Candlelighting
Posted by admin under on Saturday Mar 7, 2009Prince William Chapter
2009 Annual Worldwide
Candle Lighting Services
Communities across the globe will be joining together in The Compassionate Friends 13th Annual Worldwide Candle Lighting on December 13, 2009.
On December 13, 2009, our chapter of TCF, the Prince William Chapter, held our annual Candlelight Service. For those who have never been, it is a wonderful time to honor and celebrate our children, siblings, and grandchildren. The service was about 35 minutes long. It started at 7:00 pm and was held in the sanctuary of Manassas Presbyterian Church. Poems, songs, short stories, and rememberances were read aloud. At the close of the service, the names of our loved ones was read and candles were lit from the center candle.
Ken Adams
Father of Kimberly
(H) 703-361-6574
(C) 703-347-2401
Worldwide Candle Lighting
The Compassionate Friends Worldwide Candle Lighting, held annually the second Sunday in December unites family and friends around the globe as they light candles for one hour to honor and remember children who have died at any age from any cause. As candles are lit at 7 p.m. local time, creating a virtual wave of light, hundreds of thousands of persons commemorate and honor the memories of children in a way that transcends all ethnic, cultural, religious, and political boundaries.
Now believed to be the largest mass candle lighting on the globe, the Worldwide Candle Lighting, a gift from TCF to the bereavement community, creates a virtual 24-hour wave of light as it moves from time zone to time zone. Hundreds of formal candle lighting events are held and thousands of informal candle lightings are conducted in homes as families gather in quiet remembrance of children who have died, but will never be forgotten.
The Worldwide Candle Lighting started in the United States in 1997 as a small Internet observance but has since swelled in numbers as word has spread throughout the world of the remembrance.
In 2008, information was submitted to TCF’s national website on services in 24 countries outside the United States. TCF was joined last year by chapters of several organizations including MISS, MADD, Parents of Murdered Children, and BPUSA and services were held in all 50 states plus Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico.
A Remembrance Book is available during the event at TCF’s USA national website. In that short one day span, thousands of messages are received and posted each year from every U.S. state and Washington D.C., every territory, as well as dozens of other countries. Some are in foreign languages.
Here in the United States, publicity about the event is widespread, being featured over the years in Dear Abby, Parade Magazine, Ann Landers column, Guideposts magazine, Annie’s Mailbox, and literally hundreds of U.S. newspapers, dozens of television stations, and numerous websites and personal blogs. Information on the Worldwide Candle Lighting and planned memorial candle lighting services (of which we are advised) is posted on the TCF national website every year as the event nears.
Though National Children’s Memorial Day has faded into the past, the Worldwide Candle Lighting has carried the torch of remembering all children in a special way who have died.
Join us in helping this phenomenal event grow even larger! We do this . . . that their light may always shine!
A reception was held following the ceremony and everyone brought something to share with others (cookies, chips, brownies, soda, etc.)
Thank you all for attending and remembering our children,
Ken Adams, Lead Facilitator,
The Compassionate Friends – Prince William Chapter
Videos from the 2009
Candle Lighting Ceremony
Video Presentation: 2009 Candle Lighting Ceremony, “Our Children Remembered”
Warning: Video is 10 minutes long, about 27MB in size.
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Video Presentation: 2009 Candle Lighting Ceremony
Warning: Video is 35 minutes long, about 80MB in size.