Illustration of a large-bodied, feminine-coded person with tattoos on their back: Autonomy: in my body. in my person. in my health. Image by Fernando Martí for Just Seeds. Used with permission, CC BY-NC-ND. Includes the text: Abolition Advent Calendar: Freedom For All Bodies. Join the Movement campaign.

Abolition Advent Calendar

Join the Movement toward Racial Justice is thrilled to offer our second annual Abolition Advent Calendar. You can sign up below to receive daily reflections via email or access them on the Join the Movement website.

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This year, our theme is “Freedom for All Bodies.”

Every day we are seeing more and more dehumanizing efforts to limit embodiments of liberation. Enslaving paradigms are being deployed in new and all-too-familiar ways to exert violence and control over bodies that some deem undeserving of freedom. In this season. we are called not only to recognize the strategies and tactics of enslavement as they manifest among us but also to witness the way they call us anew to the sacred work of abolition. 

So this Advent, as we await and prepare for the coming of transformational Love in flesh and bone, we want to again invite your engagement with generative connection between scripture readings for the season and contemporary abolition movements. To respond more specifically to the mechanisms of enslavement and visions of abolition at work in this moment, each week we will explore a different intersection in abolition movements.

  • Week 1 Intersections: Abolition, Racial Justice, and Reproductive Justice
  • Week 2 Intersections: Abolition, Racial Justice, and Trans/Non-binary Justice
  • Week 3 Intersections: Abolition, Racial Justice, and Disability Justice
  • Week 4 Intersections: Abolition, Racial Justice, and Body Positivity

We hope you will make these reflections part of your waiting, hoping, and preparing this Advent, as you deepen your understanding of abolition as part of the work of practicing antiracism.

More Advent Resources

The UCC has even more resources to support you during this season! Sign up for Nurture the Soul's Advent event series. Download Sermon Seeds, Weekly Seeds, Worship Ways, music, and more for FREE! Purchase a copy of the Stillspeaking Writers' Group 2023 Advent Devotional for yourself and a few extras as gifts for your most reflective friends. Reflect as a community during Global HOPE's online Blue Christmas service. Learn about these resources and more in the coverage from UCC News.

Advent 2023 resources

Invest in Freedom

Can you imagine a church free of racism and a world where all people live without fear of violence or systems that harm God’s human creation? The United Church of Christ invites you to Join the Movement toward racial justice as we answer God’s call to be an anti-racist church. Here, we will share stories and grow together, learning from one another to build a just world for all.

Invest in the work toward racial justice. Donate to the Join the Movement Capital Campaign!

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