• Home
  • rainbow flagA Welcoming Congregation
  • Safe Congregation SealKeeping Safe
  • Capital Campaign
    • Contact: Capital Campaign
  • DONATE/REALM
  • TUCWomen
    • About TUCWomen
    • Join Us
    • Events
    • Contact
  • Contact
  • Instagram

The Unitarian Church in Westport

10 Lyons Plains Rd., Westport, CT 06880 - Ph: (203)227-7205 Sunday Services: 10:00 AM

uua-logo-2
  • Calendar
    • Calendar
    • SOUNDINGS
    • Communications Guidelines
    • ZOOM Instructions
    • Tips For Making Videos
    • Event & Space Reservations
    • TUCWSocial Email List Ground Rules
  • Welcome Visitors
    • UU Orientation
    • Directions & Services
    • Special Ceremonies & Dedications
    • Our Congregational History
    • Our Faith
    • What is a Unitarian Universalist?
    • We are Unitarian Universalists
    • How did you become a Unitarian Universalist?
    • History of the Flaming Chalice
    • UU History in 8 Minutes
  • About Us
    • Our Mission Statement
    • Our Vision Statement
    • About Our Ministers
    • Our Staff
    • Getting Involved
    • Board of Trustees
    • Governance
    • Congregant Celebration
    • Pastoral Care Chaplains
    • Our Welcoming Congregation
    • Photo & Video Galleries
    • Links – Beyond Our Walls
    • SOUNDINGS
    • Communications Guidelines
    • Events & Space Reservations
    • Pledging
  • FAITH FORMATION
    • Faith Formation 2021-22
    • Welcome to Family Faith Formation
    • This Week in Family Faith Formation
    • What to Expect on Sundays
    • Faith Formation for Children Pre-K through 7th Grade
    • OWL Information at a Glance
    • Considering 8th-9th grade OWL
    • Youth Ministry
    • Adult Faith Formation
    • Soul Matters
    • Keeping Safe
    • Faith Formation Registration
  • Social Justice
    • Welcome to Social Justice
    • Social Justice e-mail
    • Advocates for Prevention of Gun Violence
    • Beardsley School Committee
    • Environmental Action Group
    • Immigration and Refugee Committee
    • KIVA Microfinance Committee
    • Mercy Learning Center Committee
    • Racial Justice Committee
    • Rainbow Task Force
    • Westbridge Coalition
    • UU United Nations Office
    • Additional Programs
    • Racial Justice Resources
  • Music Program
    • Music Choir Schedules
    • Evensong
    • Our Minister of Music
    • The Music Committee
    • The Bell Choir
    • The Choir (Women and Men)
    • Special Projects Choir
    • Once & Again Singers
    • Children’s Choir
    • Teen Choir
    • The Chamber Choir
    • Sight-singing Classes
    • Cabaret
    • Voice Classes
    • Love Is the Spirit
    • Tune My Heart To Sing
    • Support Our Music Program
  • Sermons & Poetry
    • Minister’s Messages
    • Sermons – Audio
    • Sermons – Video
    • Rev. John T. Morehouse’s sermons
    • From Your Senior Minister: Facing Grace
    • Facing Grace – Rev. John’s blog
    • Rev. Frank Hall, Minister Emeritus – sermons
    • Rev. Frank Hall, Minister Emeritus – Dear Friends
    • Intern Minister’s sermons
    • Guest Minister’s sermons
    • Poetry & Readings
    • Communications from Your Ministers

Dear Friends – December 20, 1999

April 18, 2011 by Rev. Frank Hall - Minister Emeritus

Dear Friends,

This has been a strenuous time for me. I appreciate the support you’ve offered as I’ve gone about the business of honoring — and burying — three good friends. The earthly remains of Carl, Ed and Greg have been lovingly placed in the memorial garden behind the sanctuary.

As I prepare for our Christmas Eve services, I’m reminded of some of the things I love about this season. I prepared some thoughts which I shared at last Sunday’s special music service. I said, and I repeat: If Christmas didn’t exist… well, we’d have to invent it.

We need a holiday marked by the lighting of candles and the singing of songs of joy, hope and love. We need such a holiday at any time of year, but more especially at the darkest time, when the cold settles in for its winter stay.

If we were very wise, we’d invent a holiday in which, as Scrooge’s nephew put it, men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts and give freely to those who are traveling this brief road together.

If we were wise, we’d include the giving of gifts as an outward expression of the love we feel all year, not only for those in our own families, but for all those who share in our sympathy, concern and caring for those who suffer, for those who are in want and in need. We’d have the wisest, most powerful characters we could invent bring gifts to a little baby in a barn, kneeling down, for once, in a sincere display of the humility we all need in this life.

We could point to a star and say, “That’s the one that the wise ones followed,” so we would be reminded that we, too, need something to follow, that we, too, need direction and encouragement on our own long journey.

If we were to invent Christmas we’d probably paint pictures of angels flying to shepherds who are in the fields keeping watch, giving them a message of hope when hope seemed lost. We could have angels coming in the night to a woman carrying an unexpected, unplanned pregnancy; we know it would take angels to calm her nerves, to reassure her! These are the angels Lincoln meant when he referred to the ‘better angels of our nature.’

In the midst of winter we’d suggest bringing a live tree into our homes, decorate it, and put presents under it. Someone would have to create a Christmas card and suggest sending it to loved ones… to distant family and old friends. We’d have to invent something like a Santa Claus, and magical reindeer who pull a sleigh full of toys with a jolly old St. Nick at the reins.

What we could not invent, create or force onto anyone else, however, is the true spirit of this season — because that spirit is already there, waiting to come out… waiting to be realized; waiting to be expressed. Indeed, that’s why Christmas was invented and has evolved and is celebrated… to help us to feel something we might not otherwise feel… to understand something we might otherwise fail to understand… to touch that place so deep inside of ourselves that it sometimes feels lost, or missing… the soul — that which we call the heart, where love finds a home — even when there’s no room in the inn!

But we don’t have to invent it, or re-invent it. We simply have to open our hearts and minds to let it in, to sing it in, to hold it and to be reassured by the warmth it brings.

Filed Under: Dear Friends

  • Minister’s Messages
  • Sermons – Audio
  • Sermons – Video
  • Rev. John T. Morehouse’s sermons
  • From Your Senior Minister: Facing Grace
  • Facing Grace – Rev. John’s blog
  • Rev. Frank Hall, Minister Emeritus – sermons
  • Rev. Frank Hall, Minister Emeritus – Dear Friends
  • Intern Minister’s sermons
  • Guest Minister’s sermons
  • Readings & Poetry
  • Communications from Your Ministers

     The Unitarian Church in Westport
     is a member congregation of the
     Unitarian Universalist Association

      CLICK HERE if you have any questions      about The Unitarian Church in Westport

Church Hours: Tuesday - Friday
9:30 AM to 4:00 PM

Summer Hours:
July & August until after Labor Day:
Tuesday - Friday 9:30 AM to 4:00 PM

CLICK HERE to contact the web master

CLICK HERE to opt in to receive
the Weekly Congregational Email Blast

Copyright © 2022 · Visit us at The Unitarian Church in Westport - 10 Lyons Plains Rd., Westport, CT 06880 - All rights reserved.