Dear Friends,

Happy New Year!

Just minutes before Christmas Eve candlelight worship was to begin, I was excitedly told, “Go outside, quick, and see our stained glass windows from the outside!”

With cell phone camera in hand, I went out the red corner doors into the dark evening. I turned around and saw the glowing reverse image of our large colored windows. In daylight, the sunshine outside brightens the colors inside.  This night, the light inside illuminated the darkness with vibrant beauty.

“The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.” 

These words of scripture from the Gospel of John were read each Sunday as we lit the candles on our Advent wreath. Both an announcement and a promise, the light of our revealed Savior is the good news which we proclaim with our lives and cherish in our hearts.

The light of Christ glows within this church. Through members tended, food donated, meals shared, children hosted, money collected, Communion served, and meetings attended, we are the church, making Christ’s light shine in this place.

This calendar year, we celebrate the shining light that is The Oak Lane Presbyterian Church as we mark our 125th year on this corner. Let us take into this new calendar year the image of the light within that illumines the darkness. May the light that shines within each of us, and within the church gathered, inform our work, inspire our witness, and ignite in us new possibilities in our 125th year.

Rev. Judith Brackett