We write today with two inspiring texts in mind, our reverend Pam’s Christmas Eve sermon, and Coretta Scott King’s words displayed in the 1965 Freedom Plaza surrounding our city’s Embrace statue.

From The Rev. Pam Werntz’ sermon, December 24, 2025, on light and darkness, grace and love, and the hope we need in our world:

The light doesn’t eliminate the darkness; it shines in the darkness. It offers orientation, direction, hope, and the possibility of seeing differently, of finding a way forward.…And this light not abstract or distant….This light has pitched a tent among us, has taken up residence in our neighborhoods, in our world, in our lives, in our hearts.

Here’s where hope becomes both comfort as well as invitation. If the people, we here in God with us Church, who walked in darkness have seen a great light, then we must walk differently. We must become the dwelling places where the Word continues to take up residence. We are active participants in amplifying light, in spreading grace, embodying the Word in the world. Every time we choose justice over injustice, every time we choose mercy over judgment, and every time we practice welcome instead of exclusion, we’re spreading grace, we’re lighting lights, we’re shining in the darkness.  –transcribed from sermon which begins about 55 minutes into service recorded on YouTube

If you walk around our city’s Embrace sculpture, you’ll find another expression of the relationship between love, hope, and justice: this poem by Coretta Scott King.

Love is such a powerful force.
It‘s there for everyone to embrace—
that kind of unconditional love for all of humankind.

That is the kind of love that impels people to go into
the community and try to change conditions for others,
to take risks for what they believe in.

December 29, 2025,  with Christmastide blessings,
Mary Beth Clack, Mary Blocher, Cindy Coldren, Pat Krol, Liz Levin