By RANDY GONZALES
Special to Hays Post
For some, “Blue Christmas” is more than an Elvis Presley No. 1 hit from 60 years ago.
Also sometimes known as The Longest Night, Blue Christmas is a church service for those not having a Holly Jolly Christmas. It is a time to remember loved ones who are no longer with them and for those experiencing the holiday blues.
“I think it’s important because the one thing we all experience is death and loss,” said Brenda Rodger, pastor at Trinity Lutheran Church in Hays. “In that experience, it is good to have a safe place.”
This year’s service host is Trinity Lutheran, 2703 Fort, and is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 18. For more information about the service, call 785-625-2044.
Rodger and Ben Houchen, pastor for St. Michael’s Episcopal Church and St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, will lead the service, with each providing scripture readings. During the service, those in attendance are invited to light a candle for lost loved ones.
St. Michael’s is at 2900 Canal Blvd., Hays, while St. Andrew’s is a rural church about 13 miles northwest of Hays at 2422 Hyacinth Ave.
“Blue Christmas is such an important part of our Christmas season,” Houchen said. “For so many people, this isn’t just a time of joy. It’s also a time of loss and mourning.”
“Loved ones gone, relationships broken, even just the turn to more darkness in a day makes this all a harder time for so many people,” he added. “Having a space to come together and acknowledge that pain, to give that over and share it with a caring community, that’s what this service is about.”
Shay Craig, the former pastor at St. Michael’s who now is pastor at Christ Episcopal Cathedral in Salina, brought Blue Christmas with her when she came to Hays in 2020. She said the Blue Christmas service, which dates back to around 1990, is common in the church, and she wanted to bring it to the Hays area.
“It was well received,” Craig said. “Everywhere I’ve done it, it’s been well received.”
The First Presbyterian Church in Hays played host last year to a similar service, The Longest Night, sponsored by the Center for Life Experience. The First United Methodist Church also held a Longest Night service last year and has done so for about the last dozen years, but it did not work out to have one this year.
Center for Life Experience, which closed its office in October and will cease operations at the end of the year, had held its service since at least 2012 but will not have a service this year.
“Very often, the journey through grief and loss feels like the longest night,” said Ann Leiker, former center executive director and a member of the Presbyterian Church. “There’s hope because after the darkest night comes the light.”
“Hope comes through out of that darkness,” Leiker added. “Blue Christmas is one way churches do that.”
Rev. Christine Wagner, transitional minister for the First Presbyterian Church, believes Blue Christmas fits perfectly with the meaning of Christmas.
“If one really gets into the Advent season, we’re asked to always be dwelling with the paradox of Christmas,” Wagner said. “Blue Christmas is not antithetical to the spirit of Christmas.”
“Where does the light appear? It appears in the darkness,” she added. “Where does joy appear? It appears in the midst of sorrow. Where does peace appear? It comes in the midst of chaos. There’s always a juxtaposition of what isn’t right with the world with the possibility always there of the wonder of God’s presence.”
Pat Hill, a Trinity Lutheran parishioner, appreciates having the Blue Christmas service every year.
“I’ve had a lot of deaths in my family,” Hill said. “It’s just a wonderful service.”
Hill knows what part of the service she cherishes most.
“Lighting the candle at the end of the service,” Hill said. “It kind of ties it all together. I really like that.”