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.