By Treena Duncan
Every year, my kids and I watch The Grinch together. It’s become a kind of Christmas ritual, something we started when they were small and still do now that they’re young adults. We can practically recite the lines, and yet, I am struck every time by the scene where the Grinch finally sees Christmas differently—not as noise or obligation, but as something that opens his heart. It’s a moment of illumination, really: a shift in vision, a light coming on inside.
We are people of the light. Most of the time when we come together—as congregations, as ministry teams, as regional councils—we gather around a light. Sometimes it’s a single candle on a communion table. Sometimes it’s the glow of a Zoom screen as we connect from prairie towns, mountain valleys, and coastal cities. Sometimes it’s the Christ candle standing tall in a sanctuary, waiting for a match and a breath.
At a recent meeting I attended, an unlit candle sat in the centre of our table the entire time. While we prepared the meeting space with the candle in the centre, we forgot to light it. Even light, when we assume it will always be there, can slip quietly into the background.
This year, the Chinook Winds staff team chose “something that sparks light” as our gift-exchange theme. That phrase stayed with me. It made me wonder: What sparks illumination in our shared life as regions? What rekindles us? What breaks through routine and reminds us that God is at work, even now in this unsettled world?
Advent teaches us that light does not wait politely at the edges.
It arrives boldly—breaking in through dreams, angels, interruptions, and a birth story no one planned. And each week, as we light another candle, the brightness grows—not because darkness disappears, but because the light insists on showing up.
What if we noticed that Light?
What if every flame we ignite became a small act of defiance against weariness or resignation?
A reminder that Christ’s light does not creep in softly—it claims space. It reveals. It transforms.
And isn’t that true across our regions this year?
- In gatherings where weary leaders found renewed clarity
- In ministries, discovering unexpected partnerships
- In courageous decisions made by communities of faith
- In the staff who have stepped in and stepped up with grace and resilience
- In our deepening work of reconciliation, justice, and belonging
- In property and housing projects, moving from imagination into form
- In young people, reminding us who we are becoming
- In moments of flourishing where none of us anticipated them
These are sparks—some small, some unmistakably bright—but each a sign that the light we await at Christmas is already pressing in. Like the Grinch, we can start to see things in new ways.
After noticing how easily we forget the light sitting unlit among us, I’ve been thinking a lot about illumination this season—the light that wakes us up, that helps us see again, that reveals. Light exposes truth. Light clarifies what matters. Light shows both our beauty and the places where courage and healing are still needed. And the church, in this season of transformation, needs that honest, steady light.
John’s Gospel tells us:
“The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.”
This is not a quiet light.
It reaches, reveals, and refuses to be diminished.
My prayer for Chinook Winds and Pacific Mountain Regions is that this bold light will meet you in unexpected places—
in the courage of your decisions,
in the tenderness of your ministries,
in the honesty of your conversations,
and in the daring work we share as a church, becoming something new and dreaming our way into 2035.
May we be a people who not only kindle the flame but carry it
into places that ache for justice,
into ministries longing for renewal,
into communities seeking belonging,
and into the future God is preparing even now.
May Christ’s light arrive boldly…
Re-viving what has grown dim,
revealing what has been hidden,
and guiding us, together, into a year shaped by clarity, courage, and joy.
Wishing you a blessed Advent and a joyful Christmas.
Treena Duncan, Executive Minister, Chinook Winds & Pacific Mountain Regions