Celebrating a Christian New Year’s Party
For churches that celebrate the seasons of the Christian Year and use the Revised Common Lectionary in worship, marking a new Christian Year on the eve of or on the first Sunday in Advent is a natural practice. In Advent, we start a new cycle of readings that begin again the narrative of Christ’s birth, life, death, resurrection, ascension and the gift of the Holy Spirit that births the church.
Following are some suggestions for ways to host a celebration of Christian New Year’s. Some of them might be particularly helpful for those churches just recovering and rediscovering the practice of marking time by the Christian seasons.
Begin the gathering with a potluck supper (or lunch after worship on the first Sunday in Advent). You might frame this as an agape meal by starting with prayer, scripture and the breaking and sharing of bread. We have also included encouraging folk to bring traditional New Year’s food from their culture and sharing what that is before we eat.
Have tables set with clothes according to the colours of the seasons and set with symbols from that particular season (and with star shaped pieces of paper and pens for the closing activity)...
Advent - blue with advent wreath/candle
Christmas - white & gold with nativity
Epiphany - green with star, three gifts, bowl of water
Lent - purple with bowl of ashes & crown of thorns
Holy Week - red with palm leaves, cup & plate, crucifix
Easter - white & gold with resurrection cross & figure, white candle
Pentecost - red with circle of friends
During dinner, encourage folks to figure out what season they are sitting with and what each of the symbols mean. Have some resource books (such as Imaging the Word) available for folks to look through for answers during dinner if they get stuck (can have on a side table). Encourage folk to use the star-shaped pieces of paper to write out a hope or dream they have for the congregation in the coming new year. After dinner, have each table share what they came up with re: which season, the meaning of the colour and symbols, what we typically do in that season. Go through the seasons in the order that they developed within the church - Easter, Pentecost (Day), Epiphany, Holy Week, Lent, Advent, Christmas.
Relay:
You will need to have two of the following...
- a puzzle showing Mary and Joseph on their way to Bethlehem
- a manger, baby, swaddling strips and a blanket
- bathrobe
- small dish of ashes
- basin of water and towel
- copies of Voices United (4-5 per team)
- red candle in holder, Bible
Invite folks to participate in the relay. It might be helpful to designate that a team must be made up on at least one (or more) person under 10, at least one person over 50 and at least one person that someone doesn’t know. It would be helpful if there are 8 people in each team. Give each person a folded piece of paper in the following order:
Blue (Advent) - Put together the puzzle to find out what we are waiting for. You can
have help from 2 other people on your team for this task.
Yellow (Christmas) - Jesus is born! Wrap him first in the swaddling strip, then wrap him in a blanket and put him in the manger. Have your whole team sing to him the first verse of Away in a Manger.
Green (Epiphany) - Put on the robe. Find a gift for the baby Jesus and put it by the
manger.
Purple (Lent) - Take the small dish of ashes. Mark a cross on the forehead of each
person on your team, saying, ‘You are dust and to dust you shall return.’
Red (Holy Week) - Take the basin of water and the towel and wash the feet of the other
team.
Yellow (Easter) - Call out to your team, ‘Christ is Risen!’ They must respond, ‘He is
risen, indeed!’ Sing together "Jesus Christ is Risen Today" or another Easter hymn.
Red (Pentecost) - Light the red candle. Look up Acts 2: 1-4 in the Bible and have
someone read it in a different language than English.
Green (Season After Pentecost) - Look up Acts 2: 43-47 in the Bible and read it aloud.
Sharing Hopes and Dreams for the Congregation
Gather in a large circle with a basket in the middle. Have people bring with them the star shaped paper on which they have written a hope or dream for the congregation in the coming year. Have people share these, place them in the basket and then end with a prayer and singing “God, Our Help in Ages Past.”