Bulletin – Wednesday, December 17, 2025 – Blue Christmas

Loss, Healing, and Hope: A “Blue Christmas” Service

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Introduction

Welcome and thank you for joining us for our online Blue Christmas service.

For the most part, Christmas is a time of celebration and joy. For many, however, this is a difficult time of year. Many of us are carrying significant weights:

• • Grief,
  • Loss,
  • Depression,
  • Anxiety,
  • Financial stress,
  • Unemployment,
  • Uncertainty,
  • Aging,
  • Aging parents,
  • Ill or estranged children or grandchildren,
  • Recent diagnoses,
  • Unknown illnesses.

The public tone of the season does not resonate with many people’s private experience. The shape of worship offered here begins by gathering in honesty about grief, hearing the consolation found in God’s presence and love, and departing with the joy that comes from memory and a sense of shared peace. We invite you to get comfortable and lower your lighting if you life. Near the end of the service we will be lighting some candles and you are invited to have a candle ready to light as well at this time.

Gathering as God’s People

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Greeting and Call to Worship

Let us gather in spirit as God’s people. All around us, lights are lit and carols play. The season heaps joy upon us. Yet, we who come here, we carry more than joy; we carry loss, worry, grief and pain. We come weary, seeking rest from expectations. We also seek a holy presence to be with us. We come to this place, by the resilient grace of God: love that never lets us go.

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Prayer of Approach

Let us pray:

We gather now, to remember…
Those who have touched our lives,
Glad memories and happy stories,
And love that we hold dear.
In our hearts, we name those who have been life itself to us.
We gather in the name of Jesus,

Vulnerable as an infant,
Joyful and happy as a youth,
Wise and caring as an adult.
We gather in the presence of God,
Who brings life and light to all.
All life is precious in God’s sight. No one is ever alone or forgotten. Come, let us gather in the Spirit of hope and peace. We worship, in the name of joy and love. Amen.

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Listening for God’s Promise

The holiday season, especially Christmas, is often portrayed as the most wonderful time of the year, filled with joy, warmth, and togetherness. But for many people, this time of year is challenging—and that’s perfectly normal. While we are surrounded by images of perfect families, decorated trees, and cheerful moments, it’s important to recognize that this is not everyone’s reality—or that it is not reality for anyone at every moment. Some grieve a loss—of a person, a plan or a dream. Life does not always go as expected.

Losing One We Love

Let us listen for God’s promise in the words of Isaiah 40:1, 6-8. Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. A voice says, “Cry out.” And I said, “What shall I cry?” “All people are like grass, and all their faithfulness is like the flowers of the field. The grass withers and the flowers fall, because the breath of the Lord blows on them. Surely the people are grass. The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God endures forever.”

Prayer

Let us pray:

Holy One, you are with us in times of trouble and in times of peace; in times of sorrow and times of joy. When we are unsure of how to continue living and loving, your Spirit intervenes with sighs too deep for words. Speak for us now, Loving God. Comfort us with your abiding peace…(silence)

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Healing and Memory

If you’ve experience anxiety, depression, and loneliness during the holiday season, you are not alone. Especially during times of grief or change, it can fell that the world is moving along when you just want to shut down. Be gentle with yourself and allow for a spectrum of emotions, such as grief, sadness, and gratitude. Hold your memories dear as you move into a new time in your life. And remember that God promises that we are never alone.

We hear the words of God’s promise in the words of Psalm 139:7-12.

Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,” even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.

Prayer

Let us pray:

God of all, when we feel alone, you draw nearer; when we lose our footing, you guide us toward a good path. Through the ages, you have promised to be a comfort to your people, and you call us to be a comfort to others. In all our living, may we never lose the memory of our most cherished relationships, and may we feel the courage and strength you offer to us through those who surround us…(silence)

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Living with Hope and Love

We have heard that the acceptance stage of grief is when you come to terms with the reality of a loss, finding a sense of peace and beginning to integrate the experience into your life story. It doesn’t mean the pain is gone, but that you are no longer fighting against it and are able to find moments of happiness, look forward to the future, and adjust to a new reality.

Through faith, we live with hope and love as we hear the words of Jesus as recorded in John 14:1-4, 18-19.

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.”…

I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live.

Prayer

Let us pray:

God of hope and joy, you prepare our hearts for renewal. You till the soil of our lives and nurture small shoots of possibility. Even when we are unsure, you repeat your promise: I will never leave you. Open us, Holy One, to your promise. Hold us in your care. Strengthen us for your future. Guide us in anticipation and faith (silence)

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Remembering Hope

After hearing God’s words of comfort and promise, we remember in Hope.

Tonight, we will light 7 candles. If you have a candle, we invite you to light it with us as well, either with the first candle or at a point you feel is meaningful for you.

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We light a candle in memory of those who gave us birth, we nurture us, offered love, and cherished us. We remember mothers and fathers, guardians and grandparents, and all our family through the ages.

(silence – light first candle)

We light a candle in memory of those who have been joined to us in the great circle of family. We remember sisters and brothers, aunts, uncles, and cousins, those near to us and far away.

(silence – light second candle)

We light a candle in memory of those who have left us before we expected, those we hold dear, and with whom we still walk in our dreams. We remember children and grandchildren, those who leaped within the womb and who danced upon the earth.

(silence – light third candle)

We light a candle in memory of those whom we came to know through the eyes of love. We hold sacred the faces and memories of years past, of those who brightened our days and lit up our lives. We remember husbands and wives, dearest loves and closest friends, who change our lives forever.

(silence – light fourth candle)

We light a candle in memory of those who shared in our lives in many ways, who worked with us and made our lives more enjoyable. We remember friends and neighbours.

(silence – light fifth candle)

We light a candle for those we do not know, O God, who, like us, have suffered loss, who live with grief, who long for peace and justice, who long for friendship and healing. We remember your people, of every time and place.

(silence – light sixth candle)

We light a candle for ourselves, too, O God, that we may treat ourselves kindly and with care, knowing that we each carry our own burden and praying for the grace to move through this time with a spirit of peace.

(silence – light seventh candle)

Finally, we leave one candle unlit, mindful of the great truth of this life, that in the fullness of time we, too, will join our loved ones in a realm without sorrow and pain, in the company of Unending Love. For these and all your children, we give thanks for life, hope, and courage. Amen.

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Going in Peace

Benediction

The light has splintered the darkness, hope is ours once more. The light calls us forward; we remember the past and walk confidently into the future. As we leave our time together, may we go filled with peace and love; God’s gift to us all. Amen.

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