Advent and Christmas Resources
Advent, the first season of the year, begins four Sundays before Christmas and continues through Dec. 24. Advent is considered a time of preparation, hope, and expectation, as the church awaits both Christ’s earthly birth as the baby born in Bethlehem and his final coming “in power and glory,” as we confess in reciting the Nicene Creed.
The Christmas season starts on Dec. 25 and lasts for 12 days, through Jan. 5. In many churches, the main liturgical celebration of Christmas takes place on Christmas Eve.
The Book of Occasional Services offers an Advent Festival of Lessons and Carols, a Las Posadas liturgy of hospitality, Christmas Festival of Lessons and Music and seasonal blessings, and more. Find artwork, customizable videos, and other churchwide offerings below.
AdventWord
Forward Movement convenes another year of AdventWord, an inspirational online Advent calendar featuring a daily prompt word selected from the Sunday lectionary readings. Email subscribers and social media followers receive a daily meditation and visual image inspired by the day’s word, and are invited to share their own personal reflections, art, poetry, or other creative expression. Downloadable bulletin inserts are available for churches to encourage participation at home.
We hope you’ll join us each day of Advent in posting the Advent Word and to social media, along with a graphic and some text exploring your thoughts on the word. If you need some help with graphics, we have three sets of Canva templates (available in English and Spanish), sized for Instagram/Facebook and Instagram Stories linked below. Make sure to use #Episcopal and #AdventWord on your posts so others can see them.
A Sign for You: Customizable Advent and Christmas Videos
The Episcopal Church’s Office of Communication is proud to present a downloadable video piece for use by your congregation. The video, available in English, Spanish, and French, can be customized through Canva. Instructions and video files can be found in each language.
How to Customize this Video with Canva:
Click a resource below to be redirected to a customizable Canva file. You can edit the final slide to include your logo, address, and information about your congregation’s Advent and Christmas services. When you’re done editing the final slide, you can download the piece as an MP4 and reupload to social media. Invite your parishioners to share the video more widely!
