A liturgy for a new year

A liturgy for the end of one year and beginning of another:

O God of the night,

We come to you holding every loss, fear and anxiety of the season. The night has felt too long. Help us to remember how it held our grief. Help us to honor every tear, every wail of the night, knowing what we've lost is worthy of grieving. Thank you for not rushing into the light, but growing and arriving with a sacred slowness. That we would be able to bring our full selves into the light as we have been known by the dark.

... these final hours of darkness can feel like the longest wait. Sustain us, God. Allow us to look toward the morning while being fully present in the fatigue of now, giving our souled bodies what they need in order to set and heal. And when we wake, let us be patient with our joy—that we would not empty it of all grieving, but find it only magnified as we hold the tension of a story formed in the dark and the light.
(@blackliturgies)

As we sit in this first day of 2021, as faithful people of God in stories that are mixed with joys and sorrows, praises and protests and pleas, please deepen our hope.

Hope smiles from the threshold of the year to come, whispering "it will be happier."
Alfred Lord Tennyson

Grace and peace,

Anita Sorenson
Pastor for Spiritual Formation