2020 Advent Season Resources

 

 

Celebrating Advent and Christmas in the Time of COVID-19
 

Like all things in this unprecedented year, Advent 2020 will look and feel different.

Yet, in spite of the need for social distancing and other safety-first measures that are now a necessary part of our worship experience, we will still  celebrate the season's beautiful traditions, symbolism, art, music, and liturgical practices by employing new activities and a creative reworking of our typical ways of doing things.

To help, we will place readily-available Advent resources and other useful information on this page for your consideration, use, and adaptation. Please check back often as the season progresses.

We will also aim to consistently add to the page with the intention of growing it with tried-and-true ideas shared from around our Conference.

If you have plans, ideas or information that you feel can be useful to others looking to lift congregant's spirits and further a sense of excitement, anticipation, and connection in these challenging times, please share. Our goal is to collect any and all so that we can post them more broadly.

Please e-mail us details on your creative plans for Advent celebrations at shareyourstory@nyac.com

 

Ideas from New York Annual Conference Clergy and Laity

  • The "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Eve (Day)” Campaign happening in the Catskill Hudson and Long Island East districts is a play on the song. Here's how it works: Congregants from each church in the district (the community and other churches can be asked to join in as well) open their windows, stand out on the sidewalks or go out on their front porches, etc. to ring bells for two minutes at 6:00pm on Christmas Eve.
    You can order a 10 piece set of inexpensive bells here. NYAC churches interested in getting more information on how to participate can email Margaret Howe for details. 

  • Distribute kits for gingerbread houses and make them together as virtual intergenerational activity on Zoom.

  • Give members of your church family kits to make their own nativity sets (or paint the figures) and home altars with devotions and prayer experiments they can try at home.

  • Adapt the VBS/church school curriculum to make it a drive-thru Bethlehem Marketplace experience for the whole community.

  • Light candles outside where neighbors can see, possibly on Christmas Eve, and have a distanced singer or recording of Silent Night as they are held high.

New York Annual Conference Connectional Ministries

UMC Advent Devotions, Activities and Information

 

UMC Discipleship Ministries 

 

Resource UMC

 

The General Commission on Religion and Race

 

Rethink Church

  • Advent Photo-a-Day 2020 Challenge is a month-long event. Each day during the season of Advent, a word for reflection will be posted with the goal of encouraging reflection, and a response to that word through a picture posted on social media. 
     

Amplify Media/United Methodist Publishing House

 

The Upper Room

  • 2020 Advent Worship Litanies
  • Child of the Light is an e-course led by Upper Room author Beth A. Richardson. You will be invited to experience the weeks before Christmas differently this year as Richardson offers live worship, prayer,  reflection, daily reading, space for conversation, and more. Cost: $19
  • The Blue Christmas: An Experience of Light and Hope in an Unprecedented Advent is an online experience featuring Todd Outcalt’s book Blue Christmas. The course (running from Sunday, November 29 through Friday, December 25, 2020) include a variety of elements and participants are not required to participate in every element of the online experience. All live sessions will be recorded and available for viewing in our online classroom. Cost: $25


Cokesbury Advent Resources


General Resources

 

Resources