Beverly Churches To Host Joint 'Longest Night' Service

BEVERLY, MA — While many North Shore residents revel in the hustle, bustle and cheer of the holiday season, it can be a challenging time for many others that induces feelings of anxiety, loneliness and even sadness.

It is with this understanding that three Beverly churches are combining to host a "Longest Night" service on Wednesday designed to provide a quiet space for worship and reflection on the longest night of darkness during the year.

The First Baptist Church of Beverly, the Second Congregational Church and the Church in the Cove will host the multi-denominational service of music and candlelight at the First Baptist Church at 221 Cabot Street on Wednesday night at 7 p.m.

"Whether you regularly worship here or elsewhere, or whether you are just seeking a place to feel welcomed and at peace for a time, please join us for this special service," First Baptist Church ministers Julie Flowers and Daniel Johnson said in a public invitation letter provided to Patch. "Our doors are open to all who wish to pause and reflect, perhaps even finding the wonder, the hope and the peace that can come with this season."

"There is something about this time of year, about the holidays themselves, that can make one feel very lonely in the face of trouble, pain, or sadness," they said, in part, in their community service open invitation. "There is a constant refrain on radio and on television, in shopping malls, and even in our churches, about the happiness and the joy of the season, about the happiness and the joy of getting together with family and with friends.

"This refrain can sometimes serve to remind us not of joy, but of some sharp sadness — sadness for that which we have lost or, perhaps, never had. The pain that comes with broken relationships or a loss of trust, the insecurity of unemployment or of dwindling resources, the weariness that comes with ill health, the pain of isolation, the grief over the loss of a loved one, the loneliness of spending time without a beloved spouse or partner, the distress of fractured community, even the sadness of missing a long-beloved family pet — all of these things can contribute to a feeling of being alone, of 'feeling blue' at Christmas, even as we are in the midst of a society that seems bent on being happy.

"Sometimes what is most needed in these days are intentional moments set aside for worship, for reflection, for music, for the calming flicker of candlelight. We need space — space in which we can pause our restless movements. We need space in which we can just think and breathe and be — space to enjoy the beauty and the meaning of the season without feeling rushed, pressured, and on the go.

"We need space in which we can name our hurts and anxieties and losses — space to acknowledge our feelings of sadness or our struggles.

"In recognition of this need, the First Baptist Church in Beverly, along with the Second Congregational Church and the Church in the Cove, invites all members of the community to Longest Night Service."

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)