A note from Bev to the church family

[Bev Brazier]

To the Yellowknife United Church family

Peace to you, and blessings for this day. 

It's the 5^th day of Christmas, and while there are no five gold rings in sight, there are many blessings. Among them, for me, is my time with you here. Christmas is always a tender time, with thoughts of friends and family, and this year it was simply lovely to spend it with you. You ARE my friends and family now. 

I hope that this Christmas season takes you deep into your own journey, your own dreams....and that we've truly experienced God-With-Us-Emmanuel.  Even with the ....shall we say......"unusual" events of Christmas eve? I do think there's a sermon in all of that about water breaking and new birth. I wonder what new things will be born among us this year? 

A couple of practical things now:

• I will be in the office Tuesday (tomorrow) and Friday, for regular office hours. 
•  there will be a gathering for the participants in the walking to Bethlehem project tomorrow at 7 pm at the manse
• this coming Sunday we'll celebrate Epiphany with a communion service. 

This will be my last Sunday with you. I'll close this note with a blessing by a colleague called Jan Richardson. 

Here it is:  

If you would enter into the wilderness  of this new year, do not begin without a blessing. Do not leave without hearing who you are: beloved, named by the one who has traveled this path before you.

Do not go without letting it echo in your ears, and if you find it is hard to let it into your heart, do not despair. That is what this journey is for. I cannot promise this blessing will free you from danger, from fear, from hunger or thirst, from the scorching of sun or the fall of the night.

but I can tell you that on this path there will be help.

I can tell you that on this way there will be rest.

I can tell you that you will know the strange graces that come to our aid only on a road such as this, that fly to meet us bearing comfort and strength, that come alongside us for no other cause than to lean themselves toward our ear and with their curious insistence whisper our name: Beloved. Beloved. Beloved.