• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer
NC Council of Churches

NC Council of Churches

Strength in Unity, Peace through Justice

Get Involved Donate
  • About
    • Overview
    • Staff
    • Members
    • Covenant Partners
    • Statements
    • Board
    • Careers
  • Voices
  • Our Priorities
    • Partners in Health & Wholeness
      • The PHW Collaborative
      • Focus Areas
    • Eco-Justice Connection
      • Faith
      • Advocacy
      • Energy
      • Environmental Justice
      • Food
      • Global
      • Health
      • Resiliency and Restoration
    • Racial Justice
      • Confederate Monument Removal
      • Reparations to Restoration
    • Criminal Justice Reform
      • Cash Bail Reform
      • Death Penalty Abolition
    • Gun Violence Prevention
    • Workers’ Rights
      • Paid Sick Leave / Paid Family Leave
      • Raising Wages
    • Overdose Response
    • Legislative Advocacy
    • Healthcare Justice
    • Farmworkers
    • Public Education
  • In the News
    • NCCC in the News
    • Press Releases
  • Events
  • Resources

Search NC Council of Churches

View All Resources

2015 In Those Days and In These: An Advent Guide

Topic: Advent
Type: Advent

How desperate would your life need to be for you to leave everyone and everything you knew in pursuit of a better one? To venture into a new place where you were a vilified stranger? To risk death?

For the immigrants and refugees making their way out of crisis, what lies ahead of them may appear to be opportunity, but inevitably what lies behind them is tremendous grief.

The North Carolina Council of Churches has worked for decades to make our state and nation a more welcoming place for those fleeing other countries. Policy on refugee resettlement adopted by the Council’s Governing Board in 1979 reads in part:

And we affirm that God’s loving kindness, which reaches out to us in our need, impels us to reach out to these who are homeless and destitute. Christian compassion requires that we open our hearts, hands, homes, churches, and communities to those who seek a place to lay their heads.

As people of faith whose beliefs are grounded in a child born to displaced parents, we must heed the call to welcome with compassion, to protect the vulnerable, to share what we have with those who have nothing.

The staff of the Council decided that the theme for this year’s Advent study guide would be refugees. Clearly the issue is of pressing importance, but we are not the first to address the needs of our sisters and brothers in crisis.

Interestingly, two of the Gospel passages begin with the same words, “In those days.” But the words and messages apply in these days, as well.

We hope that this guide will provide an opportunity for prayerful reflection within your faith community, your family, and on your own. There are children’s activities to help even the very young consider the challenges facing the world they will inherit.

In this busy season, may we all take the time to think deeply, pray fervently, and act compassionately in this world, in these days.

~The Staff of the NC Council of Churches Advent 2015

Download 2015 In Those Days and In These: An Advent Guide

Footer

Contact

NC Council of Churches
27 Horne St.
Raleigh, NC 27607
(919) 828-6501
info@ncchurches.org

Subscribe

Click here to subscribe to newsletters and blog updates.
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Copyright © 2023 NC Council of Churches · All Rights Reserved · Website by Tomatillo Design · Hosted by WP Engine