Episcopal Church Foundation Vestry Papers - for leading congregations

The Episcopal Church Foundation (ECF) invites you to take the time this year to celebrate Advent, a season to pause and reflect on the hopeful miracle that is to come. To help you in your preparations, we’ve gathered sixteen resources below. We pray that your Advent 2025 is filled with peace, health and hopeful anticipation.

1. Find Advent and Christmas resources from The Episcopal Church here, including an updated Journeying the Way of Love Advent calendar and curriculum, bulletin inserts, and Advent and Christmas Digital Invitation Kits. Most of their resources are also available in Spanish and French.

2. #AdventWord - Join a global community of prayer this Advent season by posting a word every day and sharing with friends online. AdventWord is great for concentrating on specific terms pulled from the lectionary readings.

3. Building Faith, a ministry of Lifelong Learning at Virginia Theological Seminary, brings us a list of available Advent calendars here. They also give us a list of recent formation resources for Advent
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4. The Reverend Jemonde Taylor Shares Five Advent Resolutions: “Advent Resolutions, a take on New Year’s Resolutions, are opportunities to disrupt and disturb our normal way of worshiping, speaking, praying, and operating in the world.” Here the Rev. Jemonde Taylor highlights five articles from Vestry Papers for your consideration.

5. Ways to Prepare Ye is a brief and practical article to help Episcopalians recognize and observe the differences between Advent and Christmas.

6. The SALT Project brings us a printable Advent calendar with differentiated pricing depending on if it is for an individual or for a small, medium or large congregation.

7. Episcopal Relief and Development presents an Advent Toolkit with do-it-yourself wreath ideas with prayers and reflections, creche ideas and information about St. Nicholas. Their resources are available in Spanish. There is also a guide to hosting an alternative gift market and their Gifts for Life Catalog.

8. Forward Movement offers numerous resources on Advent and Christmas, including Jay Sidebotham’s Advent calendar and a number of devotionals.

9. Illustrated Children’s Ministry has great resources for families. Take a look at their various Advent activities, coloring pages, Advent paper wreaths kits and more for all ages.

10. Living Well Through Advent 2025 is a guide from Living Compass to help your heart, mind and soul. Also available in Spanish.

11. “The First Advent in Palestine: Reversals, Resistance, and the Ongoing Complexity of Hope“ is a book that investigates the stories in Matthew’s and Luke’s gospels about Mary, Joseph, and Jesus in light of the political, social, and economic dimensions of first-century Palestine.

12. Praying in Color Advent Calendar Templates by Sybil MacBeth help free-spirited individuals pray for their friends and loved ones. It’s also a fun way to engage children in creating meaningful prayers throughout Advent.

13. MyAdvent is a website where you can create a free personal online advent calendar.

14. “What Do You Fear?”: Insisting on Hope this Advent by A Sanctified Art is a downloadable bundle of 13 multimedia ministry resources for the first week of Advent–Epiphany. Each resource is also available separately. This Advent series takes seriously the angels’ message and trusts that Christ’s birth truly is good news of great joy for all people. Explore how naming fear may help us see more clearly how God is breaking in and where God is at work.

15. All Creation Waits — The Advent Mystery of New Beginnings (An illustrated Advent devotional with 25 woodcut animal portraits) by Gayle Boss is available from Paraclete Press.

16. EMM Refugee Prayer Vigil - In the Christian liturgical year, Advent is a time of waiting and preparation for the birth of Jesus, a time of prayerful yearning for Emmanuel, “God with us.” To honor and mark this holy time, Episcopal Migration Ministries (EMM) offers a prayer vigil, modeled off a ‘Blue Christmas’ prayer service, to invite prayer and reflection on Advent themes in a world being transformed by forced migration. Download EMM Refugee Prayer Vigil in PDF or Word doc.

Wishing you a blessed Advent season!

The ECF Vital Practices team