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Embrace the gathering darkness
Dec. 20th, 2007 08:24 amNot one of Danny Westneat's best-written columns, but his heart's in the right place: "Jolly isn't mandatory".
The other day, Brown, the new pastor at Tibbetts United Methodist Church in West Seattle, held a service called "Blue Christmas." There were no tidings of joy. No harking of heralds.
She read a poem about darkness. A prayer on longing. There was a box of Kleenex in every pew.
"I felt there needed to be a place where you don't have to be jolly," Brown says. "Just an hour where you don't have to be in the festive spirit the culture says you must be in. Where you can escape all these feelings of forced joy."
Great punchline, too. And so: Bah and Humbug!
The other day, Brown, the new pastor at Tibbetts United Methodist Church in West Seattle, held a service called "Blue Christmas." There were no tidings of joy. No harking of heralds.
She read a poem about darkness. A prayer on longing. There was a box of Kleenex in every pew.
"I felt there needed to be a place where you don't have to be jolly," Brown says. "Just an hour where you don't have to be in the festive spirit the culture says you must be in. Where you can escape all these feelings of forced joy."
Great punchline, too. And so: Bah and Humbug!
