A new year begins, and what a year it will be! With new ministries and new opportunities for spiritual growth and mission, we join together as a community of faith to worship and serve, to pray and to grow, and in all things, to let God’s light shine forth through our very lives.

Many years ago, the songwriter Jim Strathdee adapted a Christmas poem by Howard Thurman, which sets the stage for all that is to come:

When the song of the angels is stilled, when the star in the sky is gone,
When the kings and the shepherds have found their way home,
The work of Christmas is begun:
To find the lost and lonely one, to heal the broken soul with love,
To feed the hungry children with warmth and good food,
To feel the earth below, the sky above.
To free the prisoner from all chains, to make the powerful care,
To rebuild the nations with strength of good will,
To see God’s children everywhere.
To bring hope to every task we do, to dance at a baby’s new birth,
To make music in an old person’s heart, and sing to the colors of the earth!