friday, at 4 p.m., in the sanctuary and online (Zoom and YouTube). We will share some stories, some music, and a few reflections, ending as always in candlelight. Please be sure to read here about Christmas Eve safety and programming for the Sundays of the holiday season. 

Also relatively locally, I will be enjoying a holiday week with my family–a little travelling, more than a little eating, and lots of rest and shared fun. I will be away from work beginning on Monday, Dec. 27 and returning on Tuesday, Jan. 4. While I am away, our affiliated minister, Rev. Michelle, will be available in the event of pastoral emergencies. 

On a somewhat larger scale, we just passed the Winter Solstice: Last night, while I slept the earth kept moving and passed an invisible line between tilting one way and tilting another. I might not notice it if not for other humans over millenia watching closely and keeping careful records, but tomorrow the light will last just a wee bit longer than it will today, and the next day, just a bit longer. Change happens, the world turns and orbits, the seasons spin out behind and before us. Our winter holiday celebrations make much of light–we enjoy more candles than usual, light more fires, sing songs in praise of the return of the light–but darkness is its own rich and lovely thing, not just a lack of light. In hopes that you will consider and enjoy the season’s gift of darkness, I offer these words from the poet Rainer Maria Rilke, translated by the poet David Whyte: 

You darkness from which I come,
I love you more than all the fires
that fence out the world,
for the fire makes a circle
for everyone
so that no one sees you anymore.

But darkness holds it all:
the shape and the flame,
the animal and myself,
how it holds them,
all powers, all sight —

and it is possible: its great strength
is breaking into my body.
I have faith in the night.

This holiday season, I wish you joy and rest and peace–in the light and in the dark.

Yours in love and faith,

Rev. Denise

Rev. Denise Gyauch
RevDenise@gnuuc.org