Advent is a season of endings and beginnings. As the calendar year comes to a close, a new church year begins. Christ’s birth ushers us into new ways of living and loving; and yet, the world as we know it spins madly on. In many ways, pregnant Mary was surrounded by endings—large and small, personal and political. But Mary proclaimed hope in a God who was and is making all things new. Christ’s birth offered a beautiful new beginning for shepherds and Magi alike—all the while, King Herod tried to bring Christ’s story to an end. When we ourselves navigate seasons filled with endings and beginnings, we need reminders. We need words that can feel like steady ground, like a path for our feet to find as we step forward into the unknown.
This year we are again using resources from Sanctified Art. In worship we’ll have poetry and candlelighting and we’ll have artwork along the East side of our Sanctuary.
But there are other resources for you.
ADVENT CALENDAR FOR CHILDREN AND ADULTS
There is a quilting theme with Advent this year and our Advent Calendar is a quilt pattern with keywords on each piece. It is a tool to get you talking about some of our themes this season. You can download a version HERE or pick it up at church.
PHOTO-A-DAY DEVOTIONAL
Some of you may post to social media regularly. If that’s you, perhaps you would be interested in a devotional that is all about posting photos. Each day you’ll get a different word/theme and then it’s up to you to take a picture and post it, with hashtags for the season. You can download a version of it HERE or pick it up at church.
DAILY DEVOTIONAL (VIA TEXT OR AN E-BOOK)
Because of some copier difficulties, we are not making copies of the devotional. However, we have two ways of doing it electronically.
FIRST, if you’d like to receive daily text devotions, please text ADVENT to phone number (833) 318-6527. This is the same program (gloo.us) that we used in Lent. You’ll be asked to tell us your name and then will get a notice saying you’re signed up for Advent devotion.
SECOND, if you’d like the e-book version, please let Pastor Jim know (office@umcchugiak.org) and he’ll send you the link. (Because of copyright matters, we’ve been asked not to post the link to the internet).
MONDAY NIGHT ZOOM STUDY — “VISIO DIVINA” — 7 PM
Our Monday Night Zoom study (7 PM) will once again to transition to a “Visio Divina” study. This is a study that uses both Scripture and artwork to reflect on the themes we’ll be looking at during this season. Everyone is welcome to attend. The Zoom Link is HERE.