North Vancouver’s Highlands United Church members are building a life-sized interactive Advent calendar and inviting the community to come open a door and see what’s inside.
Volunteers have collected a series of cabinets and dressers, which will be carefully decorated for the festive season and put out on display under a shelter in front of the church.
Each day from Dec. 1 to 24, neighbours and passersby can come open a drawer and find a gift and a message about Christmas.
What is Advent?
Before it became a way to mollify excited kids with microdoses of Christmas chocolate, Advent’s liturgical tradition dates back at least 1,500 years.
Different denominations from different parts of the world have their own traditions, but all of them are about the anticipation of the “big gift” – the birth of Jesus on Dec. 25.
“Advent is that period of waiting where we prepare our hearts,” said Rev. Julie Lees, minister of faith and community engagement at Highlands United. “We wait for Jesus to be born, which in a church context, means the birth of the light of the world … and the notion that the world will be filled with the love of God.”
For each Sunday of the period of Advent, Highlands’ church services will be themed along the lines of “waking up” to the highest ideals the season represents.
“Each week we’re going to wake up to hope, wake up to peace, wake up to joy and wake up to love,” Lees said. “Even amidst the despair in the world right now, we can still wake up to hope … even with all the war and conflict, we can still wake up to peace.”
24 daily gifts
Those ideals are also represented in the oversized Advent gifts crafted by the church’s members and volunteers. Without giving everyone to close a peek, the men’s breakfast group has made coasters that are intended to foster conversation. The English language learners’ group has crafted cards wishing a Merry Christmas in their mother tongues. And the Church’s 2SLGBTQ+ group is making bracelets with the message of love.
To find out what the other drawers contain, you’ll have to drop by in person.
Lees said they don’t know how many people to expect, but the dedicated helpers from the various groups within the church have will have between 50 and 80 small gifts ready each day.
The group was inspired by a church in Calgary that did something similar in 2022, and Lees stressed that everyone in the church’s leadership and congregation pitched in.
A community centre
When possible, Lees said she hopes to have volunteers stationed at the outdoor calendar with hot chocolate and a welcoming conversation. More than taking away a token gift, Lees said she wants people to think of Highlands as a place of coming together.
“I hope that folks understand that regardless of whether people come to church on a Sunday, Highlands is a part of the community for them as well. I hope that their hearts get sparked with a little bit of light and joy and fun,” she said. “My big hope is that regardless of faith tradition or no tradition, or background or identity, that there are always ways that we can host conversations. We can find connection. We can see each other as each other in all of our differences and all of our desires for the world.”
Highlands United Church is at 3255 Edgemont Blvd.
