Church service offers hope, comfort

THE Holy Trinity Anglican Church in Bacchus Marsh will host a Blue Christmas service this weekend to help those in need of comfort and support.

Starting at 2pm on Sunday 21 December, the service is for people grieving, overwhelmed or just needing some peace and support at Christmas.

It will be led by Anglican Minister Andrew Gifford and will be open to everyone.

Mr Gifford said the 40-minute service will include readings to help people express their sadness and the singing of some gentle Christmas carols to share hope, with lights dimmed for the duration.

“There will also be an opportunity to name griefs privately … and to light a candle in response to those griefs, and to hand them over,” he said.

Sunday’s event will be the third time the church has offered the service, but Mr Gifford said it was the first time it had been widely publicised.

“We actually want to open it up to the community and give more space to people who might be grieving this year, and want a space to be able to do that with others,” he said.

“If they want a space to express their grief they are very welcome to join us, no questions asked.”

Mr Gifford said tea and coffee will be available after the service for those who want to stay, but people could leave quietly if they preferred.

In Western tradition, a Blue Christmas church service is a special, reflective worship event held during Advent – usually around 21 December – for people feeling grief, loneliness or sadness during the typically joyful Christmas season.

Churches hold the services to offer a space to acknowledge pain, find comfort, and remember hope through scripture, contemplative music, and quiet rituals like candle lighting.

Their primary purpose is to validate that it is all right to not feel happy at this time.

“We want to create a space where we don’t hide our grief; we get a chance to say ‘I’m having a hard time and I want to be with other people who are also perhaps having a hard time,’ and explore what it looks like to have some hope in that space,” Mr Gifford said.

The Holy Trinity Anglican Church is at 19 Gisborne Road in Bacchus Marsh.