Avondale offering Longest Night of Year Service to process anxiety, grief

For those finding that the holiday season comes with mixed feelings, including grief, Avondale United Church is offering a quiet space of reflection.

Avondale United Church will hold their Longest Night of the Year sermon on Dec. 21 starting at 7 p.m. The service, previously known as Blue Christmas, is for those who are experiencing grief, anxiety and weariness during the holiday season and offers a quiet place of reflection.

"Christmas often gets branded with a certain tone and tenor to it and not everyone is up and enthusiastic and joyful and hopeful this time of year, so we're wanting to offer an alternative where people might find a place to land during a difficult time of the year for them,” said Rev. Keith Reynolds.

The church changed the name from Blue Christmas to Longest Night of the Year to expand the invitations out to the community.

"The Longest Night can resonate a little bit better as a metaphor sometimes than Blue Christmas can," Reynolds said.

The sermon usually has a small group of people from all walks of life coming together. However, Reynolds said the church is more concerned about best meeting the needs of those attending, rather than the number of people attending.

"At Avondale United Church, we're trying to offer an invitation for people wherever they are on their journey, wherever they find themselves at this stage and place of their life and this season leading up to Christmas,” he said. “This is one way that we're trying to connect with people and offer a place away, a venue to express the yearnings and the hunger and the absence and the loss that they might be feeling." 

For more information, contact Yvonne Casey of Avondale either by sending an email to yvonne.avondaleuc@wightman.ca, calling 519-271-7946, or visiting the church on 194 Avondale Ave., Stratford.