From the Pastors

The season of Advent is not really about having a festive countdown to a jolly holiday season, despite the many chocolate Advent calendars that one can buy! Advent is more a deep longing for a new world, a world of justice, a world of goodness, a world of true and lasting peace. Every year during Advent, we see how far off these things appear to us now. Our world is longing for deliverance. And yet Advent itself is a stubborn refusal to fall into despair.  There is much that

There is at least one thing, however, about the season of Advent that I don’t think we should overlook - and that is the honesty of the season. 

Most people would agree that gratitude is good. We teach kids to say “thank you.” We share our thankfulness through cards or letters when the opportunity arises. We may craft a social media post. We spend a day each year celebrating Thanksgiving. But the Christian faith invites us into a deeper gratitude that goes beyond the merely conventional.  Last Sunday  I shared a quote by the Christian spiritual writer Joan Chittister that reminds us how important gratitude is in the C