'Blue Christmas' service to take place in Fife

                                                                                                                                                 Friday December 4, 2015

A SPECIAL Advent service for those struggling with preparations for Christmas will take place in Fife this Sunday.

Those who have experienced bereavement and are struggling with illness, money worries and relationships are among those invited to attend the 'Blue Christmas' service at Dunfermline Abbey.

Minister at the Abbey, the Rev MaryAnn Rennie explained: "Blue is sometimes the colour of Advent, but it's also the name of an Elvis Presley Song 'Blue Christmas'.

"Our service doesn't just focus on the bereaved but on those who feel out of sorts with the season for personal reasons. The run up to Christmas can have people struggling for all kinds of reasons - break up of and struggling with relationships, money worries, unemployment, frustration at commercialism.

"In all the churches I've been minister of they have been part of the Advent activity, and I know that selfishly they responded to personal need in 1998 when someone close to my husband Keith and I died in the weeks before Christmas.   In the midst of the parties and carols it was hard to find time to allow grief to be normal.

"When I came to Dunfermline Abbey it wasn't high up on the list of things that needed to be introduced, but in the weeks before my second Christmas here, from the pulpit, I could see the struggle of some members on a weekly basis after a year of some difficult deaths. So it seemed a good way to allow those people a place for their grief to be allowed space and acknowledged.    

"We forget that grief and frustration are as much part of the Christmas story, as joy and celebration. But it is the season of all emotions and the Christ child enters the world taking part in the full breadth of human experience.

"In our service we light candles remembering the gamut of our emotions and loss experiences, not just bereavement.   We ensure though that there is a space to reflect the deaths from this year, and individual candles are also lit as we remember in specific memory.    Members of the congregation are also invited to light their own candles."

MaryAnn says the special service - which takes place at 5pm - means people do not feel alone with their feelings.

"I often worry when people leave crying, but I am assured by those who have met me afterwards who say that they find it a space of comfort and hope, and assurance that God meets them in the emotions that they are experiencing."

The service will take place at Dunfermline Abbey at 5pm this Sunday (December 6).

More information is available here

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