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Free Download:
NCC releases daily devotional for Advent;
Expecting the Word, a Words Matter study
By Meagan Manas
New York, October 27, 2011 -- When a parent is expecting a child, there are
many decisions to be made. What will the child be named? Will it be a
family name, a traditional name, a new and different name? How will the
child be raised? What are those deepest parts of the parents’ own values and
beliefs they will want to pass on?
As we expect this particular child, Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh, we
have choices to make. How will we live? How will we worship? How will we
spend our money? What stories will we tell? Which words will we use?
Expecting the Word, an Advent Devotional organized by Words Matter,
a project of the National Council of Churches Justice for Women Working
Group, offers a diversity of stories and meditations for contemplation
during Advent.
Questions about the choices we make and how we make them. What makes a story
“holy?” What is our responsibility to articulate the words and images for
God that speak to our souls? How did we learn the words for our own
stories? What words and images expand our community of believers? These and
other questions form the basis of the meditations.
Expecting the Word includes reflections written by a variety of people from
different communions, racial and ethnic backgrounds, ages, professions, and
experiences around the Advent Sunday texts from the Revised Common
Lectionary.
Visual artists have contributed, lending another level of engagement for
contemplation—including one textile artist who creates vestments and banners
for churches, helping us think about the symbols we see in our places of
worship each Sunday.
Expecting the Word is available for free download from
www.WordsMatter.org/advent-devotional. During advent, daily postings
will also be available there. Please join us, allowing the stories and
questions to whirl and eddy within our swelling minds and bodies as we find
ourselves Expecting the Word together.
For more information on Words Matter visit
www.WordsMatter.org
or contact Meagan Manas.
Since its founding in 1950, the National Council of
the Churches of Christ in the USA has been the leading force for
shared ecumenical witness among Christians in the United States. The NCC's
37 member communions -- from a wide spectrum of Protestant, Anglican,
Orthodox, Evangelical, historic African American and Living Peace
churches -- include 45 million persons in more than 100,000 local
congregations in communities across the nation.
NCC News contact:
Philip E. Jenks, 212-870-2228 (office), 646-853-4212 (cell),
pjenks@ncccusa.org
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