The Front Page – December 2020

We are now quickly approaching the shortest day of the year. The day in the calendar when we are afforded the least amount of daylight. When I started to work with homeless and at-risk youth, I was surprised to learn that people in this field celebrated that night. The reason being was that if you can get through the longest night, you can get through anything.

By no coincidence, it will soon be the feast day of St John the Evangelist; observed on December 27th. In my research for this article, I found that this date was likely chosen by the early church not only to provide balance to St John the Baptist’s teachings (and his feast day in the summer) but also to recognize that the Evangelist spoke powerfully about seeing the light in the darkness. In the Book of John, John himself is described as “bearing witness to the light” and Jesus is famously described as being “The light in the world”.

Later this month, the people in the Northern half of the world will start to slowly move from darkness to light. I hope you all have a safe holiday season, safe end to this year and a prosperous start to the new year full of hope and light.

 

Matthew Cox
Senior Steward, Washington 46