GRACE CHURCH OF MARTHA'S VINEYARD

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  • WELCOME
  • Contact Us
  • 2024 Evaluation Form
  • Leadership
  • Parish Calendar
  • Online Sunday Services at Grace
    • 06.22.25 Second Sunday after Pentecost
    • 06.15.25 Trinity Sunday
    • 06.08.25 Day of Pentecost
    • 06.01.25 Seventh Sunday of Easter
    • 05.25.25 Sixth Sunday of Easter
  • Church and Faith
    • African American Heritage Trail
    • Our Three-Year Plan
    • Weddings
    • History of Grace Church
  • Praise and Sweat Classes
  • Climate Change
  • Donate
  • Liturgies to Say at Home
    • Spiritual Communion
    • Morning Prayer
    • Daily Devotions
    • Noonday Prayer
    • Evening Prayer
    • Compline for nightly use
    • The Angelus
    • BCP Services
  • Lobster Rolls and More
    • Summer Lobster Rolls
    • Community Suppers
  • Playground
  • Photographs
  • The Tisbury Connection

Blue Christmas
December 17, 2022
10:00 am

Picture
…on the road you cannot see, this is the night when you can trust that any
​direction you go, you will be walking toward the dawn.
-Jan Richardson

Thank you for being with us for this service. We appreciate that it is difficult to be here, and we give thanks  for your strength.
 
It is our intent that this service can be a time when we, with others, acknowledge the “blue” or “darker” feelings we experience during the holidays. For many who have lost a loved one,holidays without them can  be painful. Others may experience loneliness, still others may experience a reminder of deep loss. Many feel isolated and disconnected from those whoappear to be having a good time. “Season’s Greetings” may not be greetings of joy foreveryone.
 
This service is an Easter liturgy in Advent. We will hear readings that reflect loss and, despite it all, show a way through the grief, isolation, loss, and disconnection that keep us in the shadows.  We will be invited to name   them, and we will pray together for strength, hope, and comfort.  The liturgy concludes with the invitation  to receive the Sacrament that is God’s gift to the world: the Presence of Jesus, and the promise that, even when things seem at their worst, God is with us.
 
We are blessed by your presence with us this morning. Thank you for being with us.
 
Stephen+
 
The Reverend Stephen Harding
Rector
 
Advent, 2022

Order of Worship
Please use the musical prelude and postlude as time of quiet meditation.
Prelude
​

Call to Worship                                                
 
(Those who are able, please stand)
 
One:   May God, who created the dark and the light be with us.
All:      God’s love endures for ever.
One:   The night seems dark and it is hard to see the guiding star above us. Invitations to joy sparkle around the
           sky, but their cheerful light is so bright they sometimes make the shadows deeper. If we turn our faces
           away, what will we see? Something that we want to see? If we   dare to look, will we find a glimpse of
           loving kindness breaking through?
All:      Let us be with each other now, we who stand on the margins and shadows of this moment.
One:   Peace be with you.
All:      And also with you.

Blessing for the Longest Night
​

All throughout these months, as the shadows have lengthened, this blessing has
been gathering itself, making ready, preparing for this night.

It has practiced walking in the dark, traveling with its eyes closed, feeling its
way by memory, by touch, by the pull of the moon even as it wanes.

So, believe me when I tell you this blessing will reach you even if you have not light
enough to read it; it will find you even though you cannot see it coming.

You will know the moment of its arriving by your release of the breath you have
held so long; a loosening of the clenching in your hands, of the clutch around your
heart; a thinning of the darkness that had drawn itself around you.
This blessing
does not mean to take the night away but it knows its hidden roads, knows the
resting spots along the path, knows what it means to travel in the company of a friend.

So, when this blessing comes, take its hand. Get up. Set out on the road you cannot see.

This is the night when you can trust that any direction you go, you will be walking toward the dawn.

--Jan Richardson
from The Cure for Sorrow: A Book of Blessings for Times of Grief

Isaiah 54: 6-10
 
For the Lord has called you like a wife forsaken and grieved in spirit, like the wife of a man’s youth when she is cast off, says your God. For a brief moment I abandoned you, but with great compassion I will gather you. In overflowing wrath for a moment, I hid my face from you, but with everlasting love I will have compassion on you, says the Lord, your Redeemer.

This is like the days of Noah to me: just as I swore that the waters of Noah would never again go over the earth, so I have sworn that I will not be angry with you and will not rebuke you. For the mountains may depart and the hills be removed, but my steadfast love shall not depart from you, and my covenant of peace shall not be removed, says the Lord, who has compassion on you.

Hear what the spirit is saying to the churches.

People:    Thanks be to God.

In Blackwater Woods
by Mary Oliver
                                Look, the trees                                                          in my lifetime
                                are turning                                                                leads back to this: the fires
                                their own bodies                                                      and the black river of loss
                                into pillars                                                                 whose other side

                                of light,                                                                       is salvation,
                                are giving off the rich                                              whose meaning
                                fragrance of cinnamon                                           none of us will ever know
                                and fulfillment,                                                         To live in this world

                                the long tapers                                                         you must be able
                                of cattails                                                                   to do three things:
                                are bursting and floating away over                     to love what is mortal;
                                the blue shoulders                                                   to hold it

                               of the ponds,                                                             against your bones knowing
                               and every pond,                                                        your own life depends on it; 
                               no matter what its                                                    and, when the time comes to let it
                               name is, is                                                                  go,
                                                                                                                    to let it go.
                               nameless now.
                               Every year
                               everything
                               I have ever learned

Reader    Hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches.
People   
Thanks be to God.

Sequence:  Hymn 69  What is the crying at the Jordan?

Picture

The Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, according to Matthew (11:28-30)
 
People      Praise be to you, Lord Christ.
 
“Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
 
The Gospel of the Lord.
People     Glory to you, Lord Christ.

Homily                                   The Rev. Stephen Harding

Offertory: Hymn 666  Out of the depths I call

Picture

Candle Lighting & Litany of Remembrance
 
Leader  We light this Advent candle to remember those persons who have been loved and lost. We pause to
              remember their name, their face, their voice. We give thanks for the memory that binds them to us this
              season which anticipates Christmas.
 
All          May God’s eternal love surround them.

Leader   We light the second candle to redeem the pain of loss: the loss of relationships, the loss of jobs, the
               loss of health. As we gather up the pain of the past, we offer it to You, O God, asking that into our
               open hands. You will place the gift of peace.
 
All          Refresh, restore, renew us, O God, and Lead us into your future.

Leader   We light this third candle to remember ourselves this Christmas time. We pause and remember the
               past weeks, months and for some of us, years of down times. We remember the poignancy of       
               memories, the grief, the sadness, the hurts, the pain of reflecting on our own mortality. And we
               remember those moments God broke through the darkness with glimpses of grace and joy.
 
All           Let us remember that dawn defeats darkness.

Leader   This fourth candle is lit to remember our faith and the gift of hope which God offers to us in the 
               Christmas story. We remember that God who shares our life,promises us a place and time of no   
               more pain and suffering.
 
All          Let us remember the one who shows the way and who goes with us into our tomorrow.

Prayers of the People
 
Intercessor    In the spirit of this season, let us now ask our God for what we need for ourselves as we
            participate in the holiday season as people coping with our loss, pain, suffering, loneliness, grief,
            sadness.
 
All        God, Keep shadows without and light within; let your face shine that we may be saved. 

Intercessor     God, we come to you this night, each with our own sense of loss, grief, and growing inside us. As
            the nights have been growing longer, so has the darkness wrapped itself around our hearts. In this
            season of our longest nights, we offer to you all we are holding in our hearts: betrayal, pain, grief, loss
            of trust, and traumas some of us cannot put into words. Loving God, hear our prayer,
 
All       God, keep fear without and justice within; comfort, comfort your people.

Intercessor     Compassionate God, there are those among us who are grieving over what has been. A death or
           loss has changed our experience of the holidays. Once they were a special day for us too, but someone
           has died, moved away, ended the relationship, or abused our trust. Or we have lost a job, a dream, a
           goal, a cause, or trust in an another. We find ourselves adrift, alone, betrayed, lost. Loving God, hear
           our prayer,

All      God, keep chaos without and life within; may those who sow  in tears reap with shouts of joy.

Intercessor      The holiday season reminds us of all that used to be and cannot be anymore. The memories of
            what was, the fears of what may be, stifle us. All around us we hear the sounds of celebration. But all we
            experience is a sense of not and disconnected from others. Please be near us this night. Loving God,
            hear our prayer.
 
All       God, keep despair without and hope within; be our deliverance that we may rejoice.
 
The sounds of celebration, the surrounding love of family and friends, and the decorations of anticipation and shining hopefulness, sometimes become a comment on what is not there for us or on our selves. The contrast between the excitement and preparations for the coming of peace and love, and what we experience, together with the shame of not being able to participate, is written large in our lives.

All         Come, O Advent God, and reveal your promise in us now.

Leader   Will the Christ, the Child of comfort and peace, really come near to us? Let us share our grieving,
               daring to touch its reality in the silence.
 
A silence is kept.
 
I invite you to say one word or phrase which describes what lies within your heart, or to join your grieving with that of others in silence. If you wish to say a word or phrase, I will repeat it and pour a symbol of our gathered tears into this  bowl.
 
(Silence and spoken words….)
 
Our tears come together in this hour. Our weeping is heard by others and our pain, loneliness or loss is held close to the heart of God, who knows all that we  feel.
 
All are invited to come forward with your candle, light it, and place it in the stand in front of the altar.
 
Concluding prayer, said by all

Lord, soon it will be night. The night is for stillness. Let us be still in the presence of God. The days are shorter, and the nights are longer. What has been done has been done; what has not been done has not been done; let it be. The night will be dark. Let our fears of the darkness of the world and of our lives rest in you. The night will be quiet. Let the quietness of   your peace enfold us, all dear to us, and all who have no peace. The night heralds the dawn. Let us look expectantly to a new day, new joys, new possibilities. In your name we pray. Amen.
(adapted from the New Zealand Prayer Book)
 
The Peace
 
Celebrant   The peace of God be always with you.
People        And also with you.
 
All move and gather around the altar for Communion.

Hymn 112 In the bleak midwinter

Picture

The Holy Communion
 
Eucharistic Prayer A
 
Celebrant    The Lord be with you.
People         And also with you.
Celebrant    Lift up your hearts.
People         We lift them to the Lord.
Celebrant   Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
People        It is right to give him thanks and praise.

Then, facing the Holy Table, the Celebrant proceeds

Celebrant   It is right, and a good and joyful thing, always and everywhere to give thanks to you, Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth.

Because you sent your beloved Son to redeem us from sin and death, and to make us heirs in him of everlasting life; that when he shall come again in power and great triumph to judge the world, we may without shame or fear rejoice to behold his appearing.

Therefore we praise you, joining our voices with Angels and Archangels and with all the company of heaven, who for ever sing this hymn to proclaim the glory of your Name:
 
Celebrant and People
 
Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might,
heaven and earth are full of your glory.
       Hosanna in the highest.
Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.
       Hosanna in the highest.
 
The Celebrant continues
 
Holy and gracious Father: In your infinite love you made us for yourself, and, when we had fallen into sin and become subject to evil and death, you, in your mercy, sent Jesus Christ, your only and eternal Son, to share our human nature, to live and die as one of us, to reconcile us to you, the God and Father of all.

He stretched out his arms upon the cross, and offered himself, in obedience to your will, a perfect sacrifice for the whole world.

On the night he was handed over to suffering and death, our Lord Jesus Christ took bread; and when he had given thanks to you, he broke it, and gave it to his disciples, and said, "Take, eat: This is my Body, which is given for you. Do this for the remembrance of me."

Therefore we proclaim the mystery of faith:

Celebrant and People

Christ has died.
Christ is risen.
Christ will come again.


The Celebrant continues

We celebrate the memorial of our redemption, O Father, in this sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving. Recalling his death, resurrection, and ascension, we offer you these gifts.

Sanctify them by your Holy Spirit to be for your people the Body of your Son, the holy food of new and unending life in him. Sanctify us also that we may faithfully receive this holy Sacrament, and serve you in unity, constancy, and peace; and at the last day bring us with all your saints into the joy of your eternal kingdom.

All this we ask through your Son Jesus Christ: By him, and with him, and in him, in the unity of the Holy Spirit all honor and glory is yours, Almighty Father, now and for ever. AMEN.

And now, as our Savior Christ has taught us, we are bold to say,

Lord’s Prayer
 
Our Father, who art in heaven,
            hallowed be thy Name,

           thy kingdom come,
           thy will be done,
                        on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
            as we forgive those
                        who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
            but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,

           and the power, and the glory,
            for ever and ever. Amen.

 
Celebrant       Alleluia. Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.
People            Therefore let us keep the feast. Alleluia.

People who are online
 
In union, O Lord with the faithful at every altar of Your church, where the Holy Eucharist is now being celebrated, we desire to offer You praise and thanksgiving.  We present to you our souls and bodies with the earnest wish that we may always be united to you.  And since we can not now receive you sacramentally, we beseech you to come spiritually into our hearts. We unite ourselves to you, and embrace you with all the affections of our souls. Let nothing ever separate you from us. May we live and die in your love. Amen.


Online leader
 
Let us spend a few moments reflecting on the fact that God so loved each one of us that God sent God’s Only-Begotten Son into the world for all of us.
 
[Silence is kept]
 
Postcommunion Prayer
 
Let us pray.
 
Celebrant and People
 
Almighty and everliving God,
we thank you for feeding us with the spiritual food
of the most precious Body
of your Son our Savior Jesus Christ;
and for assuring us in these holy mysteries
that we are living members of the Body of your Son,
and heirs of your eternal kingdom.
And now, Father, send us out
to do the work you have given us to do,
to love and serve you
as faithful witnesses of Christ our Lord.
To him, to you, and to the Holy Spirit,
be honor and glory, now and for ever. Amen.
 
Blessing
 
Dismissal
 
Leader            Go in peace to serve the Lord.
People             Thanks be to God.

Recessional:  Hymn 662 Abide with me: fast falls the eventide

Picture

************
At the end of the service please feel free to stay in the church for a time of quiet  reflection and meditation.
 
Thank you for being part of this service. May it give you consolation, comfort, and strength to continue walking through this holy season. May you  be touched by God’s Grace; and even now, by a moment of joy.