Sunday, December 21, Join the Living will host a community wide Longest Night Service. It truly is the longest night of the year. What a good time to celebrate the light of Christ that comes to us even in great darkness.

From 4 until 6:30 the church sanctuary will be open for any one to come and sit in silence for as long as they wish. The little parish is all stone and wood and will be decorated with greens and candles. It will be true sanctuary.

At 5:30 a vegetarian meal will be available in the parish hall. It’s by pay-what-you-can donation.

Then at 6:30 there will be a service with readings, prayers, and music. At this service we’ll reflect on both the night and the light. We will celebrate Christmas as we remember that even in the darkest, longest night, the light of dawn comes.

Anyone may come to any part of the afternoon and evening that feels right for them.

St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church
545 S. 5th AVE (at the corner of 5th AVE and 16th Street in Armory Park, just south of downtown)
Tucson

Bring baked goods, art, nice second-hand stuff, books, cds, Christmas cards, food, anything. Get creative.

Sunday, Dec. 14, 2008
4 pm – 6:30 pm
Free
545 S. 5th AVE
St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church Parish Hall

Meal at about 5:30 offered by pay-what-you-can donation.

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=29690384158#/event.php?eid=47716312812

In a sidebar to this article in today’s Tucson Citizen,  it talks about Advent Conspiracy and lists the details about the second upcoming gift-making party on Sunday, December 7.

It also has a quote from Join the Living’s co-founder (one of the Tucson Advent Conspiracy groups), Carol Bradsen, and gives some ideas about how families can talk with their kids about not spending as much on Christmas.

Here’s a link to an article from today’s Tucson Citizen about rethinking Christmas, spending less on stuff, and more time with family.

The article ends by quoting two members of the Restoration Project. Patricia and Maryada participated in the first gift-making party at St. Andrew’s as part of the series of Conspiracy events hosted there.

This Sunday is another gift making party: 4 — 6:30 pm, 545 S. 5th AVE. at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church parish hall. A simple meal will be available at 5:30 by donation.

Patricia Morrison, 29, has decided to spend no money on gifts this year. Instead, she will donate to the Community Food Bank.

“As soon as I made that decision, I felt this great sense of relief,” she says.

Maryada Vallet, 25, is giving people prickly pear jam from fruit she harvested herself.

“It’s more the act of love than anything,” she says.

by GABRIELLE FIMBRES
Tucson Citizen

You can go to the Join the Living blog to watch a a quick video from last week’s gift-making gathering.

All are invited.

Sunday, November 30, & Sunday, Dec. 7.

@ 4 pm

545 S. 5th AVE (enter from 16th St.)

This is at St Andrew’s Episcopal Church parish hall.

Home cooked soup will be served at 5:30 pm each week. (suggested donation $5, or pay what you can)

Join the Living has also published an Advent meditation booklet and is posting daily Advent meditations beginning today until Christmas on the blog: www.jointheliving.blogspot.com

You can click on “open publication” below to go to an online mini-magazine of the booklet.

Get your own – Open publication

They hope to raise $3,000 this Christmas season from members and give it away. 50%  to Living Waters International to help in building and repairing wells in Liberia, and the other half to organizations in Tucson.

“Since we are a brand new church, everything we are doing is new. Which is exciting because it creates the culture and DNA of what Revolution will be in the future. It also means you have to explain everything because it is new, which is okay because it forces us to know why we are doing it and we get to remind everyone of the mission and what we’re about.

This year for Christmas, we are doing a series called Becoming… and we are talking about the type of people we are and the type of people that Jesus wants us to become. How we bridge that gap.

One of the things we are doing to help in this is partnering with other churches in Tucson for Advent Conspiracy. One of the things we are talking about in this series is becoming generous. I know that people often don’t like it when churches talk about money but money is a huge part of our spiritual journeys. How we handle money and our view of money directly shows where our faith is. It also shows what is important to us and our view of God. As the saying goes, “if you want to know what is important to someone, look at their calendar and bank account.”

As we thought through with this series, what does God want us to become, one of the things that is at the heart of Revolution is to become generous. Which is why we are doing Advent Conspiracy. From November 22 – December 24, you can give to our Christmas offering. This is one of the ways we are hoping to put a dent in hell from Tucson.

We will be giving 50% of our offering to Living Waters International to help in building and repairing wells in Liberia. They are an amazing organization and 100% of the money they receive from churches in Advent Conspiracy goes to wells. They partner with churches and the people in the town to train them in building and repairing wells and paying them a decent wage when they do it. There is no middle man.

The other 50% will go helping Tucson. We get requests from organizations who are helping those with less all the time. We also get requests for helping with paying bills and food needs from those who need help. We want to be able to say yes more than we say no.

Our goal is $3000 above our normal weekly giving. I want you to pray as a family to see how God might be calling you to sacrifice this Christmas season to put a dent in hell from Tucson.”

Locally, some groups and individuals plan to give to:

The Community Food Bank
Parent Aid

Internationally, building water wells is a project embraced by many conspirators across the country. Two examples are:

Blood:Water Mission & Living Water.

For more on the international push to alleviate poverty around the world, learn about the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals. For ideas for how churches can get involved year round, see this Episcopal resource: http://www.globalgood.org

For ideas on making your own gifts this year see the website, Rethinking Christmas.
Or come to the gift-making parties on Nov. 30 and Dec. 7 at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, 545 S. 5th Ave. at 4 pm.