Kindred in Christ,

As winter approaches, some of us may lament the shorter days and longer nights. But it is in the darkness that we find some of God’s greatest, most nurturing gifts. Too often has the Christian tradition exclusively associated light and whiteness with ‘good’, and darkness and blackness with ‘bad.’ The problem with this strict binary way of thinking is not only that it supports the denigration of people of color and perpetuates white supremacy, this view of darkness is also woefully incomplete. There are other images of darkness in scripture which we often fail to lift up in our worship and conversations about God.

Join us this Advent and Christmas as we look at the old stories we know well and find in them the places where sacred darkness holds us, loves us, and empowers us. From holy dark wombs to mangers at midnight to the wise ones following a star at night, this is the season to prepare our souls to seek delight in the winter nights to come.

To help us go deep into this Advent theme, we will be reading God’s Hoy Darkness in worship during the first two Sundays:

Alongside you,

Rev. Paul Ortiz