Making my way home from the Swampscott “T” station the morning of Dec 22, I noticed a number of cars parked at Preston Beach. This is the beach at the Marblehead-Swampscott town line. Dawn was breaking; the Sun was just rising. Glancing briefly toward the ocean there was a group of people gathered in the circle of pillars. They were celebrating the winter solstice. The shortest day had passed.  The dawn heralds a time of increased light, if only in increments, and through this, hope for a new year. 

I was in a hurry to get home so I didn’t stop.  Yet it came to me that Advent begins a new year for the church, and how the readings of Advent all point to a new time of God’s reign.  Christmas then celebrates that new time in remembering Jesus’ birth—God’s self-giving of love and hope for humankind. Now, as the twelve days of Christmas draw to a close and the calendar year changes to 2012, we are invited to grow in awareness—spiritually and otherwise—through manifestation of Jesus’ light to the world. The season of Epiphany invites us to see God’s light in and around us.   We are very much part of that dawning of new light.

Back at Christmas, the infant Jesus almost didn’t make it to the manger! At the 5:00 Christmas Eve service I normally ask one of the young children to carry the small ceramic infant Jesus from the altar to the crèche. In the excitement of this year’s Christmas pageant, I forgot! Thankfully, two of our acolytes, Rose Clark and Isabella Renney, saw the infant on the altar. At the end of the service, they quietly laid him in the manger. Looking back, I can say that the light of Christ is carried by all—often quietly, sometimes unbeknownst by many—even when we forget ourselves!”... Read more in the Newsletter