Advent in Community Conversations

Thank you for joining us in community during Advent.

We lived through Advent in a time of global turbulence. Violence across the world continues to destroy lives and communities. The climate emergency, economic hardship, widening inequality, the rise of the far-right, anti-migrant policies, restrictions on the right to protest, the list goes on… 

We do not turn away from these realities, we choose to face them and journey towards them in Community. Voices and actions for justice and peace persist. Communities continue to resist oppression, campaigners demand climate action, and people of faith and goodwill come together to nurture compassion, creativity, and resilience. We keep hope alive when we work together for peace and justice.  

We are convinced that the radical, inclusive community we seek must be embodied in the community we practise. We choose to practise community all year, not only during Advent, the season of anticipation.

We held a series of conversations and events during Advent, those that were recorded are available to watch below. Thank you also for the many donations we received during Advent.

Advent in Community Conversations

Ruth Harvey hosted conversations with intentional communities, local and global, each Monday of Advent. These evenings were an opportunity to learn and share with others  about how to practise community in these challenging times.

Watch recording of conversation with Corrymeela Community’s Alex Wimberly

Watch the recording of Ruth’s conversation with the Wellspring Community’s Joy Connor and Lisa Wriley

Watch the recording with the Othona Community‘s Tony Jaques

Watch the recording with the Volmoed Trust – with John de Gruchy, Theresa Edlmann and Bob Faris.

Watch again, Advent readings with Wild Goose Publications

Join us for an evening of Advent poetry and prose, read by a number of Wild Goose Publication Authors.

Including Ruth Burgess, Ruth Harvey, Neil Paynter, Tawona Sitholé, Jan Sutch Pickard and Alison Swinfen.

Carrying a candle
from one little place of shelter
to another
is an act of love.
To move through the huge
and hungry darkness, step by step,
against the invisible wind
that blows for ever around the world,
carrying a candle,
is an act of foolhardy hope.

Surely it will be blown out:
the wind is contemptuous,
the darkness cannot comprehend it.
How much light can this tiny flame shed
on all the great issues of the day?
It is as helpless as a newborn child.

Look how the human hand,
that cradles it, has become translucent:
fragile and beautiful; foolish and loving.
Step by step.

The wind is stronger than this hand,
and the darkness infinite
around this tiny here-and-now flame
that wavers, but keeps burning:
carried with such care
through an uncaring world
from one little place of shelter to another.
An act of love.

The light shines in the darkness
and the darkness can never put it out.

Jan Sutch Pickard