N.S. news: Church hosts annual Christmas service [Video]

For roughly 30 years, the Bedford United Church in Nova Scotia has put on their annual Longest Night Service for anyone who isn’t feeling joy this holiday season.

“Since the pandemic I’ve actually found that it’s not just grief and loss of a loved one or a relationship, it can actually just be your regular worries, how you are going to pay the bills and stretch things this year. A lot of people feel the expectation of what they need to be this time of year,” says Rev. Beth Hayward, lead minister at the church.

The doors opened at 6:30 p.m. Thursday.

“This is an ancient spiritual practice and the labyrinth that we use comes from the Celtic tradition,” says Rev. Katie Aven, congregational minister for the church. “It’s really about taking an inward journey to a still place, to a place of wholeness and taking the journey back out again.”

The official service started at 7 p.m. and ran for an hour with time …