WHAT IS ADVENT?
The word advent is rooted in a Latin word simply meaning, arrival. During this season of the Church calendar, which starts four Sundays before Christmas & culminates on Christmas Eve, we celebrate the arrival of Light into darkness: Jesus Christ, God as man, dwelling among us. During these four weeks, we’re invited into the story anticipating the birth of Jesus & into our own stories as we continue to anticipate God in our present and future. It is a season of intentional celebration & wonder as we set our hearts & minds on the coming of Christ through meditating on the themes of: Hope, Peace, Joy, & Love.
Below is a list of resources and events for this Advent Season at The Sacred Grace Englewood.
ADVENT RESOURCES
SONGS OF ADVENT
Here are songs we are listening to are singing during the season of Advent. The link provides a Spotify playlist or specific purchase of songs through iTunes.
ADVENT DAILY PRAYERS
Follow along with us as we pray these daily prayers during the season of Advent. The prayers can be found HERE starting November 30.
EVENTS IN ADVENT
BISHOP CHRISTMAS STORE
Every year our church participates in an event that has a huge impact on the families in our parish. Bishop Elementary school is just a few blocks from our building and many of the families there are not able to buy gifts for their kids at Christmas. This, of course, is a window into the deeper, more systemic issues of poverty in our neighborhood. The Christmas Store allows us to provide for a real and immediate need in our community but also to build relationships that can help with the lasting, long-terms needs they face. It’s one of my favorite events of the year.
There are two primary ways that people can be involved:
- Volunteer at the store. On Saturday, DEC 8 over 100 volunteers will descend upon Bishop to set-up, facilitate, and tear-down the Christmas Store. These volunteers will also help with childcare, wrapping, and a variety of other things. It takes a village to pull this off and we need your help! Click here to sign up.
- Donate Christmas gifts. The store that we create in the gym at Bishop is made up of gifts that each have a value of $25. We sell them to families for $5 each with gives them the agency to buy their own gifts but at a rate that is affordable to them. In order to make this happen we need hundreds of gifts for kids ages 0-18. Think creatively about this! Some people get their co-workers and neighbors involved. The more gifts we collect the more families we can bless this Christmas.
Please drop off gifts on Sundays from 3-7PM at 3220 S ACOMA. We hope to see you there on the 8th!
Christmas Eve at the Gothic – Monday, Dec 24
We will celebrate Christmas Eve at the Gothic Theatre on Monday, December 24, at 5PM AND 7PM. The service will be an hour long filled with songs, the Christmas story, reflections, candles, and prayers. Christmas Eve at the Gothic is a wonderful opportunity to invite friends, family, coworkers, and neighbors to come experience a sacred moment in the holiday season.
GIVING IN ADVENT
All Parish Christmas Campaign
The Christmas Campaign is an opportunity for our families and friends to join us in giving generously this December to support these three important initiatives through The Sacred Grace: 1) Denver Street School 2) The Sacred Grace’s efforts to find and fund a future parish churches, 3) continue improvements to Acoma.