Worldwide Candle Lighting Memorial Service
The Compassionate Friends Worldwide Candle Lighting on the 2nd Sunday in December unites family and friends around the globe in lighting candles for one hour to honor the memories of the sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, and grandchildren who left too soon. As candles are lit on December 13th, 2020 at 7:00 pm local time, hundreds of thousands of people commemorate and honor the memory of all children gone too soon.
Now believed to be the largest mass candle lighting on the globe, the annual Worldwide Candle Lighting (WCL), a gift to the bereavement community from The Compassionate Friends, creates a virtual 24-hour wave of light as it moves from time zone to time zone. TCF’s WCL started in the United States in 1997 as a small internet observance and has since swelled in numbers as word has spread throughout the world of the remembrance. 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 and will never be forgotten.
Add a Candle Lighting Program
IMPORTANT: If you attempt to submit your candle lighting service and we do not contact you or your service is not listed within 48 hours, please contact kathiek@compassionatefriends.org.
Every year you are invited to post a message in the Remembrance Book which will be available, during the event, at TCF’s national website. The Remembrance Book will be open to post a message Tuesday, December 1st, through Monday, December 14th. Photos can be posted on our Worldwide Candle Lighting Facebook page.
The Compassionate Friends and allied organizations are joined by local bereavement groups, churches, funeral homes, hospitals, hospices, children’s gardens, schools, cemeteries, and community centers. Services have ranged in size from just a few people to nearly a thousand.
Click on your state below to view Worldwide Candle Lighting events in your area.
View International Countries Virtual Worldwide Candle Lighting
If you do not see a candle lighting program in your area, contact your local chapter to see if they are planning a program. Find a chapter.
Michigan
Flushing
The Compassionate Friends Flint Chapter
- Date & Time:
- December 13, 2020 - 6:00 PM
- Location:
Flushing Community Church of the Nazarene
9500 West Pierson Rd.
Flushing, MI 48433 USA
- Highlights:
Special Live singer and sign language interpretation
- Bring:
Pictures need to be submitted by 11-30-20
- Special Events (before):
N/A
- Special Events (after):
N/A
- Contact:
- Jim & Judy Van Dyke, 2417 Lost Creek Dr, Flushing, MI 48433
- Telephone:
- 810 287-8251
- Email:
- Judykv@yahoo.com
- Additional:
Due to Health Department COVID-19 safety protocols, we will NOT be offering a Potluck after the service this year.
Kakamazoo
The Compassionate Friends of Kalamazoo Chapter
- Date & Time:
- December 13, 2020 - 6:45 PM
- Location:
https://zoom.us/j/308928356
- Highlights:
Beginning at 6:45 we will be having readings, music and a slideshow with photos of our children. We are asking that if you would like your child’s photo to be in our slideshow that you email it to Kalamazoocf@gmail.com no later than Dec 8th. By submitting a photo you are granting permission that the photo in the slideshow may be published on our private Facebook group.
Please email us to get the Zoom address and password , Kalamazoocf@gmail.com
- Bring:
Please have a candle to lit as and photo of your child/grandchild, sibling to share with the group
- Contact:
- Melinda Jackson
- Telephone:
- 269-589-4756
- Email:
- Kalamazoocf@gmail.com
OSCODA
The Compassionate Friends of Oscoda
- Date & Time:
- December 13, 2020 - 6:45 PM
- Location:
Mark’s Park on River Road (1/2 west of US 23)
- Highlights:
There will be no formal program this year. HOWEVER, we invite you to join us to light a candle (the one we sent you or one of your own or one we will have that night), drive by to see the lit candles or light your candle at home. We have provided some poems in your packet or we will have some for you there at the park.
- Bring:
Your Candle in a jar or use the one we will have for you. There will be no pictures, remembrances or refreshments.
- Special Events (before):
Drive by and see the candles in the park.
- Contact:
- JANE A NEGRO
- Email:
- tcfoscoda@gmail.com
- Additional:
With COVID we see this as a way to honor our loved ones without putting anyone at risk of exposure. You only need to get out of your car to light your candle.
