Letter from Greg, January 3, 2026

Dear Members, Friends, and Guests,

It's a beautiful time in the Christian calendar, a time when we linger over the Light that has come into the world. With candles lit each week of Advent, we've together ritualized our anticipation of the coming Christ, and of the hope, peace, joy and love that characterizes His presence. Yes, the presents are unwrapped. Visiting family members have likely gone back home. We're back to familiar routines... and yet the Light! It's still here for us.

While most of us are more likely to have participated in (and even ritualized) retailer-created pseudo-holidays like "Black Friday" or "Cyber Monday" or "Giving Tuesday" more than holidays like Hanukkah, Kwanzaa or New Year's Eve, Holidays serve as markers for remembrance. Veterans Day (November 11) began as Armistice Day in 1919, but has become a day of remembering the patriotism and sacrifice of those who have served in all branches of the armed forces through all wars and conflicts. Thanksgiving, at least originally, commemorates the ways in which the Wampanoag people helped early settlers in Plymouth survive, teaching them to farm and fish and sharing the harvest of 1621. We have rituals around feasting today that have morphed into expressions of gratitude for the blessings of family and food. And Christmas, well—we all know that one pretty well.

The new year has come. You may or may not be one who ritualizes the event with resolutions. I used to be, but I've been reflecting more upon ritual as a means of renewal. As author Suleika Jaouad notes in her post on Substack, "Against resolutions," resolutions rely upon will and "chase outcomes, (whereas) rituals attend to process." This idea of "process" much more realistically describes the journey of faith. We don't will ourselves to be one thing or another. This simply doesn't work over time, at least for the vast majority of us. Suleika wisely observes, "Rather than control, rituals are relational. They create atmosphere. They offer rhythm and containment. Where resolutions depend on willpower—a finite resource, especially in times of illness or uncertainty—rituals build scaffolding. They don’t ask us to muscle through. They anchor us in time, place, and meaning."

Today, we engage at least four community rites/rituals. First, we assemble ourselves for study and worship. Second, we wash each others' feet. Yes, it's a bit anachronistic, even strange. But it's what Jesus did, and commanded his followers to do, and what we've been doing for millennia since. Through ritual, we offer a symbolic cleansing from the sins committed since our last washing, or prior baptism. Through ritual, we place ourselves in the role of doulos (δοῦλος) or servant, as Jesus did in the upper room. Third, we share in the symbols of Christ's body, and shed blood. As we commemorate, together, the reasons for which we understand Jesus to have come to be with us, we engage one of Christianity's most sacred rites as we eat the symbolic meal. And then, fourth, we sit together in the cafe' for a common meal, a shared meal. Ideally, such a meal arises from the gifts of all who consume it - literally, and in presence, conversation, and in upholding each other in faith.

This is the power of ritual, whether enacted for personal or community benefit. It's slow. It can be routine. Ritual strengthens us individually and as a community, laying foundations for grace.

I want to wish you all a Happy New Year!

Pastor Greg