Watch Night - a podcast by Christopher Stephens

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It now marks two straight years that we have not had a Watch Night service due to the capital acronym everyone loves to hate. What is watch night service? I'll tell you my experiences first and then share with you a very good article about it.

 

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As a young boy my first memories of New Year's Eve involved going to my great aunt’s house to what seemed like a family reunion! There would be food, fireworks, and fermented drinks. I'm sorry I couldn't think of a “f“ word for wine or beer. Folks would come with their families, friends, amd forever partners. I failed again! I remember it was exciting and when we all counted down it was always cool to see folks tell my dad happy birthday! At this point in our lives we were what some would have considered to be CME Christians. We frequented church on Christmas, Mother's Day, and Easter. But as our family’s faith grew we began to attend services at our Church. It was different.

 

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I remember all the f's being present at the Watch Night service except for the fermented drinks. But folks were having a blast! The kitchen would be full of food! I remember all the smells! Yes, we were a Church of Christ with a kitchen! There would be all the New Year African American delicacies! Black eyed peas, greens, cabbage, but I don't remember there being chitterlings. It may have been but I remember we didn't eat those until we got home. If you know, you know. But there was more to this than just the food. We would go to the sanctuary and folks would read poetry, sing songs, do skits, etc. Both my parents were in the adult choir and I loved hearing them sing! I couldn't wait until I had the courage to share. I would in fact one day do that, I even was the MC one year! Several memories were made! I remember one year someone even wrote their own song! You had to be there… But what I did not understand as a kid was that were engaging in an American tradition that dates back to my enslaved ancestors!! Did you know? Tell the truth?

Watch Night services date back to at least 1862!! I looked all over the place for a decent article about this to share the facts. Check out this article and then I want you to think back to what they did and what you have seen at Watch Night services. It's crazy how in some ways we repeat things we don't understand. Traditions are bad when we don't understand the belief systems behind them. So I want you all reading to check out this article and pray that we can come together next year to end the streak of not having a Watch Night service! Click HERE to read. Come back after you read.

Over the years the fun and excitement died down down. Mostly due to the younger generation not understanding the significance of the service and because of City Lights. That second part is a bit of a halfway joke. But it was a real deterrent if I'm being honest. And that was for the young twenty-somethings and the forty year olds who thought they were twenty. But this type of service continues to die down because we fail to explain it's significance and we don't show up to “church“ other than Sunday morning. We are blessed at Ave G to have a congregation that has more than one ethnicity, a far cry from that which I grew up in. And we are blessed to have that. But Lord willing at the end of ‘22 we can celebrate in our multicultural church. We can celebrate the freedom of an enslaved people in this country and all of our freedom from sin through Christ! I hope to take Watch Night to another level in ‘22.

Let's continue to pray for all those exposed to and suffering through the big C at this time.

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