Please consider joining us for the TCF Worldwide Candle Lighting Ceremony which will be held Sunday, December 13th. In addition, there will be a non-denominational service performed as we say each name of our chapter’s children who are no longer with us. Children of all ages are welcome! If you have not attended a meeting in awhile this is a great chance to catch up with other members and take part in a beautiful event during a very difficult holiday season.

The Compassionate Friends Worldwide Candle Lighting, held annually the second Sunday in December, this year December 13, 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.