Advent 2025 at St. Alban’s

Believe it or not, Advent is just around the corner. With immigration dominating our national and local news, this Advent season will offer the opportunity for a timely exploration of why and how God’s people moved from place to place in Holy Scripture, as we consider our approach to today’s issues through the lens of our faith. Read below for opportunities to enter into the coming Advent season with open hearts and open minds, as we pray for the peace and safety of all in our region and beyond.

Yours in Christ,

Carmen

Migrants & Mangers:

God’s people on the move

Abraham and Sarah.

Ruth and Naomi.

Joseph and Mary.

Our Lord Jesus.

Each of these biblical figures (and many others) left their homes to journey to unfamiliar lands. Some set out to escape hardship or violence. Others went in response to a call from God. What awaited them when they reached their destinations—a manger of welcome, or the stigma of the outsider?

November 30 ~ 1^st Sunday of Advent (No Sunday School for children & youth)

9:00 a.m. – 10:15 a.m. All Ages Advent Wreath Workshop and Cookie Decorating (Parish Hall)

9:10 a.m. – 10:10 a.m. Journeys Poetry Group discusses “Kindness”

by Naomi Shihab Nye (Reflection Room)

December 7 ~ 2^nd Sunday of Advent

9:10 a.m. – 10:10 a.m. Dead Women Walking: Ruth and the Alien’s Redemption,

part 1 (Parish Hall)

In our time in which borders seem impermeable and the life of strangers in peril, we do well to tend to ancient stories that remind us of how faith allies with the crossing of boundaries, daring acts of hospitality and accompaniment, and the risks of scandalous association. The Hebrew Bible offers precisely this in the book of Ruth, a comic novella and trickster narrative that dramatizes the need of the outsider as well as the outsider's role in redeeming insiders from death-dealing obsessions. A potent story in the cultural wars of Israel’s post-Exilic restoration, the book of Ruth holds a mirror up to our contemporary crises concerning the migrant and the different and offers itself as a guide to the way of dead women walking whose steps beat the path of our own salvation.

Dr. Karl Plank will be our leader and guide for this three-part Advent series. Karl has been a member of St. Alban’s since the Lorimer days. He is the J.W. Cannon Professor of Religion, Emeritus, at Davidson College where he taught from 1982-2023. 

3:00 p.m. Las Posadas

All are welcome to join La Escuelita Bilingual Preschool for their annual Las Posadas (“The Inns”) celebration. In costume, the children reenact the story of Joseph and Mary searching for shelter among the inns of Bethlehem. After knocking on several neighbors’ doors, the Holy Family is finally welcomed into the Church where the manger awaits the Christ Child. The sweet ceremony is followed by a wonderful fiesta in the Parish Hall!

December 14 ~ 3^rd Sunday of Advent

9:10 a.m. – 10:10 a.m. Dead Women Walking: Ruth and the Alien’s Redemption,

part 2 (Parish Hall)

December 21 ~ 4^th Sunday of Advent

9:10 a.m. – 10:10 a.m. Dead Women Walking: Ruth and the Alien’s Redemption,

part 3 (Parish Hall)