UCC offers Advent 2024 resources to worship, reflect, and embody hope

As the beginning of Advent approaches on Dec. 1, the United Church of Christ has resources for faith communities and individuals filled with song, deep sea animals, and words of challenge and hope.

Below, find resources for worship from Sermon Seeds and Worship Ways, Nurture the Soul, and the Pension Boards’ Christmas Fund; devotional offerings from Join the Movement Toward Racial Justice and Pilgrim Press; and international engagement from Global Ministries.

‘Charged to be a righteous branch’

“A Righteous Branch” is this year’s Advent theme introduced in the Sermon Seeds Advent roadmap prepared by the Rev. Cheryl Lindsay, UCC minister for Worship and Theology.

“During Advent, I invite the church to live fully and faithfully in the tension of the ‘already and not yet,’ but not as passive observers,” Lindsay said. “Rather, we have been charged to be a righteous branch – active agents of the realization of the kindom of God in our time.”

Lindsay notes that the Christian liturgical year begins with Advent, and with it, she is introducing the overarching theme for Worship and Theology in the next year of “Embodied Jubilee: Justice, Righteousness, and Redemption.”

“I believe the focus on embodied jubilee, or the lived realization of liberation and settled debts is the word of challenge and hope this moment requires,” she said. “The good news is no panacea or fairy tale – it is the dangerous call to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with God.”

The Rev. Michelle L. Torigian, senior pastor of St. Paul United Church of Christ in Belleville, Illinois, will write this year’s Worship Ways liturgical resources. The first week of Worship Ways (Advent 1C) is available now, and the remainder will be released weekly. Sermon Seeds is published ten days prior to each Sunday it references.

Embodied Advent worship series

This year, the UCC’s Nurture the Soul webinar series has a new kind of resource – weekly worship videos with an Embodied Advent theme. There will be three Advent videos and a Longest Night service.

Each pre-recorded video is created by a different group from within the UCC and will be shaped like a worship service to include a call to worship, music selections, prayers, and a message focused on the week’s Scripture.

The Rev. ellie hutchison, UCC minister for congregational and community engagement, suggests these can be used in a variety of ways – faith communities can stream them directly or share elements of them, faith leaders can engage with them to inform their work, and people can stream them to bring worship into their homes.

The groups creating the videos include the United Black Christians, UCC Disability Ministries, the Small Town and Rural Coalition, and the Rev. Shea Darian of Doing Grief. Hutchison hopes these resources will “highlight their work in and around their own ministry settings and demonstrate the rich diversity of our denomination.”

The Embodied Advent videos will be released each Monday in December, with the first release on Dec. 2. They will be available on the Nurture the Soul YouTube, UCC social media, and in each UCC News Digest.

Christmas Fund worship resources

The Pension Boards of the UCC offers Christmas Fund worship resources with liturgy for the four Sundays of Advent and Christmas Eve. It includes bulletin inserts, creative spiritual exercises, and a sermon that is available as both a recorded video or written text for the Sunday after Christmas.

The materials, prepared by the Rev. Elyse Berry, associate for advocacy and leadership development at the Council for Health and Human Service Ministries (CHHSM), focus around the phrase “the glory of God shown around them” in Luke 2:9.  

One highlight is the colorful artwork of children’s moments offered each week that depict deep-sea creatures like sperm whales, who create a circle around any injured or vulnerable whale. “Love is paying close attention to one another — meeting each other face to face with a caring presence,” this children’s moment reads.

The Christmas Fund for the Veterans of the Cross and the Emergency Fund is one of the UCC’s special mission offerings, and it is received by many congregations on the fourth Sunday of Advent.

Abolition Advent – Preparing the Way

The UCC’s Join the Movement Toward Racial Justice will once again offer an Abolition Advent Calendar with the theme “The Days Are Surely Coming: Reducing Harm, Preparing the Way.”

Through a daily offering that will include a reflection, prayer, and recorded song, the Abolition Advent Calendar invites people to engage with connections between Scripture readings for the season and contemporary abolition movements, with this year focusing on the harm reduction movement.

Each week will explore one of the principles of harm reduction as the lens to encounter the Advent scriptures and imagine abolition.

People are invited to sign up to receive daily emails. These will also be shared through UCC social media and posted on the Join the Movement website.

Advent in the Mess

The Stillspeaking Writers’ Group and contributors offer The Mess in the Messiah as this year’s Advent devotional from Pilgrim Press.

Each day includes a scripture reading, reflection, and prayer, beginning with the first Sunday of Advent, Dec. 1, through the celebration of Epiphany on Jan. 6.

The devotional focuses on how “the Christmas message is messy!” with examples like the amniotic sac that bursts open, angels interrupting a good night’s sleep, crusty shepherds and foreign stargazers intermingling, a family fleeing political persecution, and God in the flesh.

The devotional is available in print or PDF version from Pilgrim Press, along with a free Advent Calendar PDF to accompany it.

Partners around the globe

Global Ministries, the joint witness in mission between the UCC and Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), invites people to bookmark the Advent and Christmas page where the organization will soon begin to share Christmas messages and resources from partner ministries around the globe.

There is also an Alternative Christmas opportunity to give a gift to Global Ministries in the name of someone, and Global Ministries will mail the recipient a card or send an e-card.

---

Content on ucc.org is copyrighted by the National Setting of the United Church of Christ and may be only shared according to the guidelines outlined here.