Blue
By Michael Wilson Pastoral Letters January 16, 2026

Watch this week’s service on YouTube by clicking:

January 18 Worship Service Video

 

Join us for Sunday morning worship at CUC is at 10:00 AM

with the He/SheBrews Café following in the Van Roon Community Hall

 

 

  • Week of Prayer for Christian Unity – City-Wide Ecumenical service – Sunday, January 18 at 7:30 PM at First Mennonite Church, 922 Notre Dame.

WPCU Charleswood Regional Service – Thursday, January 22 at 7:00 PM at St. Mary’s Anglican, 3830 Roblin Blvd.

 

  • Online Hate Prevention Event – We are pleased to host and co-sponsor “Examining the Aftermath and What Lies Ahead” a presentation by Dr. Andre Oboler, CEO of the Online Hate Prevention Institute on Thursday, January 29 at 7:00 PM in the sanctuary. Dr. Oboler will be looking at the Bondi Beach Hanukah Attack and what we need to do to confront hatred that is spread online. This is an open, free, community event so please share the invitation with others.

 

  • 3rd Annual Mental Health Awareness Evening – Join us on Monday, February 2 at 7:00 PM for our annual Let’s Talk About Mental Health Event. This year we are hosting a conversation with Dr. Mark Koltek, Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist with the Manitoba Adolescent Treatment Centre (MATC). Dr. Koltek will be discussing the challenges of good mental health and looking at the practices that aid in positive mental health outcomes in young and old. This evening is open to the community and anyone with interest in robust conversation for personal well-being is most welcome.

 

 

 

Dear Friends,

Welcome to worship for Sunday, January 18, 2026.

Supposedly this coming Monday is “the saddest day of the year”. Originally a marketing idea called Blue Monday, it is nonetheless a confluence of a few observable factors.

Winter is well underway. It has been cold enough, long enough, that our grin-and-bear-it attitude feels like it has grinned-and-borne-it. We’re ready for something else. We have had short days and long nights for a couple of months and even though the days are supposedly getting longer, it feels like that comes much more slowly than the reverse. Some people who suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder or SAD have had to deal with darkness so long now that their challenge is beginning in earnest.

Another consideration for the “saddest day of the year” is that the buoyancy of Christmas has faded quickly as welcome as that diversion is every year. Related to that, one article I read said that by the third week of January the Christmas bills are coming due and financial strain may be felt by some. And as if that isn’t enough, those marketing geniuses (or is it genii?) never conceived that Blue Monday would be accompanied by warfare on four continents, riots in an American city 8 hours away, and the threat of the annexation of Greenland and the end of NATO.

Wow! Now that I think about it, maybe I should take the third Monday of January more seriously. At least we have the Jets to keep us cheerful and hopeful!! Too soon???

Of course, what goes down must come up. If this Monday is the “saddest day of the year” then that must mean, by definition, that this Tuesday will be a brighter, happier day than the day before. And if we extrapolate then Wednesday will be even better than that. And Thursday even better. And so on and so on and so on. Whew!!! I’m glad we can put Blue Monday in the rear-view mirror. We’re going to be listening to optimistic groundhogs before you know it.

But what if joy and sorrow are not actually caused by forces outside of us? What if joy and sorrow, happy and sad, blessing and curse, are as much, if not more, a product of our inner selves? What if the Spirit that is daily renewed, and the soul that reflects its creator’s glory, become the barometer by which we measure the way we feel?

I know this isn’t just a case of flipping a switch. Or burying our proverbial heads in the sand. Sometimes you can’t just choose to be joyful. Blue Monday has a certain resonance because it touches on the types of depressing forces that affect us all at one time or another. But neither are we helpless in confronting the saddening ways. We are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses who will testify on our behalf that we were made for joy and that joy is found in faith.

As Shakespeare says in Hamlet we may “take up arms against a sea of troubles, and by opposing end them.” Or as scripture says “This is the day that God has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it” (Psalm 118:24)

Same goes for Blue Monday!!

 

Grace and peace,

Michael

 

  • For news and events, please have a look at Life & Work on our website: Life and Work

 

 

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Michael Wilson / About Author
Michael’s involvement in the wider church has included ministry with children and youth, membership on the National Division of World Outreach, supervision of campus ministry, and the Ten Days for Global Justice National Committee. He has been blessed by the opportunity to represent the United Church of Canada in the Bahamas, Cuba, and Africa on different occasions. Michael has taught at the University of Winnipeg – Faculty of Theology and is past President of the Conference of Manitoba and North Western Ontario.
More posts by Michael Wilson