Traditionally we have celebrated a New Years Renewal Service on the last Sunday before New Years. At Wayfarers Chapel the custom has long been to write New Years intentions on slips of paper and offer them to the flames. At the Garden Church I revised that to writing intentions on compostable paper and adding them to the compost.
This year, as we will all be at home, I am inviting everyone to create their own version of the this ritual. Imagine your writing device, writing surface and personal way of returning your intentions to the elements. Get creative!
We have all been transformed by the events of 2020. Be it the pandemic, bitterly divisive politics, or the Black Lives Matter Movement. We have had to suspend or reimagine so many of our usual gatherings and ways of being together. So this year I will be inviting us to reflect on how 2020 has changed us. Then I will ask us all to commit to specific steps for making the world a better place in 2021 and beyond.
This a time for hope. But hope is made real when we act on it. Sharing aloud is always optional but for those who wish to name their commitments during the service, this will an opportunity to make a promise to yourself, to God, and to a community. For it is communities that sustain us, while keeping us accountable.
There is a lot about our pre-pandemic world to which we shouldn't want to return. What are your hopes for a better world, a more just society, and more meaningful ways to be community? What are the concrete steps you feel called to take toward that end?
Join us this Sunday as we get ready to turn the page.
Peace and blessings,
Rev. Jonathan