Advent as Spiritual Resistance: Christmas, COVID, and Consumerism

Exploring how we might engage Advent and Christmas in ways that care for Creation and resist consumerism in a time of COVID!

Zoom link will be sent to registrants.

About this Event

While this can often be a stressful season filled with large expectations – both social and economic (did you get the office party in our calendar? Do we have an even number of gifts for our siblings or children?!), this year we bear a whole different set of stress markers within us as we prepare for Christmas.

Usually we speak of Advent as a time of waiting – but this year, we are all a bit tired of waiting!

So how do we engage the season of Advent and Christmas this year? How might thinking of this as a time of resistance re-energize us in our care for Creation – and our facing the challenges of this year due to COVID-19?

Join our panel as we explore this season of Advent as a preparation for and anticipation of Emmanuel, God-with-us.

Elisa Leahy, film-maker 

Elisa Stone Leahy is a Peruvian-American independent filmmaker who was raised in Peru. She studied film in Vancouver, B.C. where she co-founded Noonday Films. Her company has produced award-winning documentaries about guerrilla gardening in Vancouver, B.C., children with HIV/AIDS in Honduras (Crystal Heart Award, Heartland Film Festival), and elderly activists in the United States (DER Award, Hot Docs Festival).

Meagan Crosby-Shearer

Meagan has a passion for creative liturgy, social justice and engaging ways of entering into our faith story that make them come alive. She loves the wild beauty of the West Coast and learning from her twins Amaya and Zion. She is trained as a Registered Nurse and an ordained priest in the Anglican Church of Canada, where she shares in leadership at the Abbeychurch and St. Matthias in Victoria, BC.

Paul Neufeld, farmer

Paul has been growing vegetables as the lead farmer at A Rocha in Surrey for the past 16 years.  He loves the physical work of farming, the beauty of vegetables, the limitless possibilities of soil and watching folks get excited about the flavours and challenges of local seasonal eating.  Paul lives (and farms, along with his wife Angela) at Kingfisher farm, a 10-acre property which is co-owned by a community of 6 families.