Letter from Amy: December 17, 2025

Albrecht Altdorfer, The Birth of Christ (1513). I first encountered this painting through Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Advent letters from prison, in which he reflects on the painting's depiction of Christ among the ruins.

Dear Incarnation,

Earlier this week, I had the privilege of seeing our own Katie Foran (vestry warden, worship leader, and all-around beloved Incarnation member!) perform in a Christmas concert with the Choral Arts Society at the Kennedy Center. (Thanks to Karen Radka for organizing!)

I was so moved by the performance. The conductor, musicians, songs, and audience participation all expressed a tenacious hope that even the smallest light could overcome darkness. The evening felt like an enclave of warmth, beauty, and light in the darkened concert hall of a beleaguered performance arts center in a beleaguered city on one of the coldest and darkest nights of the year.

We are approaching the fourth Sunday of Advent, which happens to fall on the longest night of the year — December 21, the winter solstice. Our music will be stripped down to just voices, and the songs will carry us deeper into longing for Christ’s coming, ending in a minor key. It's just another way we will enter into Advent's “fearless inventory of the darkness,”* a darkness that still remains, 2000 years after that first Christmas, as we continue waiting for the dawn. (*From Advent by Fleming Rutledge.)

And speaking of waiting: yesterday evening, the ACNA’s Court for the Trial of a Bishop issued its long-awaited verdict in the trial of Bishop Stewart Ruch. You may recall Ruch’s case from an article published in the Washington Post this fall; I know some of you have been following it for much longer. The Court unanimously found Ruch not guilty on all four charges. You can read the full verdict here.

This is weighty news that I am still processing. I have read the 70 page court document, and I plan to read it again, praying for discernment and wisdom as I do. As we all continue to process this news, I invite you to pray. Please pray for the survivors who have waited many years for the resolution of this case. Pray for all those who have navigated unclear processes in pursuit of justice on their behalf. Pray for Ruch, his family, his church, and his diocese. Pray for reform in the governance of our church and in the hearts of our leaders. Pray for those in our own congregation who have been wounded by the church. Pray for Incarnation: that we would be a place of God's healing, safety, and hope for vulnerable people. And pray for the light of Christ to break upon us all and dispel the darkness.

And yet there's so much more happening in the world and in our lives than these matters of church discipline. There is so much inbreaking light for which we rejoice (shout out to tiny, miraculous Ronen for helping his dad light the joy candle on Sunday!), and there are so, so many places in which we still long for light (jobs, moves, relationships, medical diagnoses, mental health, and the many tragedies of our world...). Please reach out if there is anything you would like to talk or pray about.

We will close Sunday’s service by singing O Come, O Come Emmanuel, a song whose seven verses have expressed the longing of the seven final days of Advent for over 1200 years:

O come, thou Dayspring, come and cheer our spirits by thine advent here;

Disperse the gloomy clouds of night, and death’s dark shadows put to flight.

O come, Desire of Nations, bind in one the hearts of all mankind;

Bid thou our sad divisions cease, and be thyself our King of Peace.

Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.

Waiting with you,

Amy