Advent and Christmas 2017

Resources for Advent and Christmas include the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols, and material from the Bible Society, CAFOD, Christian Aid, the Church Urban Fund, Hope and Premier. Plus you can still download A World in Waiting – Advent hope in an economic crisis.

Advent and Christmas 2017

Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols

Download Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols (PDF)

 

 

 

Bible Society

Sign up to the Bible Society’s Advent challenge to receive three biblically-inspired challenges a day to help bring the Bible to life every day of December.

 

 

 

CAFOD

CAFOD’s interactive calendar lets you reflect, pray and take global justice actions throughout Advent.

 

 

 

CAFOD also has an Advent calendar for young people produced as a Powerpoint with a refugee theme, plus resources for students to complete their own reverse Advent calendar.

 

 

 

Christian Aid

Christian Aid has a range of resources to download related to its Enough For Everyone Christmas Appeal aiming to make a real difference to people without enough to eat this Christmas.

 

 

 

Church Urban Fund

For the third year, the Church Urban Fund (CUF) has a sleep-out challenge for Advent. You can download a ‘toolkit’ with full information about taking part as well as a promotional poster from the Sleepout Challenge website.

 

 

 

Embrace the Middle East

Embrace the Middle East is providing daily Advent reflections by email from 1 December to Christmas Day. Contributors include partners in the Middle East and UK Church leaders including Bishop Libby Lane and Embrace patron His Grace Bishop Angaelos OBE, General Bishop of the Coptic Orthodox Church in the UK and Moderator of the CTBI trustees.

 

 

 

Hope

Hope has produced a glossy give-away Christmas magazine that can be delivered to homes to help churches invite guests to seasonal events.

 

 

 

Joint Public Issues Team (JPIT)

JPIT has four weekly resources for Advent with the theme Prepare Ye the Way. Each week looks at a different way we might prepare for the coming of Jesus, with stories, prayers and actions based on lectionary readings. There is also a script for a Nativity play ‘with a twist’,  A Very British Nativity.

 

 

 

Mission Theology Advisory Group (MTAG)

‘Advent Journey with the Magi‘ provides a reflective spiritual journey into the mystery of the Incarnation which travels towards Jesus through the eyes of the Magi. It includes sections on Stars, Travels, Gifts, Meeting Herod and Meeting Jesus.

 

 

 

Premier

Premier has launched an initiative aimed at helping to ensure that no-one spends Christmas alone.  It is creating an interactive map of all the Christmas Day events happening across the UK and has produced a Christmas pack showing how churches across the UK can get involved in hosting a Christmas day event in their community.

 

 

 

World Council of Churches (WCC)

Prayers have been published by the WCC for Christians to pray for the Korean Peninsula and for a world free from nuclear weapons, as part of its Light of Peace campaign, encouraging churches to hold services on the first two Sundays of Advent.

 

 

 

 

Previous years

Our Advent course from 2009 A World in Waiting – Advent hope in an economic crisis is still available to download.