Advent Planning Resources at the Library

Posted on November 13, 2020

It’s hard to believe, but it’s already time to think about Advent preparations! November 28, 2020, is the first Sunday in Advent (Year C). The library has lots of resources to help you plan meaningful services for your worshiping congregation.

Library digital resources

• We offer access to the popular Feasting on the Word lectionary study series as a series of e-books. The first volume for Year C (David L. Bartlett, ed.) is available here.
• The first volume of the Worship Companion to Feasting on the Word for Year C (ed. Kimberly Bracken Long), which includes the weeks of Advent, is available here.
• The Advent Companion volume to Feasting on the Word (David L. Bartlett, Barbara Brown Taylor, Kimberly Bracken Long, eds.) is available here.
• Connections: A Lectionary Commentary for Preaching and Worship (Joel B. Green, Thomas G. Long, Luke A Powery, Cynthia L. Rigby, eds.) Year C, vol. 1 is available here.
• New Testament scholar Amy-Jill Levine’s Light of the World: A Beginner’s Guide to Advent (Abingdon Press, 2019) is a new release. You can read it here.

Library print resources

• The library offers a wide range of books that you can use to help you prepare Advent and Christmas sermons, Bible studies, and worship elements. We have over 60 volumes of Advent meditations, devotions and stories you can use as sermon illustrations or starting points, and more than 100 children’s stories and poems you can borrow for use in a children’s sermon/lesson.
• In the Reference room, we have several volumes of Advent and Christmas poetry, and books on holiday celebrations around the world.
• In the IRC, you can peruse over 60 educational curricula for the Advent season.

If you’re in the Richmond area, why not make an appointment today to come in? We would love to help you find just what you need for your Advent preparations!

Online resources

• PCUSA.org has published their 2020 Advent and Christmas devotional, entitled “Let Us Light Candles: Matthew 25 and the Work of Advent.” The guiding theme for this year is theologian/civil rights activist Howard Thurman’s poem, “I Will Light Candles This Christmas.” Find it here: https://www.presbyterianmission.org/ministries/today/advent2020/.
• PC(USA) also offers a free digital booklet, Ideas for Reclaiming Advent and Christmas: https://www.presbyterianmission.org/resource/ideas-reclaiming-advent-and-christmas/.
• Other Advent resources from PCUSA.org, including prayers and activities, can be found on their website: https://www.presbyterianmission.org/ministries/worship/christianyear/advent/.
• In the face of the many challenges that 2020 has brought, Presbyterian Disaster Assistance is also offering a four-week interactive Advent study series called “Annunciations: Disruption & Invitation.” Find it here: https://pda.pcusa.org/pda/resource/advent-series-annunciations/.
• EpiscopalChurch.org also offers a variety of Advent resources (including curricula, prayers, sermons, bulletin inserts) on their website: https://episcopalchurch.org/advent-and-christmas-resources.
• AdventConspiracy.org offers a book and curriculum for purchase, but they also offer a number of free Advent resources: https://adventconspiracy.org/#four-tenets.

Sharing Curriculum by Union Presbyterian Seminary Students

Posted on August 17, 2017

During the spring semester of 2017, thirteen students in the Blended Learning MACE degree program participated in a Curriculum and Resources class taught by Cindy Kissel-Ito and Ann Knox.  In addition to reading about educational theory, evaluating programs in their own churches and exploring and evaluating learning resources online and in print, each student also created a curriculum plan for a learning experience in their own setting.

As more and more church leaders come to the Instructional Resource Center looking for guidance in discovering sound online curriculum, we encouraged these current and future educators to consider sharing the curriculum that they write with the broader church.  They agreed to let us share their classe assignments and although we can’t post all of them, we chose a sampling that including something for elementary grades, youth and adults. You are free to use these resources as long as you attribute authorship to the student that wrote it.  Just click on the link in each title and download the PDF file.

We hope you can use the work of these students in your congregations!

The View From the Mountain_Scripture Art and Advent

Recent graduate Claudia Calhoun from Kilmarnock, VA created a four week Advent study for adults to “engage learners in a new way of seeing and interpreting scripture through paintings, sculpture and photography.” With her clear directions and rich resource list, Claudia feels like you don’t have to be an art expert to bring this class to life.

Developing Intentional Outreach: Retreat Design for High School Youth

Current MACE student Pam Fusting (to graduate in 2018) conceived This conceived of this event after  stepping into the leadership of a group that verbalized a desire to participate in “mission and service,” but whose ongoing service and outreach activities involved no interaction with actual recipients and very little education and/or theological reflection.  It is designed primarily for youth groups in urban settings but with some adaptation can be adapted to suburban church youth groups as well.

God Alive: Global Village Program for 5th Graders

This program, while very specifically designed for a particular church and particular age group, is a good example of how to plan and write curriculum within a broader understanding of how elements of a congregation’s Christian education program work together.  Leigh Sackett, church educator at Raleigh Court Presbyterian Church in Roanoke, VA and an upcoming MACE graaduate in the Blended Learning program shares an overview of the God Aive program, an outline for the 14 week Global Village program and evaluation questions designed for parents and participants.

An example of how this program is fleshed out can be seen in this plan for Session 1.