From the Pastor's Desk
January 2026
Happy New Year!!! I've been thinking about house blessings as Epiphany approaches and at the same time also imagining the coming year as a house--a space in time that is opening itself to all of us. I first came across this image in a blessing for the new year written by one of my favorite authors, Jan Richardson. I will include it in this year's house blessing.
How will we inhabit the coming year? How will we enter it with mindfulness and with intention? How will we move through the rooms of the coming months in a way that brings blessing to this world? With these questions in mind, I invite you to prayerfully welcome the new year. On the first Sunday in January, we will gather for worship, receive chalk and a blessing for our homes and a star.
At the beginning of of a new year, many people write on their doors with chalk in a pattern such as "20 + C + M + B + 26". The numbers in this example refer to the calendar year 2026 and the crosses between are for Christ. The letters C, M and B stand for the traditional names of the biblicalMagi (Caspar, Melchior, and Balthazar), or alternatively for the Latin blessingChristusmansionem benedicat ('May Christ bless this house').
The star word has become an epiphany ritual in many churches. You are invited to take a star and meditate upon the word that you receive. Place the star in a location that you will see often; the fridge, a mirror, a bulletin board. When choosing a star, we do not look through the collection and choose a star we "like" best. We are to choose one randomly. As we do, it is the star that "chooses" us. If you are not in worship on that Sunday, the stars will be available in subsequent weeks. Please let me know if you would like to receive a star and I will be happy to visit with you.
How will you inhabit the coming year? This is a question that may follow us like our star word. How will this church, its people and the building itself, respond prayerfully and faithfully to the needs of our community? How will we move through the rooms of this church in ways that bring blessing to the community? That will mean paying closer attention to the entire building, including the parts we have forgotten or neglected. It will mean praying for guidance to envision a future that includes the use of this church in ways that bring blessing to everyone who enters. We have work to do, but first may we throw open wide the doors of our hearts so that the spirit might reveal to us a way forward. We are preparing, decluttering, releasing the things that fill the corners of not only the church but our spirits, so that something amazing will emerge.
Welcome 2026. I trust that God has a vision for this church that will be revealed to us as we move through this year. Take time to bless your own homes, to wonder what word God would invite you to ponder this year and resolve (as this is the season of resolutions) to prayerfully engage God in using us to bring in the kingdom.
Happy New Year!
In Christ's love,
Rev. Lynne
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