Happy New Year!
It is not too often that Advent Sunday coincides with the first day of December making it especially exciting to start a New Year today.I bussed down to church this morning and busied myself with setting up for ourChildren @St. Stephen’s activities. Since this morning was to be a Service of Holy Communion, Nick and I had decided to have the activities on the dining room floor, running concurrently with the sermon time, and then to have the children rejoin the rest of the congregation to receive a blessing during Communion.
We began Worship with a special responsive prayer from here, and the lighting of the first Advent candle, after the opening set of worship songs and the Scriptures the children and I slipped out into the dining room area.
There were 4 children of disparate ages so I divided them into 2 pairs of siblings. The younger pair constructed a family Advent wreath from a straw wreath frame, set on a metal tray. We wrapped the frame with purple and gold braid, glued pinecones around the edges and then arranged 5 votive candles on the tray. (all highly flammable!!) Meanwhile the older two were challenged to think of as many promises and gifts of the Spirit, as they could come up with. Then each child cut 24 narrow trips of white paper and wrote a promise on each piece. They were instructed to take them home and form a paper chain by adding new link every day until Christmas. Both groups seemed interested and engaged in their projects and it was lovely to have everyone together to share in the Eucharist.
Once everything was cleared up I headed home on foot. It is way warmer today than last Sunday so the walk was really pleasant and I took the scenic route (albeit uphill most of the way!) and enjoyed the time pondering on Advent 1.
Now, as the evening draws in I am getting ready to say the prayers and light the first candle on my own wreath. Half a gallon of peppermint cocoa is currently warming up in the crock-pot and I am awaiting the invasion of the Senior Youth Camp Bible Study crew.
May you all enjoy a Blessed Advent!