Blue Christmas service set for Friday

Love Chapel is hosting a Christian, interdenominational Blue Christmas worship service for those who are hurting amid the holidays and facing any sense of loss — a death, a broken relationship, a job loss, health loss, depression, or anything similar.

The event open to all will be at 7 p.m. Friday at The Commons, 300 Washington St., in downtown Columbus.

The theme is “Tidings of Comfort in the Season of Joy.” The nonprofit Love Chapel, which represents more than 25 local Christian churches, also hosted such a service last year.

Area pastors have said that such gatherings have become popular nationwide as a way of reminding people that God is close to the brokenhearted and suffering.