🕯️🕯️ A Blessing between Peace & Joy !

Published: Mon, 12/08/25

Updated: Mon, 12/08/25

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Green garland framing text, four candles

Hello, !

How is the season of Advent unfolding for you? It feels more like a paper wad than an unfolding, if I'm completely honest. I am so grateful for you when you make it look like origami instead of crumpled paper. 📜 Thank you for all you pour into making worship inviting, inspiring, genuine, and nourishing.

To support you in this challenging and beautiful work, I'm offering a blessing for each week in between. This week, the space between peace and joy is where I imagine you are hovering this Monday morning. I could only find a way to talk about it through the grounding reality of silence.

You will find the blessing at this Advent link and also in a PDF attachment to this email.

Advent 2: Blessing Between Peace and Joy

Keep reading below (and at the link) for more Advent resources to support you as you lead through the season.

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Advent is here!

Advent has arrived. This season of waiting and anticipation is here. The church calendar begins again, and we reflect on themes of hope, peace, joy, and love. In reality, we rarely have much time to reflect. This is also a season of busyness, of calendars that often feel hectic, gatherings, griefs, and weariness. Alongside hope, we feel despair. As we long for peace, we wrestle with fear. Our joy feels tempered by gloom. Love is hard to hold onto when hate seems to swirl around us.

We find ourselves in this season where our plans and expectations will surely be met by both unexpected joys and burdens. How can our practices of prayer and reflection help us journey through the season in ways that feel hopeful? What do we need to find peace within? How might we notice and practice acts of love?

Advent resources and reflections:

An Advent devotional and worship guide, Melodies of Faith, compiled by Charisse J. Gillett and edited by Tanya L. Tyler with contributions from African American pastors, poets, professors, and composers, may be just the resource you need for reflecting on the ways music captures the seasons of Advent and Christmas.
Here is a visio divina practice with a Gaelic blessing and beautiful art.
Read this reflection on all that Advent requires and how we might find peace within.
These are a few simple guiding principles for Advent from 2020 that still hold true today.
Ten years ago I shared about engaging in the prayer practice of an Advent word a day.
This poem calls us to awaken to the Advent journey, and this reflection inspires us to be present to this moment.
We also love "Following the Star" an Advent devotional sponsored by our friends at Passport and d365. Follow the star to pause, listen, think, pray, and go each day of the Advent season and all year long.

I'm grateful for you, , and may hope, peace, joy, and love grasp you in surprising ways season of Advent waiting. Watch for our email each week bringing you prayers and blessings to accompany in this season.

Blessings and peace,

Eileen

New State of Clergy Report

As you are opening this email, I'm just home from AAR where I had some really great conversations with people interested and eager to see the new State of Clergy report. I also attended the Louisville Institute reception. They have funded my work on the report, and I am so grateful!

Here is a question for schools and denominations from the 2018 SoC Report. Maybe it will give you something to consider this week:

How are you training men and women for the work of dismantling gender barriers and related justice issues of racism, classism, discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity?

I've already been having so many interesting conversations on Threads and Facebook about what questions people want answered in the revised and expanded report. What do you hope will be included?