Advent on the Internet

“CARE for the world — it’s the only one we have,” Archbishop Desmond Tutu appealed yesterday in the videocast that launched the C of E’s online Advent calendar. Each day offers a video story from a different diocese or agency and is a challenge to change the world. They range from the Archbishop of Canterbury’s reflections on the Copenhagen summit to the Chief Rabbi’s suggestions for “sabbath moments”. Each one has an accom panying Bible passage and prayer. The daily videocasts will be posted on YouTube and promoted on Twitter. They include meditative projects such as the Quiet Garden movement; lifestyle initiatives such as one in Birmingham to send re cycled presents; community projects such as a fruit and veg market in St Andrew’s, Fulham Fields; and energy-saving projects such as solar panels on a Lincoln church. A Fresh Expressions beach-hut church in Brighton and Hove has its own online Advent calendar, “Beyond”. The doors open to reveal Christmas images from the Advent Beach Hut Calendar last year, which happens again this year along the Hove seafront. Every evening, from 1 December, a different hut is the venue for a “seasonal surprise”, culminating in mince pies and mulled wine on Christmas Day. The charity Damaris, which works to relate Christian faith and contemporary culture, has also created an Advent video calendar for churches, organisations, and indivi duals to put on their websites. It features reflections from speakers such as the author Philip Yancey, and Canon Andrew White.