By John Hamer, Canada East Mission Centre Historian

We have entered the season of Advent, whose name comes from the Latin word adventus, meaning “coming” or “arrival” — denoting the arrival of God among us, the incarnation of Christ that we celebrate on Christmas Day. This is the period of the calendar in the northern hemisphere when the days are shortest and the nights are longest. This was a time of special hardship and anxiety for pre-modern people, who lacked the artificial lighting and central heating that most of us now take for granted. Early Medieval Christians responded by making extraordinary spiritual preparations. By the 6th century CE in the Latin West, it was common to set the month leading to Christmas apart as a time of penitence and fasting.

The tradition of marking the four Sundays of Advent by lighting the candles of an Advent wreath is much more recent. Johann Hinrich Wichern was a Lutheran pastor and theologian living in Hamburg, Germany, in the 1830s. He founded a social service institution called the Rauhes Haus to shelter and educate neglected children, the mentally handicapped, and to care for the elderly. During Advent, the children would ask daily if Christmas had arrived — “Is it Christmas yet?” “Is it Christmas yet?” “Is it Christmas yet?” — so Johann repurposed an old cartwheel by decorating it with candles: 24 small red candles and 4 large white candles. Each weekday or Saturday, one of the red candles was lit, and each Sunday of Advent, a white candle was lit, allowing the children to count down visually. In this way, the Advent wreath and candles had the same initial purpose as Advent calendars — which also date from 19th-century Germany and count down the days until Christmas. Advent calendars today usually take the form of a box containing 25 doors, which are opened each day to reveal a tiny present or candy.

The practice of the Advent wreath spread, and over time, the number, form, and symbolism of the candles have evolved. The wreath itself symbolizes that God’s love is infinite, represented by the evergreen leaves set in a circle. Most wreaths today consist of four candles, which are understood to represent hope, peace, joy, and love. Often, three of the four are violet (a traditional liturgical colour of Advent), along with a single pink candle. In this tradition, the pink candle represents “joy,” marking a break in the penitential cycle on Advent’s third Sunday. (In other liturgical traditions, all four principal candles are either blue, gold, or red.) Sometimes a fifth candle, usually white, is placed in the centre of the wreath. This candle, which is lit last, symbolizes Christ made manifest among us.

Hope, peace, love, and joy are concepts central to the Christian understanding of God’s goals for creation. In our own denomination, however, they have taken on additional meaning through our mission statement: “We proclaim Jesus Christ and promote communities of joy, hope, love, and peace.” What are some of the traditions that you, your family, or your congregation observe during this sacred season, where we prepare ourselves to experience the sacred story of the incarnation of God’s Word at Christmas?

By Leandro Palacios, Director of Communications
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Imagine yourself in a quiet room, watching a video of a Christmas song with the words on screen. Through your earpiece, you hear the lead singer, and you simply sing along. Then imagine your voice blended together with the voices of others from across Canada, the USA, and beyond, singing together as if you all were in the same room, beautiful harmonies emerging as the voices of altos, tenors, and basses interlace with the main tune carried by the sopranos.

And imagine people around the world, literally around the world, coming together for worship, or perhaps in moments of personal reflection or spiritual need, clicking “play” and being able to listen to the gift you offered the day you simply sang to your phone in a quiet room at home, a ministry that keeps on giving week after week, and year after year. That is the ministry of the Beyond the Walls Choir.

Do you love to sing? Do you know someone who does? Are you ready to add your voice to this ministry? We invite you to give it a try.

This Christmas season, our choir invites you to participate in this ministry, singing CCS 437 – “Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming” and CCS 422 – “In the Bleak Midwinter”, which we will premiere on Christmas Eve.
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• You DO NOT need to know how to read music
• You DO NOT need special recording equipment
• You DO NOT need to be a Maria Callas or a Luciano Pavarotti
• All you need is:
• Two devices, for example, a phone and a laptop, or two phones
• A quiet room at home or at work (maybe even your car, but not when you’re driving!)
• Time to practice a few times before you record

Please find the step-by-step instructions to get you started by clicking on the buttons below. Our team is happy to help you with any questions about the music and to figure out any technical obstacles.

We are looking forward to singing together with you!

Giving Tuesday 2025 was a success. Together, 761 donors from Canada, the USA, the UK, and Europe raised $858,738 USD, including a $375,000 USD matching fund. In Canada alone, 101 donors contributed $54,280 CAD.

This remarkable display of generosity from members and friends across Canada shows the whole world that here in Canada we are committed to moving onward together as a worldwide church dedicated to promoting joy, hope, love, and peace, and to sharing Christ’s mission globally.

We are deeply moved by your incredible generosity. Thank you for sharing hope and compassion this season and for continuing to imagine a world shaped by generosity and peace!

Visit our Giving Tuesday page to learn more about this year’s theme and how your gift makes a difference.

By Apostle Shannon McAdam,
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I have brought home many learnings from my fall tour of the British Isles and Western Europe. One of these has particularly stayed with me: how people there have provided impactful, meaningful ministry in small, humble spaces. As I visited congregations in the UK, I noticed that people take great pride in buildings that are much more humble than many of the facilities our congregations have in North America.

And no one seems to let the size of their space limit what is possible to offer as ministry for their community.

In Sutton, I met a congregation that opens every Wednesday morning for coffee with the community. People wander in from the neighbourhood on their morning walks or intentionally head to “their church” for a hot drink, a cookie, and—more importantly—friendly conversation. At long tables in the small church hall, people sit and catch up on their lives. The congregation also has thrift tables around the edge of the room where people can buy household goods, books, and clothes for just a few pence. Most think of it as “their church,” even if they aren’t members and have never been by on a Sunday.

A little later on Wednesday mornings in Clay Cross, members of the congregation and the larger community gather in their sanctuary to divide food into hampers that people in need can purchase for a very nominal amount. After receiving an overwhelming number of tins of baked beans as donations for hampers, a congregation member came up with the idea of also serving a simple hot lunch of beans on toast on Wednesdays for anyone who might be hungry for a hot meal and/or some conversation. “Bean Still” was born, and has become a weekly tradition.

At Stockport, one room serves as sanctuary, dining room, children’s play area, and meeting place. Their kitchen is smaller than my condo kitchen, and yet they served us a generous lunch when we visited, with homemade soups, fresh bread, cheese aplenty, and desserts (complete with custard!).

These places inspired me to think about how often we assume our spaces—not just our churches but also our homes—are too humble or small to invite anyone to. But in reality, people will remember far more about how they felt when they visited, and the quality of the relationships they formed, than about the décor, the size of the space, or how fancy the meal was.

Could you “risk something new” in your space? Is there something simple you could offer that might bring warmth and hope to others’ lives? Because, as Stassi has challenged us to think: “What if we get it right?” We won’t know unless we try!

Apostles Shannon McAdam and Lachlan Mackay share their Advent and Christmas greetings in this short video, reflecting on the many people they connected with this year and looking toward the year ahead with gratitude. They also offer a special blessing for the season.