To the Friends and Members of Christ Church:
The poinsettias have been ordered; the pageant costumes are pressed; our choir is practicing Handel’s Messiah; the floors are being waxed. Christmas Eve and Christmas Day will be glorious at Christ Church. I so hope you will be here with us.
Each service is different. On Christmas Eve, the 5 PM is fun, chaotic, full of kids, and overflowing with joy. The 8 PM is quieter, meditative and full of a deep peace. The 11 PM, with the Messiah beginning at 10:30 PM, unleashes all the joy, praise and thanksgiving we can muster. Christmas Day at 10 AM is always special for the hearty band who gather to sing every carol in the book.
“Christmas is a good time,” Fred tells his Uncle Scrooge in A Christmas Carol. “It’s a kind, forgiving, charitable and pleasant time; the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of other people as if the really were fellow-passengers, and not another race of creatures bound on their journeys.”
The Vestry and staff pray that this Christmas is full of blessing, where you open up your hearts freely to the presence of the living God who comes as Emmanuel, the One who becomes a fellow-passenger with us on our earthly pilgrimage. May you feel the peace in your heart proclaimed by the angels. May you feel the abundant joy that lights up the darkest of nights. May this kind, forgiving, charitable and pleasant time last in your spirit for the long winter ahead.
I encourage you to make a special Christmas Offering. Bring it with you to the services, or return by mail. Christ Church relies greatly on the Christmas offerings; we need $15,000 in Christmas offerings to balance the budget. Please know how grateful the Vestry, the staff and I am that we share in the stewardship of this faithful church, giving in proportion to our joy, our thanksgiving, and our treasure entrusted to us.
Merry Christmas!
The Rev. Timothy B. Safford