the longest night

the longest night

On the longest night, who wants to be alone? … Over the millennia, we have learned to gather together in community to share resources, find protection, increase confidence, hang on to courage. Especially at difficult and dangerous times, turning to one another for support, affirmation, and encouragement is as natural as instinct; we do it intuitively. Long before recorded time, the power of nature reigned supreme. It birthed us into being, nurtured and sustained us, sent us reeling with its often catastrophic indifference. And as the sun slipped beneath the horizon in the winter sky, our bewilderment must have turned toward despair.

Our attachment to light is primal. We need it. Indeed, we crave it. Our lives could not be nourished without it. And so, even when we can rationally understand the physics of a leaving and returning sun, we find within the cosmic cycles a metaphor for much within our lives.

Join us on the eve of the Winter Solstice to retell the story of darkness pressing over light and light's ongoing triumph. We'll reflect on what has been and our complicity in its dark and brutal tale. And then, encouraged in community, we'll move into light and, in so doing, let darkness slip from our hearts.

We'll gather on Monday, December 21, both online via Zoom, and at our Scarborough location at 62 Orchard Park Drive, three blocks east of Morningside Avenue on Kingston Road. The service commences at 6 p.m.

We look forward to having you with us. After all, who wants to be alone on the longest night? …