Ready for Advent 1

Sara Malo was busy in the sanctuary this morning, getting the decorations set up for the start of our early Advent season this coming Sunday.

The reason for the early Advent:

We're going to be trying something new this Advent at Stevi UMC.

We will be observing the season of Advent beginning this coming Sunday, November 13th, rather than waiting until the Sunday after Thanksgiving as it is on the liturgical calendar.

Our schedule will look like this:
Nov. 13 - First Sunday of Advent
Nov. 20 - Second Sunday of Advent (& Thank Offering)
Nov. 27 - Third Sunday of Advent
Dec. 4 - Fourth Sunday of Advent (& Hanging of the Greens)
Dec. 11 - First Sunday of Christmas (& Children's program)
Dec. 18 - Second Sunday of Christmas
Dec. 24 - Christmas Eve (7:00 pm)
Dec. 25 - Christmas Day (10:30, worship/5:00 pm, Christmas vespers service
Jan. 1 - Epiphany Sunday

The reason is explained in this article from UMCdiscipleship.org:

Many of us recognize that while these proposals would restore a longer time of

Advent celebration, it may not yet directly address what for nearly all of us remains a serious truncation of Christmas Season. Our congregations seem to spend all their energy on Christmas Eve, few keep Christmas Day itself, and as for the rest-- it's one or two "low Sundays" at best until folks get back from various "Christmas vacation" schedules. While the church year calls for high celebration and deep contemplation together, we are most often more scattered and less focused on worship in the two weeks following Christmas Eve than at any other time of the year.

That is why I have offered a third, much more radical approach. It rearranges the lectionary and, more dramatically, the calendar to produce for  a four-week Advent and a four-week Christmas Season.