As one year draws to a close and another stands before us, I invite the people of the Dakotas–Minnesota Episcopal Area into a holy pause.
Watch Night, in the Wesleyan tradition, is an intentional stopping place at the edge of time. It is a moment when we resist rushing forward and instead choose to watch, pray, and attend to God’s presence. In a world that presses us toward constant motion, Watch Night invites us into stillness - trusting that God is at work in the pause.
In this pause, we resist the pressure to evaluate our worth by what we have accomplished or failed to accomplish. Instead, we place ourselves quietly before God, attentive to where grace has been present - understanding this holy pause is not inactivity; it is a posture of spiritual attentiveness. It is choosing to listen before we speak, to receive before we strive, and to remember that God is already at work as we wait.
For Christ-followers in the Wesleyan tradition, Watch Night has never been simply a New Year’s observance. John Wesley embraced this practice as a serious and grace-filled covenant moment. Early Methodists gathered not to make resolutions, but to renew their belonging. Belonging and community was understood to be one's relationship with God, one another, and even to self. They approached Watch Night with honesty, humility, and hope, believing that the God who had carried them thus far would be faithful in whatever the future would hold.
Scripture teaches us that watching is a deeply spiritual posture. Jesus tells his disciples to stay awake. The psalmist waits for the Lord “more than those who watch for the morning.” To watch is not to be anxious or fearful; it is to be attentive - to notice where God has been present, where healing is still needed, and where grace is quietly unfolding, even in the dark.
As we pause at this turning of the year, we do so as a people shaped by many realities. Across the Dakotas and Minnesota - rural and urban, small congregations and large - we carry gratitude and grief, joy and exhaustion, hope and wondering. Some are ending the year with celebration; others are ending it with loss. Watch Night gives us permission to bring all of it before God, trusting that nothing we carry is too small or too heavy for God’s care.
At the heart of Watch Night is the Covenant Prayer - words that have formed Methodist disciples for generations. These words are not about striving harder or promising more. They are words of release, trust, and freedom, placing our whole lives back into God’s hands.
The Covenant Prayer (John Wesley)
I am no longer my own, but thine.
Put me to what thou wilt, rank me with whom thou wilt.
Put me to doing, put me to suffering.
Let me be employed for thee or laid aside for thee,
exalted for thee or brought low for thee.
Let me be full, let me be empty.
Let me have all things, let me have nothing.
I freely and heartily yield all things
to thy pleasure and disposal.
And now, O glorious and blessed God,
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
thou art mine, and I am thine.
So be it.
And the covenant which I have made on earth,
let it be ratified in heaven. Amen.
(Modern version of Wesleyan Covenant Prayer)
As we pray these words, we remember that we are held not by our own strength, but by God’s unrelenting grace. We are a covenant people bound together by God’s faithful love.
As the year turns, we step into the future not alone, but together - rooted in grace, shaped by love, and called to live boldly for the sake of the world God so loves. We watch not because we fear what is coming, but because we trust the One who comes to meet us.
May this Watch Night be a holy pause for you and for your community.
May it be a moment of honesty and renewal.
And may we enter the new year awake to God’s presence, confident that the God who has been faithful will be faithful still.
A Watch Night Blessing
As you stand at the turning of the year,
may God grant you the grace of a holy pause-
to release what has been,
to receive what is,
and to trust what is yet to come.
May the God who keeps watch through every night
hold your joys and your sorrows,
your faith and your questions,
your endings and your beginnings.
May you go forward not hurried, not alone,
but rooted in covenant,
awake to grace,
and confident in love.
And may the blessing of God
be upon you, remain with you,
and guide you into the new year.
Amen.
Grace and peace,
Bishop Lanette Plambeck
