“At the center of the Christmas story is hope…hope which comes to us in the form of a vulnerable, poor baby. A child, not a king, changes the world. God appears to us as a marginalized, Afro-Semitic, Jewish child from Nazareth in Palestine. A child who grows up to teach us to welcome the stranger. How would our world be different if we loved our neighbors as ourselves?” asks the Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis, senior minister of Middle Collegiate Church.

O God of empty tombs and resurrection living: Make us mindful of the pervasiveness of hope,  the determination of faith,  and the persistence of love.  

  Darkness envelops our world and our lives. Shadows enshroud our spirits. We come to pay homage to one who tried to bring