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MINISTER’S MESSAGE
Greetings,
This time of a year we enter a season called Advent. Advent means coming. It is the 4 Weeks before Christmas where we prepare for Christs coming. Advent is also the root word for Adventure. We see this time as being something like an adventure. It is a season where we look back to remember Jesus’ coming, born in a stable, and the world that he was born into, with all its problems and hopes. We remember people like Mary and Joseph, and others who helped bring Jesus to the world. But we don’t just look back, we use the past to live it in the Present. We ask ourselves where might Jesus be coming anew this year. Where do we need Jesus to be born in our life and the world. We also think of Mary and Joseph, and realize that like them, we are now the ones birthing, enabling Christs coming.
Over the past year, we have gone through a lot. We are living in a very different world. In the midst of uncertainty and volatility, the Church also recognizes this reality. Christmas has never been easy. It wasn’t easy for Mary and Joseph. Mary, ostracized for being pregnant outside of marriage. Joseph, in spite of the shame, staying with her. It was a hard world.
And so, in the midst of all the uncertainties you are experiencing, and the uncertainties in the larger world, wars, climate-related disasters, humanitarian crises, economic instability, and political polarization … are you able to say yes like Mary and Joseph did. Are you able to let Faith, Hope and Love guide you. There is a little naked child, yet unborn, saying yes you can. Will you let that child into your life/world and let her/him/them grow.
2025 has been a year of full of exploring and changes! We bid farewell to Lloyd and have welcomed Audrey to the Collaborative Ministry Project on a part-time basis, to those who have not yet met Rev. Audrey getting to know her, and those who already know her having the joy of a reunion.
As we insist upon hope in the midst of transition, we celebrate the many gifts, activities, and events happening throughout the CSV this Advent.
The candle in our hands can feel fragile, insignificant, the flame easily extinguished. But when we turn to our neighbors to spread the light, it multiplies, wrapping the whole community in warmth.
This Advent and Christmas we use the logo of lantern. Like Hope, the lantern shelters the flame from the wind, steadies our hands and eyes as we gently step forward into unseen or unknown territory.
The candlelight cannot be contained, and so, like hope, it grows, emanating into our guiding question for the season, “What do you fear?”
Advent blessings and Merry Christmas.
Audrey & Julia
