"Evening Vespers Service" -- UUSE Virtual Worship, December 22, 2025

Gathering Music (Debbie Vinick, harp)

Welcome

Introduction

Centering

Chalice lighting and Opening Words

"Forgotten Church"

by James Crews

The next time you pray for someone else,

send whispered words on shaky wings

up to the night sky, you might consider

including yourself before the final amen.

When you ask for your own happiness,

plead for a flashlight to shine a path

through whatever darkness you are facing,

it's like stepping back into the forgotten

church of this one body, and finding all

the stained-glass still intact, every pew

dusty but undamaged, just waiting for you

to sit here again in worship to sing

in praise of the actual heart that has never

stopped working for you, resting only

in the slimmest of instants between beats.

Now place a hand on your chest and

speak--not to the God above, but the one

who lives always right here inside you.

Music

"Christmas Carol Medley"

Arr. and performed by Debbie Vinick

Reading

#720 "We Remember Them"

In the rising of the sun and in its going down,

We remember them.

In the blowing of the wind and in the chill of winter,

We remember them.

In the opening buds and in the rebirth of spring,

We remember them.

In the blueness of the sky and in the warmth of summer

We remember them.

In the rustling of leaves and in the beauty of autumn,

We remember them.

In the beginning of the year and when it ends,

We remember them.

When we are weary and in need of strength,

We remember them.

When we are lost and sick at heart,

We remember them.

When we have joys we yearn to share,

We remember them.

So long as we lie,

They too shall live,

Fo they are now a part of us,

As we remember them.

Music

"Pastorale from the Christmas Concerto

by Arcangelo Corelli"

Arr. and performed by Debbie Vinick

Reading

"We Hold Hope Close"

by UU minister and activist Rev. Julian Jamaica Soto

In this community, we hold hope close. We don't

always know what comes next, but that cannot dissuade us.

We don't always know just what to do, but that will not mean

that we are lost in the wilderness. We rely on the certainty

beneath, the foundation of our values and ethics. We

are the people who return to love like a North Star and to

the truth that we are greater together than we are alone.

Our hope does not live in some glimmer of an indistinct future.

Rather; we know the way to the world of which we dream,

and by covenant and the movement forward of one right action

and the next, we know that one day we will arrive at home.

Sharing

Music

"Pachelbel's Carol"

Arr. and performed by Debbie Vinick

Reading

"Winter Solstice"

by James Crews

It's as if the solstice took two

Bare twigs and rubbed them together

To give us a spark of rising sun,

To keep it going on this December day.

Not enough to heat the house

Or light even a corner of the room,

Still we learn to call it holy, knowing

It holds the promise of shorter nights,

As the candle lit for a loved one

We have lost somehow flickers

Their evergreen smile, small flame

That brings us closer with just

A thimble's worth of warmth.

Music

"Let There Be Peace on Earth"

by Jill Jackson and Sy Miller

Arr. and performed by Debbie Vinick

Extinguishing the Chalice and Closing Words

"On Those Days"

by Donna Ashworth

On those days,

when you miss someone the most,

as though your memories,

are sharp enough,

to slice through skin and bone,

remember how they loved you.

Remember how they loved you,

and do that,

for yourself.

In their name,

in their honour.

Love yourself,

as they loved you.

They would like that.

On those days when you miss someone the most,

love yourself harder.

Closing Circle

May faith in the spirit of life

And hope for the community of earth

And love of the light in each other

Be ours now, and in all the days to come.

Postlude (Debbie Vinick, harp)