Guiding your people through Advent

I have been creating liturgies for, and retelling the stories of, Advent and Christmas for many years now, and I would like to share that creativity with you.

Perhaps you’ll use a prayer or a whole order of service; perhaps my ideas will spark ideas for your own creativity.

These are resources in an Australian voice, which may be particularly helpful Down Under. It may be a change of register or tone or expression that renews the ancient stories and traditions of this season for communities further afield.

Let me introduce you to some of the resources I have that may serve you well.

If you follow the Revised Common Lectionary, we’re heading into Year A. The portions of Matthew’s Gospel and other books of the Bible set for Advent can seem a little, well, odd, as choices for Advent. Last time we were in Year A, I composed a light-hearted set of scripts for an easy drama each week of Advent, to introduce the reading for the day. Accompanying each skit is a prayer for the lighting of the Advent candle.

There’s also a script and prayer for Christmas Eve / Day.

Easy, fun, and an opportunity to get a few more people involved in more than just Christmas Pageants this season.

Remember, and Wait. Available as printed booklet ($AUD18) or pdf ($AUD10).

With my congregation at Belair Uniting Church in 2013, we told the stories of the journeys taken to and from the stable in Bethlehem with tapestry figures made by our teenagers, with the help of their leader. Various characters were made, or decorated, by some of the adults in the congregation – and we all enjoyed watching them come to life throughout the year, as the teenagers sat in worship and completed their designs and carried out the tapestry and decorating.

We had considered using a liturgy that used water rather than candles, written by a friend of mine. Following some reluctance to do away with candles, which hold such significance for many as we approach Christmas, and still wanting to pick up on the idea of water for the journey, I wrote this liturgy, which was well received, and served our Advent and Christmas season well. We sang ‘Deeper River’ by Digby Hannah following the liturgy, and used our tapestry figures as focus for the stories. I invited young ones to come forward and hold the characters during the story, then place them in the stable, made by another of our members, and thus we built the nativity scene together through the Advent season.

Travellers. Available as pdf ($AUD10).

Also composed for Belair Uniting church, this telling of the story is a simple drama. A narrator (or narrators) tells the story, and you may choose to use puppets, props, or people to build the Nativity scene in your midst as the story unfolds. Have fun with it!

Tell Me the Story of Christmas. Available as pdf ($AUD10).

Both Pray the Story books contain prayer-poems for portions selected for the Revised Common Lectionary. The books are sorted by Lectionary year and season. You will also find an index of Bible portions in the back of the books, to help you find other prayer-poems that might suit your purpose for the Advent and Christmas seasons.

Pray the Story will be launched as an audio devotion in time for Advent 2022. Click here for more information, and keep an eye on this website for details of the launch and how to subscribe!

For now, click the above SoundCloud icon to hear an earlier version of Pray the Story audio.