From the Dean
It’s called the Advent Conspiracy. It is described as an international movement. On their website is the following:
What was once a time to celebrate the birth of a savior has somehow turned into a season of stress, traffic jams, and shopping lists.
And when it’s all over, many of us are left with presents to return, looming debt that will take months to pay off, and this empty feeling of missed purpose. Is this what we really want out of Christmas?
What if Christmas became a world-changing event again?
Conspiracy sounds like a strong word for Advent. Yet perhaps it is not. I appreciate the intentionality expressed here. What does it take to find a balance, a rhythm in Advent? What makes the liturgies of the season space for hearing, for being moved and changed? What makes gift giving something that generates generosity and gratitude? How do the gatherings in which I participate engender openness and compassion in me and those around me?
I recently attended a conference of some 1300 people who would label themselves social capitalists. Now there’s a both/and I can wrap my head around. Participants ranged from representatives of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to a twenty six year old woman who works with knitters in Peru. One of the keynoters is the author of, Slow Money: investing as if food, farms and fertility mattered. It is a group committed to understanding people not as markets, but as fellow human beings, people committed to understanding things of this planet not as resources to be garnered but elements of a shared planetary home, people who believe the words social and capital not to be in opposition but parts of a single reality. Something they all shared was returning relationship to economics; recognizing the relationship we have with those from who we purchase, those for whom we produce and relationship among all with whom we share the planet.
Advent seems a prime season to reflect on these kinds of relationships. How is our behavior in this season reflective of the basic message of Advent: God desires deeply to be in relationship with us and all of creation. From driving through holiday traffic to the ways we choose to recognize each other, from the things we purchase to the things in which we invest, from how and where we gather to how and where we offer ourselves to the greater community; how can these express Emmanuel, God is with us?
We have often said a bit tongue in cheek yet with a bit of seriousness, “There are __ number of shopping days until Advent.” We do have the month of November to prepare for this season of anticipation. Perhaps November is the time to begin our conspiring. Perhaps November is the time to consider:
- Which liturgies will be part of our Advent rhythm?
- Which social gatherings will be part of our rhythm and how might they engender Emmanuel?
- In what ways do we wish to express ourselves to those closest to us and those furthest from us?
- What actions, rituals and rhythms will create in us and in all with whom we share this planet the experience that God is with us?
Blessed conspiring,
Todd