Best Christmas Gift Ever
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What are you doing New Year’s Eve? Perhaps this question reminds you of an old Ella Fitzgerald classic! Or perhaps you are familiar with the tradition of churches hosting a Watch Night service on New Year’s Eve.
The Watch Night tradition traces back to Moravian churches in Europe in the 18th century who would host on this night a vigil to reflect on the year just past and to prepare, through repentance and resolution, for the year to come. John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist movement in England, attended a Moravian Watch Night service and later adapted it for a Covenant Renewal service that is still frequently celebrated at the turn of the new year.
The Watch Night tradition took on additional significance for African Americans during the Civil War as enslaved persons gathered in homes and churches on December 31, 1862. This was the night before President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation took effect. They stayed up well past midnight to watch the long dark night of slavery turn into a bright new dawn of freedom. Watch Night services continue to be a strong tradition in many African American churches today.
The Watch Night tradition invites us all to reflect back on the year just past with gratitude for God’s presence with us through the ups and downs, the good and the bad, as well as to look toward the year ahead with confidence in God’s promise to continue to guide us along our way toward the freedom and fullness of life together in Christ.
So as we prepare to enter the new year 2026, I’d like to invite us to join in “A Covenant Prayer in the Wesleyan Tradition” (United Methodist Hymnal, #607) as a prayer for each of us personally, for our families, and for our congregation at Signal Crest:
I am no longer my own, but thine.
Put me to what thou wilt, rank me with whom thou wilt.
Put me to doing, put me to suffering.
Let me be employed by thee or laid aside for thee,
Exalted for thee or brought low for thee.
Let me be full, let me be empty.
Let me have all things, let me have nothing.
I freely and heartily yield all things to thy pleasure and disposal.
And now, O glorious and blessed God,
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
Thou art mine, and I am thine.
So be it.
And the covenant I have made on earth,
Let it be ratified in heaven.
Amen.
