Devotion - December 28, 2025
by JoAnne Fletcher
For those who may be new to our church, not having worship services in January may seem to be an unusual choice. However, the decision to suspend worship from Christmas Eve to the first week in February is one that has its roots in the discernment process we went through thoughtfully and faithfully several years ago now, when our minister was preparing for retirement. At that time, like the wisemen seeking Jesus, we were gladly offering our gifts of treasure as we searched for our path forward, but the finances available were not enough to continue our ministry with a full-time, or even part-time paid accountable minister, and our dedicated fundraising angels were getting tired out. We met, we prayed, we discussed, we planned, and soon realized that although, like the little drummer boy, we might not have wealth, like him we did have considerable gifts of time and talent to offer. Thus was born the leap of faith into our dynamic ‘ministry without a minister’ that has sustained us spiritually and financially in the years since then. This ministry, with its variety of worship styles, its challenges, its joys and deep fellowship, has only grown stronger over the years. I like to say “we all minister here”, and as the wisemen and that little drummer boy each brought their own unique gifts to the Christ-child born so long ago, we too each bring our own unique gifts of time, talent and treasure to our ministry here at Christ United Church, and I am profoundly grateful to each and every one of you for sharing them so generously.
January has traditionally been a month of reduced attendance and snow cancellations, and after the busy-ness of the Christmas season the leadership teams who work together so well in order to keep the church functioning are ready for a well-deserved break in the dark winter weeks that follow. Some congregational members head to sunnier climes in those weeks, others attend neighbouring churches, and some simply take the opportunity to spend time with family or for personal reflection. We do, however, feel that it is important for us as a congregation to remain connected during these worship-free weeks, and each week someone volunteers to put out a small devotion like this one, in which you can share your own thoughts or share a story or passage from a book, anything you feel the rest of us would be interested to read. I thank in advance everyone who has offered to provide devotions for January, and encourage others to consider offering to cover one of the weeks coming up in the summer break for July and August.
I would like to once again remind everyone that the church is not ‘closed’ for the weeks in which we do not have Sunday worship services. Lois still responds daily to the calls received on the church phone line, is still in the office regularly, and prepares the Weekly Seeds to send out with these devotions every week. Barb is still doing pastoral care in those weeks, and Fred is still hosting the Village Pump Café every Tuesday morning.
As for Tim, he provides Lois with a musical selection to accompany each weekly devotion. Over the years we have lost some beloved choir members and on some Sunday mornings, and on some recordings, we have had as few as two or three people that Tim somehow made sound amazing. However, we have recently gained several choir members who are new to the church, and we could not be happier about it! Many of you will have already enjoyed hearing Deltra playing the ’glockenspiel’ in addition to singing, Fred and Doug are happy to have Robin filling out the men’s section, and Noni and I are delighted to welcome Suzanne to the sopranos. If there are any altos out there itching to sing and have fun doing it, Vicki and Jane would love to have you join them too. This week we have a wonderful recording of the choir singing ‘We Three Kings’, with Doug, Fred and Robin solo’ing as the three wise men (Robin would be inserting a ‘Three Wise Guys’ joke right about here if we were at practice lol)
I would like to close this little devotion by saying that I hope you have had a blessed Christmas season, even though I know that for some of you it will have been a very difficult time. We never know what awaits any of us in the future, and some of us still gently mourn a past that we remember fondly, or with regret, or with sadness, or with all of those things. What we do have is the present, and at Christ United Church that present is indeed a great gift. We celebrate with those who are celebrating, sympathize with and support those facing challenges, and mourn with those facing heartbreak. I wish you all the very best in the new year, rejoicing in the good times to come and finding comfort in the hard times, remembering the (abridged) words of our Creed:
We are not alone, we live in God’s world
We believe in God, who has created and is creating
Who came in Jesus, the word made flesh
To reconcile and make new.
To work in us and others by the Spirit
We trust in God
We are not Alone
Thanks be to God
"A Village Church With A Heart For The World"
Christ United Church
12 Perth St., Lyn, ON, K0E 1M0
(613)498-0281 (Phone) (613)498-2589 (Fax)
lynunitedchurch@cogeco.net www.lynunitedchurch.com Follow on Twitter: @Ch1United