It was a very different holiday season for Jill and me. We missed having the Christmas Eve service that we're both accustomed to. With the constant noise of firecrackers it probably wouldn't have felt the same anyway. (Silent Night, Holy Night just wouldn't fit here.) On Utila the custom is to have church on Christmas Day instead. We held a prayer meeting at 6:00am and regular worship at 10:30am No crowds in church on Christmas Day; our regular 30 or so were in attendance at the 10:30 service.
The big service here is the Watchnight Service on New Year's Eve. It begins at 10:30pm and ends precisely at midnight. The church was packed. We even had people in the balcony and the narthex. I preached along with two of Utila's own: Brother Rick Rose, a church planting missionary just back from Bolivia, and Rev. Rhonda Feurtado, a United Methodist pastor in the Louisiana Conference.
A highlight for me was the Wesleyan Covenant Renewal Service, held on January 2, the first Sunday of the new year. This is very much the tradition in the MCCA (Methodist Church in the Carribean and the Americas) as well as in the British Methodist Church. I love the service, having led it a couple of times at Saint Paul's - Tallahassee during the first evening worship service of the new year. It's a great opportunity to recognize and renew God's promise to us and our response to that promise with our own commitment. I led the Covenant Renewal Service at the chapel on the keys in the morning and back on Utila that night.
All in all, Jill and I were happy to see the holidays end. Two solid weeks of firecrackers left our nerves pretty well frayed. We are very thankful that no one was hurt this year. (We see children as young as four and five years old lighting these things.)