Advent is the season in which we are invited to journey to Bethlehem and the night on which God became “God with us,” Emmanuel. It is a season of introspection, connection, wonder and open-handed hope – for our world, for ourselves, for the Spirit’s enduring presence to be felt anew.

This year, we will journey to the stable with a focus on the places that play a role in the Christmas story: Rome, Jerusalem, Nazareth, Bethlehem and Persia. Places are characters in the story too after all, shaping the narrative, the people in it, and all of us who are taking in the story anew thousands of years later.

Come with us on the journey! Pack your longing for hope, your dreams for peace, a handful of simple joys to hold and share along the way, and the humility you need to invite God’s story to be your own again. Together, our hearts will go great distances at the same time that we root ourselves more deeply in places we seek to stand well – places where humanity is still crying out for love and the Sacred to come and dwell among us.

Fauntleroy Church Advent Devotionals: These wonderful devotionals, created from church members’ stories, will be available in the narthex by November 30. Enjoy each devotion as a small gift as you embrace centering time with God.

Study the Advent Scriptures and Places With Us: Take a Wednesday lunch break and join our pastors for interactive reflection on the scripture passage and place of focus for the coming Sunday worship service. With hopes to include those with limited time as well as some of our online and long-distance church folks, we’ll gather via Zoom on Wednesdays from 12:00 to 1:00PM PDT (November 26, December 3, 10, 17). Contact the church for Zoom details.

Help Decorate the Church for Advent/Christmas while Honoring and Remembering Our Loved Ones: We look forward to decorating our worship space and church with beautiful, Christmas cuetlaxolchitl flowers and other nice touches. If you would like to make an extra gift toward visual beauty that will welcome and inspire, submit your extra donation via check or online, indicating “decorations” so we know where to direct your donation. If you would like your donation to be in honor or memory of someone, please contact Kyle Lorenzen, Office Assistant, at kyle@fauntleroyucc.org or 206-932-5600 with the name of the donor (your name and anyone else’s names) and the name of the person being honored or remembered—as you wish for it to appear in the Christmas Eve bulletins—by December 16.

December 7 Children’s Christmas Pageant: This year’s pageant is called “A Donkey’s Christmas”. Can a sweet but grumpy donkey find their place and purpose in the Christmas story? Can we? Our children will help tell that story of tender, transforming love and invite us all to join in the fun! Get ready to have your heart turned toward Christmas. Many thanks to all those who are helping our children prepare this early gift for the season.

Advent Festival & Stone Soup: Immediately following the Children’s Christmas Pageant worship on December 7, gather in Fellowship Hall for stone soup and the Advent Festival where all ages can make Christmas-related goodies. The Advent Festival is a favorite—holiday fellowship, crafting, and hot soup warms our collective hearts. So don’t miss it! Have fresh ingredients to share for stone soup? Bring them to the kitchen before worship begins and watch all your contributions magically become amazing soups!

Festival of Trees, an Event Benefitting Our Local Food Banks: A small forest of Christmas trees has bloomed in Fellowship Hall. We’ll enjoy the trees during Advent coffee hours and our Advent Festival on December 7. Bring your unexpired, non-perishable food items to place under your favorite trees and help our local food banks meet increased need. Want to show off our trees to friends and neighbors? Fellowship Hall will also be open in December, Monday–Thursday, from 8AM–12 noon.

Giving Tree, Sunday, November 23 – Sunday, December 14: Our Advent Giving Tree is an annual opportunity to bring joy to the wider community at Christmas. Each year we select causes that reflect the pressing needs identified by our homelessness and immigration task forces. Tags will be on trees in the narthex and lobby starting November 23 and we will start sharing your generosity shortly after the drive closes on December 14. Take a tag or two to remind you to donate to help someone who is food or housing insecure or needing other support to feel joy this season. Your donations are truly gifts of the heart! Cash donations will be accepted online, in the offering plate (please use an envelope and clearly mark it for the giving tree), or in the church office.

Christmas Concerts—Saturday, December 20 @ 7PM & Sunday, December 21 @ 4PM: The Fauntleroy Chancel Choir, Fauntleroy Women’s Ensemble, the D.A.M. Ukelele Band, and additional singers will join us for our Christmas concerts this year. Enjoy a diverse program of Christmas music under the direction of our new Music Director, Zachary Fitzgerald, and come ready for plenty of congregational singing! The concerts are free, and all are welcome. Join us for a pre-concert reception on Saturday beginning at 6PM and a post-concert reception on Sunday- both in Fellowship Hall in the midst of the Festival of Trees!

Christmas Eve Offering: One-half of the Christmas Eve offering will go to the “Christmas Fund” of the UCC (an annual offering we support), supplementing inadequate retirement savings for clergy who earned poverty or below poverty wages and emergency aid for UCC church employees facing crises. The other half will go to continue our support of Alimentando al Pueblo, a Burien non-profit and food bank focused on feeding the Latine community with culturally relevant food while building community in powerful ways.