During the last two months of the year, we’re usually overwhelmed with messages to be jolly, we’re expected to show up for events with cheerful smiles, and we’re constantly surrounded by the joyous sounds of the holiday season. And while this is a welcome experience for many as they deck their halls and sing their carols, this can also be a very uncomfortable time for others. Maybe for some, they’re experiencing their first holiday season without a loved one.

Others might be experiencing financial stress or the loss of a job. And others struggle with seasonal depression as the days shorten and the weather gets colder. We often think about grief in a narrow way (for someone dealing with death), but the truth is that grief isn’t just for death. It’s also for friendships that have ended, losing your community, missing the certainty you once had, questioning your judgment, releasing who you once were, feeling lost and unanchored, or losing traditions you loved.

Over the past few months, I’ve wondered if we are all collectively grieving as we’ve experienced so much change and uncertainty in the world around us. We’re grieving the never-ending wars and violence around the world; we’re grieving our faith in our justice system and democratic processes; we’re grieving the relationships that have been strained and broken by our dehumanizing politics; we’re grieving a rapidly changing climate and the devastating effects of extreme weather; we’re grieving economic challenges that are leaving people hungry, unhoused, and under crippling debt; and I think many of us are grieving a sense of connection we once had before the rise of social media and remote work.

So many of us are experiencing these things, yet we don’t often talk about them or understand them in terms of grief. I think one of the most challenging things can be when we’re experiencing grief, and no one acknowledges it. It can leave us feeling lost, empty, and searching for something that helps us to understand what we’re going through. I think one thing we can do as we seek a path forward through our collective grief is to provide opportunities and community spaces where this grief can be expressed and acknowledged.

On or around Dec. 21, the longest night of the year, many churches offer a Blue Christmas Service. This is a service designed for people who are feeling sad, lonely, or grieving during the holiday season. It’s a way to acknowledge that Christmas can be a tough time for some people and to offer a space for reflection and comfort. I’ve often seen this service framed as a service for those who have lost loved ones, but I view it as a space for us to bring any form of grief or loss we might be experiencing. And I wonder if it might be a space, this year, that we can all bring our collective grief and find solidarity with one another as we seek to find hope and light in a world that feels increasingly unfamiliar to us.

Of course, one church service is not going to be a substitute for professional mental health care, support groups, or other forms of healing and selfcare, but I wonder if it could be a spark of hope in the shadows of the longest night of the year; a spark which might ignite in us even the smallest flame — a guiding light as we journey through our grief. Perhaps our own individual light can only light the next step in front of us, but when we join our individual lights together, I believe we give birth to a new, brighter light; a light that the shadows cannot overcome.

Benjiman Durfee is the pastor at Trinity Church, Shelburne Falls, an open and affirming, ecumenical church affiliated with four denominations: American Baptist, Episcopal, United Church of Christ and United Methodist. Services are held at 10 a.m. on Sunday mornings and nursery care is available. Trinity’s Blue Christmas Service and Christmas Eve services will be held at 7 p.m. on Dec. 21 and Dec. 24.