Any Churches Participating in Advent Conspiracy?

[Sierra]

For those of you who go to a Christian or UU church of one sort or another, I am wondering if any of your faith communities are participating in or have in the past?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVqqj1v-ZBU

[lilyka]

love it.

[artgoddess]

Hey that's kind of neat. Although I'm not sure how well the Jesus gave the ultimate gift part of the video would go over in some UU churches. But the concept is great. Our congregation, together with others in our area is having an alternative gift fair this year. I purchased all my gifts there last year. Providing seeds and gardening tools to impoverished communities with training on how to farm. Kind of along the lines of heifer international.

[Sierra]

artgoddess, probably in certain UU churches in which the previous video wouldn't go over well, this one would be appreciated: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PEEcLTB3k8.

I know a lot of churches do alternative gifts fairs. What I love about this concept is uniting for a single cause, a huge human right issue and a huge issue of caring for humanity. And the video is especially inspiring because it seems so do-able. When you look at $10 billion against $450 billion, it's like, "Let's do this! Let's knock this problem out!"

BTW, I noticed in the 2009-2010 UUSC Guest At Your Table packet, a $30 contibution is listed as going to water rights issues in Boston. Interesting.

I'm interested whether other churches ya'll attend are doing this because my congregation is exploring the possibility. Glad others are having the same response to this video that I am!

[artgoddess]

Originally Posted by Sierra

BTW, I noticed in the 2009-2010 UUSC Guest At Your Table packet, a $30 contibution is listed as going to water rights issues in Boston. Interesting.

Water Rights is a huge huge issue for most UU churches. I find it to be very very important, and I'm really proud of the UU Service Committee history. Glad you find them to be interesting.

[Sierra]

In the interest of full disclosure I will say I serve in the family ministry/faith development ministry of a largerly worship-centered UU church whose covenant is: "In the love of truth, and in the Spirit of Jesus, we unite for the worship of God and the service of all." We are new participants in the ground-breaking Jericho Road Project, which seeks to match individuals and their professional skills with the needs of a variety of non-profit agencies in order to contribute those skills toward short-term projects that enhance the non-profit's ability to do its work...whatever the mission might be. The non-profits are a diverse group of organizations serving various causes. It's an exciting program, and the congregation I serve hired our director early this summer. For a number of years prior, I served a UU congregation with a different theological tenor (more religious humanist) and a very strong identity as social justice seeking.

Water rights is definitely a huge issue, but I'd love to know if there are any congregations out there really stressing the focus, particularly around holiday time when folks are otherwise deciding what to do with "giving" money. United behind the cause, we could do so much more!

[smeisnotapirate]

Not even Christian, but I love love love that. Maybe I can start something for the ridiculously overblown Chanukah stuff that's done around here.

Great things you guys are doing.

[CherryBomb]

I learned about Advent Conspiracy last year, I think it's fantastic. I was thinking of bringing it up to my parish, I think they'd be interested.

[cagnew]

Sounds like an awesome idea. It actually sounds like what Advent and Christmas were suppose to be about in many ways. I'm Catholic and it makes me a little sad to see one of the most sacred holidays cheapened to be just another headache and spending-spree. Along those lines, it upsets me to see stores pushing the holiday so soon. There were Christmas decorations out in many of the stores around here in August! No wonder people get so stressed out over the holidays!

My family and I try to stick to something very similar to the AC's mission. We do buy gifts if we have the money to do it, but we limit the amount we spend pretty severly. We will never, ever go into debt over gifts. We don't use credit cards- we use cash. If there isn't any cash, there aren't any gifts (maybe something home-made).

I think spending money to help out a mission or a humanitarian cause is a perfect way to celebrate Christ's birthday.

[springmama]

Awesome - I love it! :

[MammaG]

I'm an Episcopalian, and whilst our church usually preaches this message every Advent, I suspect it falls on deaf ears for the most part.

In our family, we've decided to do a couple of things. We volunteer together during Advent. We try to make lots of our gifts. We do small stockings on Christmas morning, but no other gifts that day. Christmas Day is for church and family and fellowship. We observe ALL 12 DAYS of Christmas, and our annual holiday party is on 12th Night. We're not preachy about why we do that, but we serve lots of food from the traditional homes of the Three Kings (North Africa, Middle East and India), and it always comes up in conversation, so we get to tell the story every year. Our guests bring their Christmas green and we have a bonfire.

We have a much-scaled-down gift-giving day on Epiphany with our family. By then, the hype of the first day of Christmas is over and a glut isn't as expected. We also take advantage of after-Christmas sales to sove money. We donate what we calculate we didn't spend.

So, that really doesn't answer your question, as our practices aren't observed by our faith community, but that's how this one Episcopal family tries to do its best in the face of all the ugliness that can cloud Christmas.