Dear Church Family,
The Advent Season is upon us! And with that, it is time for our Advent Devotional that will lead us through the season.
This year's devotional was created by Unbound*, a ministry of our denomination, the PCUSA. It's entitled, "Boundless: An Anti-Colonial Advent Devotional". There are prayers for each day, as well as longer devotionals at the beginning and midpoint of each week. The contributors to this collection are wonderful writers, pastors, and scholars. I encourage you to read, pray, and think on their words during this season.
Now, a note about the intent of this devotional. You may have heard or seen the world "anti-colonial" or "decolonize" before in different contexts. For us, and for this season, I would invite you to read this devotional in this spirit: that Christianity is a faith movement born under colonial power (the Roman Empire), but which rejects the assumptions of colonialism to its core. Where colonialism seeks power through limitless expansion, subjugation, and domination, Christ gave up his life in a way that rejected those very things so that we would have the freedom to choose love. Our goal will be to begin to divorce our faith from the facets of colonialism that hinder our witness. I pray you will join us on this inward journey.
You can access the devotional several ways.
You can go online and read the devotional here: https://justiceunbound.org/boundlessadvent/.
Please find a printable PDF to download the devotional. Note that the devotional is over 50 pages, so printing copies will not be available, unless you request one.
If you need a physical paper copy, please contact the church office to request a copy. Otherwise, we encourage you to use the .pdf copy. It's one small way to cut down on our paper use!
May the spirit of Advent bless you as we make this journey together.
Peace,
Rev. Jonathan Britt (he/him)