Letter from Amy: Dec 10, 2025

Dear Incarnation,

Another week of Advent in the books! How is it going?

Several of you have shared with me a sense of failure in your attempts to observe Advent thus far. Maybe you feel like you’ve let too much Christmas in too early. Maybe you feel like your attempts to slow down are frustrated by a crazy-busy holiday schedule. Maybe your desire to light candles and pray has been overtaken by noise and chaos and, well, life. If so, please hear me: you can’t fail at Advent.

Do you long for peace amidst all the noise and busyness? Do you long for the world’s sorrow, sickness, death, and injustice to be set right? That longing is the heart of Advent. Not the candles, songs, calendars, trees, devotional books, carols (or lack thereof), or anything else. Those practices might be helpful ways of tapping into the longing of Advent. Or they might simply be burdensome distractions. If so, you have my full priestly permission to let them go, pray “Come, Lord Jesus” with all your might, and declare this Advent duly observed.

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This week also marks another bishop visit in the books. This was an especially full one, from the Q&A session to TJ’s ordination to Sunday confirmations (not a dry eye!) to Saint Nicholas. There was so much to process in our time together, and if you’d like to talk further about anything you heard or experienced, please reach out.

Last week, in preparation for the bishop’s visit, I returned to this blog post from 3 years ago, the week after Bishop Chris’ election. It includes our congregation's prayers for those in church leadership, including our newly elected bishop. These prayers poignantly capture the needs, concerns, and hopes of our congregation both then and now. I encourage you to continue praying these prayers for all of our leaders, including me, as we navigate this moment in the life of our church.

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This Sunday is Gaudete Sunday (“gaudete” is Latin for “rejoice”). We light the pink candle and read scriptures brimming with a joyful expectancy. Joy is an act of defiance against the powers of darkness that seek to hold us in despair. And so each year, in the dead of winter, we take a joyful reprieve in the middle of Advent.

Katie Foran will introduce a new-to-us song on Sunday, linked in the video at the top of this post. You may want to listen a few times between now and then so that you come ready to sing with joy!

The shadow has no power over us,

For we will trust in the Lord.

And through the night we have a song to sing,

A hope that we can cling to:

Joy will come in the morning!

Joy is coming,

Amy