| Description: |
In the season of Advent the whole people of God are waiting, expectant and attentive. To celebrate Christmas as the coming to birth of a collectively experienced Advent 'gestation' is a completely different experience from celebrating Christmas for a month in advance of Christmas Day. You will find it changes and enriches your community, and the festival of Christmas will take on a whole new meaning, clearing away the accumulated rubbish of financial worry, time and energy stress, overwork and exhaustion, and - one of the biggest misunderstandings of all - that Christmas is really a children's festival.
Having an all-age approach to Advent is not about providing yet more entertainment for the children, but hauling back the runaway season so that it properly belongs to the whole community, with all its age groups. Throughout this book there are mixed-age-group activities and times of worship and reflection which happen in the formal setting of a church congregation, and others which keep the Advent pulse going on a daily basis, in homes and households, in family or friendship groups, or alone. Included are:
Catching the mood of the Advent
season
Sharing an Advent meal
Opening Advent windows
Making an Advent wreath
Making an Advent candle calendar
Morning prayers for Advent
Night prayers for Advent
'Open church' days in Advent
An Advent Sunday vigil: 'Hope in
the darkness'
An Advent carol service in the
week before Christmas
All-age Sunday worship in Advent
A parish away-day for Advent:
'Hopes and fears'
A parish day: 'Gospel writer of
the year' |
