Advent - NOT waiting for a Saviour - December gathering for reverence under the #Unitarian umbrella in Ringwood

The topic of the meeting was “Advent - NOT waiting for a Saviour".

Our president for the day took us through our usual gathering format, including our simple circle ritual, in which we each take hold of flame, bread, water and air, and introduced the topic of Advent with the traditional Advent carol of "O come, O come Emmanuel!"

Isaiah 9:2-7 reminded us that the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light, and our second reading from Christina Georgina Rossetti spoke of the great age of the green yet cold Earth.

The president spoke of the great damage that the reading from Isaiah had caused in Jewish experience, as a result of which it was largely expunged from the Jewish canonical works.  It was proposed that we have to move on from expecting a saviour to emerge; and indeed to become our own saviours by being aware of our own shortcomings and possibilities for change.  After another hymn from our green hymn books the gathering closed with words from A Pagan Ritual Prayer Book by Ceisiwr Serith:

Each candle we light is a star

Let us light as many as we can, and spend time among the stars we've created on Earth.

Let us know that their twinkling is them smiling, because they know a secret:

The Sun will be coming back, and not only returning but strengthening,

From the (....) darkest of nights.

On Yule, let us laugh with the stars at our fear of eternal darkness,

Laugh with these earthly stars we've lit.