Longest Night Worship
December 21st
7pm
Quiet friend who has come so far,
feel how your breathing makes more space around you.
Let this darkness be a bell tower
and you the bell. As you ring,
what batters you becomes your strength.
Move back and forth into the change.
What is it like, such intensity of pain?
If the drink is bitter, turn yourself to wine.
In this uncontainable night,
be the mystery at the crossroads of your senses,
the meaning discovered there.
And if the world has ceased to hear you,
say to the silent earth: I flow.
To the rushing water, speak: I am.
“Let This Darkness Be a Bell Tower” by Rainer Maria Rilke from Sonnets to Orpheus II, 29.
Translation by Joanna Macy and Anita Barrows.
We will gather on this winter solstice to honor and embrace the darkness of our lives. In this service, we will
allow ourselves to face our grief, learn from our pain, extend love to those scariest thoughts inhabiting our
minds. We will step into a journey together of walking in the dark.
Aspects of this service will be familiar as experienced in what you may know as a Blue Christmas service of
honoring those you grieve. Others will feel new, all serving to bring us to a deep place of solace, love, and
appreciation for these life experiences that teach us incredible skills of endurance.