Dear Friends,
This year’s Advent calendar is complete, and I am glad to share it with you. You can download it at the bottom of this page, so that you can make copies to distribute as you wish. My longtime collaborator, the Rev. Merry Watters, has taken a sabbatical this year from the calendar’s creation, so the scripture choices and suggested devotions have been made by me, along with the design and poem. It was Merry’s creative work that first inspired me to work with her on this calendar, and I look forward to her returning to our endeavors next year.
As with other years, this year’s poem can be sung as a hymn or perhaps as a song at the lighting of your home Advent wreath. Its metrical setting is once again 77.77. Among tunes in this meter are :
HEINLEIN (AUS DER TIEFE RUFE ICH) (#150 in The Hymnal 1982)
BINGHAM (#585 in The Hymnal 1982)
ORIENTIS PARTIBIS (#192 in The United Methodist Hymnal)
CANTERBURY (#465 in The United Methodist Hymnal)
Permission is granted to use the text during Advent, as long as the copyright is acknowledged. I also ask that you let me know if you do use the poem as a hym or Advent devotional song. As always, feel free to reproduce and distribute the calendar, and do let others know of its availability on this website.
If any of the biblical references seem unfamiliar, know that most bibles contain a list of abbreviations for the books of the Old and New Testament as part of the table of contents.
During Advent, I offer a daily email devotional based on each day’s reading. If you have not signed up previously for these devotions, you can do so by going to the Subscribe page of this website. And remember, these daily emails occasionally end up in spam or promotions folders, so if you are not seeing them starting on November 29, or you stop receiving them sometime during the season, do check your other inbox folders.
As always, thanks to Susan Shepherd Kochinskas of Flocksholm Design for her assistance in preparing the calendar for distribution.
I wish you a blessed Advent as you search the sky and light your candles in the coming season.
Tom
