Faith communities are increasingly attentive to the needs of people who are "blue" during this holiday season. They are creating sacred space and hospitable settings to include those who face various kinds of losses, grief or depression. Such services are reflective, accepting the reality of where we are emotionally. They offer a message of hope and the assurance of God's presence with us in the midst of our darkness.
There are a number of sites on the internet that provide worship resources suitable for use at a "Blue Christmas" or "Longest Night" worship services. One example is the Blue Christmas Worship Resource Index from Mental Health Ministries.
God's Timing
O God, grant us a sense of your timing.
In this season of short days and long nights,
of grey and white and cold,
teach us the lessons of beginnings;
that such waitings and endings may be the starting place,
a planting of seeds which bring to birth what is ready to be born-
something right and just and different,
a new song, a deeper relationship, a fuller love-
in the fullness of your time.
O God, grant us the sense of your timing.
~ written by Ted Loder, in Guerrillas of Grace.
There are samples of Blue Christmas and a Blue Interfaith Holiday Service in the Worship section under Resources on the Mental Health Ministries website.
