Umm…well, I guess the “vibe” of the poems above is sort of what we aim for. We try to use the worship services as an opportunity to create a space for people to mourn about broken/lost relationships, people, to be open about the loneliness and grief that characterises Christmas for many people, to acknowledge things like the fact that rates of divorce, separation and suicide skyrocket just before and just after Christmas. I often use Taize songs in services…it’s getting a bit old and passe for many people, but I still find it a very powerful tool for meditation (esp. since most of us in the developed west find it very hard to sit still, let alone be silent for very long!). Liturgies, poetry, prayers that reflect on the varied experiences of Christmas. Things like candle lighting…all the usual ‘reflective’ stuff. So many Christmas services are full of happy, joyful Christmas carols that even doing the most basic things like having a contemplative service with lots of silence, quiet prayers, and candle-lighting can be a good start to creating a space for people to grieve!!

I guess also broadening the theological aspects…sure, Christmas is a time to celebrate the birth of the Messiah, but we’re also celebrating the birth of a little baby that was born to die, a little baby that we - thousands of years later - was to face a horrific end in many senses. And don’t forget the hundreds or maybe thousands of kids that were (maybe?) slaughtered due to the predicted arrival of the Messiah…

Poems for Christmas: Mary’s Song

Blue homespun and the bend of my breast
keep warm this small hot naked star
fallen to my arms. (Rest …
you who have had so far to come.)
Now nearness satisfies
the body of God sweetly. Quiet he lies
whose vigor hurled a universe. He sleeps
whose eyelids have not closed before.
His breath (so slight it seems
no breath at all) once ruffled the dark deeps
to sprout a world. Charmed by doves’ voices,
the whisper of straw, he dreams,
hearing no music from his other spheres.
Breath, mouth, ears, eyes
he is curtailed who overflowed all skies,
all years. Older than eternity, now he
is new. Now native to earth as I am, nailed
to my poor planet, caught
that I might be free, blind in my womb
to know my darkness ended,
brought to this birth for me to be new-born,
and for him to see me mended
I must see him torn.

Luci Shaw

from http://maggidawn.typepad.com/maggidawn/

Can you tell me more about this Bec? I’ve done similar things at Mother’s/Father’s Day, but those who are ‘happy’ then are more than ok with allowing space for this sentiment. Not sure how I could do it at Christmas when everyone is trying soooo hard to be upbeat…

Teenage pregnancy
single Mother
a shoulder to lean on
and she loves him
like an older brother
Homeless
a blanket spread on straw
upon the breast
her new born baby clings
the first millennium begins

I thought it quite beautiful along with this one from John Betjeman

Advent 1955

The Advent wind begins to stir
With sea-like sounds in our Scotch fir,
It’s dark at breakfast, dark at tea,
And in between we only see
Clouds hurrying across the sky
And rain-wet roads the wind blows dry
And branches bending to the gale
Against great skies all silver pale
The world seems travelling into space,
And travelling at a faster pace
Than in the leisured summer weather
When we and it sit out together,
For now we feel the world spin round
On some momentous journey bound -
Journey to what? to whom? to where?
The Advent bells call out ‘Prepare,
Your world is journeying to the birth
Of God made Man for us on earth.’

And how, in fact, do we prepare
The great day that waits us there -
For the twenty-fifth day of December,
The birth of Christ? For some it means
An interchange of hunting scenes
On coloured cards, And I remember
Last year I sent out twenty yards,
Laid end to end, of Christmas cards
To people that I scarcely know -
They’d sent a card to me, and so
I had to send one back. Oh dear!
Is this a form of Christmas cheer?
Or is it, which is less surprising,
My pride gone in for advertising?
The only cards that really count
Are that extremely small amount
From real friends who keep in touch
And are not rich but love us much
Some ways indeed are very odd
By which we hail the birth of God.

We raise the price of things in shops,
We give plain boxes fancy tops
And lines which traders cannot sell
Thus parcell’d go extremely well
We dole out bribes we call a present
To those to whom we must be pleasant
For business reasons. Our defence is
These bribes are charged against expenses
And bring relief in Income Tax
Enough of these unworthy cracks!
‘The time draws near the birth of Christ’.
A present that cannot be priced
Given two thousand years ago
Yet if God had not given so
He still would be a distant stranger
And not the Baby in the manger

Homer, my church often runs a service that is aimed at creating a “space for grieving” at around Christmas time. Christmas is very hard for a lot of people - for many, it’s not a time of happiness, but a time of immense sadness, of being confronted head-on with what they have lost.

I read that poem exactly as emanrescu did. As Greg notes, we all read things differently. I can’t help but notice that you seem to always assume that people have lost their faith.

Can only call it as it reads however.