Dear Ones of St. Columba's,

 Happy New Year! This Sunday begins the new year of the church, and the season of Advent. If this is your first time walking through Advent in a liturgical spirituality, welcome. If you are a veteran of the liturgical church year, you are also welcome, and everyone in between. I want to tell you a little bit about Advent, and how we practice this season at St. Columba's. 

First of all, Advent is a season at odds with the seasonal culture all around us. It's at odds with the secular Christmas feasts of consumption that gear up on Black Friday and don't really end until the After Christmas blowout sales have concluded. Advent calls us away from these things into quiet, simplicity, waiting, and discernment. 

Advent is also at odds with how our culture does New Year's. Not only is it sooner, but instead of revelry and resolutions, Advent calls us to discomfort, wondering, and beginning with the end in mind. 

Now I want to be clear - I think it's great to do both Advent and secular pre-Christmas, both Advent and then ringing in the New Year of our secular calendar. We are all called to to live in the both/and of this world and God's world, the church calendar and the secular calendar. Our lives are not divided but integrated, with Advent offering us respite, renewal, and relief from and for our daily lives in the world. 

With this in mind you will notice some changes to our Sunday worship and our space as we begin this new year and this new Advent season. At St C's we choose this time to try new ways of configuring our space, with hope that the discomfort of change will be part of staying awake to anticipation and the call of Christ in our lives. I encourage you to come to worship during Advent and immerse yourself in what is offered there - changes to our space, practices of the season, and the quiet simple space of waiting with hope for our Christ to arrive - an event we remember on Christmas Day, anticipate at the end of time, and strive to remain open to in every waking moment of our lives, as our Jesus shows up in ways we cannot always recognize or anticipate.

with care and gratitude,

Alissa