Join me for a series of Advent Encounters!

I'm crafting some space for listening and wonder...

Early each December here in Oxford, if I can possibly manage to slip away, I walk up to my old student church to attend a service of Advent songs and readings. The church is dark, the air in the chapel high and cold as I find a corner chair. A few candles cast long, exploratory shadows. The cross gleams on the altar. The chapel fills, but voices stay low until the choir shuffles in and the first rich notes thrum through the darkness, always the same opening refrain: O come, O come Immanuel…

Each year, this is the moment I take the deepest breath I can both of body and spirit and open the whole of my mind and heart to watch, to listen, to hunger for God.

I love it for many reasons: the music telling a story in chord and verse of our yearning, the way the shadows allow me to draw into myself for prayer, the beauty of the liturgy. But perhaps I love it most simply because it is a space I do not have to create for myself. Here, I can simply receive a moment of quiet as a crafted gift. I arrive and all is prepared to help me find the centre of my soul.

And that, friends, is what I hope to offer this year by creating a series of Advent encounters online.

I can’t bring you into my Oxford chapel, or even the beautiful old church across from my home. But I can invite you to sit in hush and candlelight with me here in the vicarage. I can prepare a shaped encounter of liturgy, prayer, poetry, and art that allows you simply to show up and be nourished. I can craft notes with quotes and Scripture and images that might shape your devotional moments. I can cull an Advent playlist to sing through your Advent days.

It’s a beauty that gives me great joy to offer.

So, this is your invitation to join me during the month of December for:

Reclaiming Quiet: Four Advent Encounters

I’ll be hosting them at 8pm UK time each Tuesday night before Christmas (though we’ll shift to Monday, the 23rd for the fourth and last event in order to leave Christmas Eve free). Each encounter will last around half an hour, and will be a time of guided prayer, cultivated wonder, and gentle contemplation. Each encounter will include:

• A programme of Advent liturgy, prayers, and literary readings.

• A featured piece of art we will contemplate together.

• A brief talk on one of four themes: yearning, journey, hope, or love.

• Notes with Scripture, quotations, and study questions for the rest of the week.

• A curated playlist with music matching each week’s theme.

• The video from each live session will remain available for you to watch at your leisure.

You can sign up HERE.

I’ll be hosting these on Crowdcast as one ‘event’ with four sessions. This is a ticketed event as I will be investing a good amount of time and resources into creating this space, but as always, if cost is an issue for you, there are scholarships.

My hope in offering these is to provide a little of what I find each year in my old chapel, that you can simply show up in this space to be nourished and comforted, to find a moment of deep, generous hush to help you centre your soul in this Advent journey.

Friends, if you will, do join me.