THIS WEEK’S EVENT LINKS
November 22nd is our third Sunday of Advent.
Join us for a Zoom worship.
The link will be open at 10:20, service begins at 10:30am
On your computer or smartphone with WiFi or data
Zoom now requires a passcode, but if you just click on this link, it’s built in, so nothing has changed.
https://zoom.us/j/92083147521?pwd=L0JpTGloRXh1QUpDL3ZFN3kvQ013Zz09
If you key in the Meeting ID: 920 8314 7521
You will need to add the Passcode: 792614
On your telephone, dial 778 907 2071
Enter the Meeting ID: 920 8314 7521 plus #
Participant ID: # (again)
No passcode required
Advent: Womb of the Year
We all know the problem. Before the costumed children have even collected their Hallowe’en candy the store shelves are festooned with Christmas items as the gift flyers start to arrive in the mail. By the time we light the first candle on the Advent wreath the neighbours have their Christmas trees decorated and carols proclaim the birth of Christ in every shopping mall. Engaging the season of Advent as anything more than a prelude to Christmas is a challenge in our culture.
To help reclaim Advent from the shadow of the cultural Christmas season, St. Mary Magdalene’s, along with an ecumenical group of parishes, seminaries, and emergent communities across North America, is returning to an ancient practice still followed by the Orthodox Church of an expanded, seven-week Advent season.
Advent this year at St. Mary Magdalene’s starts on November 8th. The lectionary readings will remain the same. In fact, they suit a longer Advent remarkably well.
Why should we do this? A practical reason is to offer an alternative vision and practice to our culture’s rampant pre-Christmas consumerism. And this Advent 2020 especially invites us to wait, and hope, in the face of the turmoil, grief and fear around us. A longer Advent allows us to engage more deeply this holy time of darkness and waiting. There are good theological reasons too.
As Bill Petersen writes,
… [W]hat is the primary focus of Advent? If it is only the Nativity or preparation for it, then something vital is missing. We say that the season is the beginning of the liturgical year. The original intent of the season was to begin by looking to the end. The wisdom of the poet T.S. Eliot captures some of the sense of this intent in the line, “In my beginning is my end.” To apply that wisdom to the present matter is to recognize that we best, at the start of a new year in time, look to the end, to the goal, to the eternal moment that makes sense of all our moments. And, for Christians, this means a focus first on the full manifestation, the parousia, of all that is implied in and by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
We have an opportunity to look at and celebrate the inbreaking of the reign of God in a deeper, more holistic way than do those who are obsessed with the last days. God’s kingdom came close in Jesus, comes close now, and will come close in the future. We have a responsibility to work for the coming of that kingdom of justice and peace. A longer Advent gives us time to consider, to be pregnant with, and to work for the birth of the reign of God, as given life in Mary, as embodied in Jesus, and now in those who follow his way.
We invite you to revel in this time of expectation and preparation.
WE'RE NOT BACK AGAIN
No in person Eucharist Sunday morning at 10:30 am.
No Contemplative Eucharist Wednesday evening at 7;00 pm.
In this season of Covid (and flu and . . .) please read this LINK before you join us in-person at church.
If you have any symptoms, if you have a weakened immune system, or are in a vulnerable population . . . or if it’s been a long, rough week and you’re trying to juggle too many things, please join us for worship on Zoom on Sunday at 10:30 am.
See below for connection information
View Covid-19 Safety Plan
