22nd Anniversary of Waiting For The Light, Sunday Dec. 8

Please join us on Sunday, December 8 in the sanctuary immediately at 11:30 following the 10:15 service for this opportunity to reflect and prepare for the coming of the light of Christ. Waiting for the Light is the parish’s annual meditation on the Advent themes of preparation and expectancy in the form of music and poetry read aloud.

Jolynn Free, Anne Province, Sharon Watkins, Brian Hopper, Gregory Free, Meredith McAlmon and guitarist Justice Phillips

Waiting for the Light - LIVE on Youtube

How did this get started?

I am often asked about the origin story for Waiting for the Light, our Advent program of poetry and music as we celebrate its 22nd anniversary on December 8th. The surprising answer may be that it was inspired by the horrific events of 9/11/2001. I was in my office on the 22 ^nd floor of a downtown Austin office building that morning when we were told to go home and not come back until it was deemed safe, which could have been weeks or months as far as we knew then. Unaccustomed to being home at mid-day and unable to see those images yet again, I turned on NPR, which was broadcasting news around the clock. Perhaps to fill the time, the hosts read a lot of poetry, which, like the scriptures, I found extraordinarily comforting in such a troubled time. I immediately bought volumes of W. H. Auden and Seamus Heaney and have been an avid reader of poems ever since.

That December the Adult Education Forum devoted a program to personal responses to 9/11 and I read a few poems. The next year we put together the first Waiting for the Light program, in roughly the same format we use now. Over the years the participants, each and every one so talented, have changed, but the spirit of their offering has remained the same. What makes it work is hearing the words and music off the page and your always gracious and thoughtful response to them.

So please join us on Sunday, December 8th in the sanctuary immediately following the 10:15 service for this opportunity to reflect and prepare for the coming of the light of Christ. And please feel free to invite others.