A quartet of congregations brings light to a dark night
By Phil Haslanger
Collaboration Project Story Team
When the world hits the longest night on Dec. 21 in this year that has had more than its share of darkness, four congregations from very distinctive traditions will be worshipping together to bring a bit of light into the lives of the folks who join in.
Memorial United Church of Christ in Fitchburg, Arbor Covenant Church in Madison just south of the Beltline, Foundry414on the far west side along with St. Dunstan’s Episcopal Church will present a longest night service at 7 p.m. on Facebook, with spoken words and musical voices. (You will be able to find it here on the Memorial UCC Facebook page.)
All four of these congregations have some history of collaboration, but this marks a new step forward in their efforts to look at ways they can work together now and beyond this time of pandemic.
The service itself is drawn from a resource called Sanctified Art that has created material for worship services during the Advent and Christmas seasons with the theme “Those Who Dream.” The Longest Night (sometimes called Blue Christmas) is often a time for people feeling grief and disconnection during the holidays to find a quiet and reflective space.
In addition to readers and musicians from the various churches, a central image in this service is taking fabric (or paper), writing a prayer on it, tearing it apart and then bringing the pieces from different people to weave together.
“We will be tearing, releasing and weaving together our lives in a new way” said Rev. Kristin Gorton, pastor at Memorial UCC. It marks the passage of this tough year and the hope for new interwoven beginning in the new one.
The path that led to this service is also a story of congregations finding new ways to weave their lives together.
Arbor Covenant and Memorial have collaborated in a variety of ways over the years, most recently in creating a personal essentials pantry housed at Arbor Covenant but supported by several Fitchburg-area congregations, including Memorial.
Co-pastors Christina and Chris Roberts and Pastor Peter Morris
Foundry414 was established in Madison a little over a decade ago and it shares a building on the property where St. Dunstan’s is located along University Avenue near the border of Madison and Middleton. So those two congregations have a history of working together, with Pastor Chris Roberts sometimes being a worship leader at St. Dunstan’s.
More recently, Foundry and Arbor Covenant have formed a relationship. Pastors shared with each other at staff meetings. They did a joint worship service in May of 2019, then another in the summer of that year. Then when the pandemic hit, they began exploring other ways to collaborate. So this year for the four Sundays of Advent - the four Sundays before Christmas - they are doing their worship services together online along with another congregation in Marshfield.
None of the other congregations had done a Longest Night service, but it was a tradition at Memorial. So that became another connection point and Rev. Miranda Hassett, pastor at St. Dunstan’s, asked if they could be part of it as well.
“This is an opportunity to explore the connections, to create something new,” said Rev. Peter Morris from Arbor Covenant.
“It’s fun being part of these longstanding liturgical events,” said Roberts, who along with his wife, Christina Roberts, co-leads Foundry414.
Rev. Kristin Gorton
Gorton said that folks at Memorial had been talking about ways to expand their connections with the people at Arbor Covenant over the past few months. She noted that Memorial, Arbor Covenant and Foundry414 all share a passion for community outreach, social justice and advocacy. “Worship seemed like a place to collaborate,” she said.
While their weekly worship services each have their own distinct style, “Longest Night gave us a place to play,” Gorton said. Arbor Covenant and Foundry414 were already using the Sanctified Art materials for their regular worship, as was Memorial.
There has been the beginnings of a conversation about doing something together for the weekend honoring Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday in January. Morris said that Arbor Covenant is also looking to have the building and land they are on converted to affordable housing, while still maintaining a church presence there, so that opens up possibilities for how it will shape its future.
Now one of the questions they are all grappling with for the future, said Roberts, is “how much can we collaborate?”
That image of re-weaving the fabric on the Longest Night is one that is likely to stay with everyone involved.