It’s old news to some of you, but it’s time for our Advent Calendar. Some of you are saying: What a great idea! Others: What the heck is Advent?
I really don’t know when in church history it all started, but Advent is made up of the four Sundays before Christmas (this year: 27 November, 4, 11, 18 December). In many churches there is even an Advent Liturgy to prepare believers for the coming (the FIRST advent) of the Christ. With each new Sunday, people light a candle, till all four are lit the last Sunday.
ANYWAY, about 6 years ago, I got to thinking, “How can we connect with some of our neighbors who think we’re a sect even though we’ve been here 15 years and we rarely sacrifice chickens?” The Advent calendar on the front of our “house” was the answer. In late November, I put up numbers 1-24 on the outside wall. Then, on December 1, it’s up the ladder in the morning darkness to hang the first wood re-liefs (60×60 cm kind-of-3D panels that we made ourselves). They tell in chronological order the birth of Christ. Plus there’s a web site that French-speakers can go to and read the real story (and read ahead, if they want. You can see it by clicking on this post’s title…).
We’ll have a small open house on December 19 for folks from the neighborhood. And then, before you know it, Christmas is over.
It’s old news to some of you, but it’s time for our Advent Calendar. Some of you are saying: What a great idea! Others: What the heck is Advent?
I really don’t know when in church history it all started, but Advent is made up of the four Sundays before Christmas (this year: 27 November, 4, 11, 18 December). In many churches there is even an Advent Liturgy to prepare believers for the coming (the FIRST advent) of the Christ. With each new Sunday, people light a candle, till all four are lit the last Sunday.
ANYWAY, about 6 years ago, I got to thinking, “How can we connect with some of our neighbors who think we’re a sect even though we’ve been here 15 years and we rarely sacrifice chickens?” The Advent calendar on the front of our “house” was the answer. In late November, I put up numbers 1-24 on the outside wall. Then, on December 1, it’s up the ladder in the morning darkness to hang the first wood re-liefs (60×60 cm kind-of-3D panels that we made ourselves). They tell in chronological order the birth of Christ. Plus there’s a web site that French-speakers can go to and read the real story (and read ahead, if they want. You can see it by clicking on this post’s title…).
We’ll have a small open house on December 19 for folks from the neighborhood. And then, before you know it, Christmas is over.