As we move through December, join in the Advent Pilgrimage in Palestine: a four-week virtual pilgrimage from the ELCA’s Peace Not Walls and Young Adult Ministry teams featuring young adult voices from the ELCA and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land.
Join us this Advent Season on the WAY to Bethlehem: Prepare, Journey, Arrive, Witness
What is “the way to Bethlehem,” as Advent practice, and as Christian engagement in Palestine? What does it mean for us as Christians, and for the church, to be called to resist the injustice of “the way things are” in favor of following the disruptive and transformative way of the Lord? What does it mean for us to be “on the way”?
We will gather on a weekly basis for the four weeks of Advent to watch videos reflecting on the way to Bethlehem and engage in conversation around those themes.
We will meet on Tuesdays at 7 pm by Zoom, beginning Nov 30th – https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88381121927?pwd=YWE0N3JxZ3Zac21wMkwzcWNuSEx0dz09
The series will kick off on Monday, November 22nd at 7:00pm CT with an educational webinar – watch it live on the ELCA Young Adult FB page.
IN DEPTH PROGRAM DESCRIPTION:
The gospel is good news, not only for the people of ancient Bethlehem, but for the people of Bethlehem today, and for us. Like the people of ancient Palestine, living under the occupation of the Roman Empire, Palestinians today live under occupation — and we all live in the midst of unjust systems (whiteness, nationalism, capitalism) that present themselves as natural (as “just the way it is,”) while oppressing and destroying human life and dignity, and the health of the planet itself. The Advent of Jesus in the first-century world was God’s in-breaking into the “way things are” to announce, and embody, a different way of being: the way of the Lord. Early Christian communities often referred to Christianity not as a location (the church) but as “the way” of Jesus (ὁδός). In this Advent series, the way of Jesus is an invitation into transformation, leading us to Bethlehem: to God with us in the Christ child, in the midst of injustice and suffering, bringing good news of justice and peace.
