Resources for the Church and the World
The Magnificat Circle
This Advent, we invite you to enter the season through The Magnificat Way—a journey of joyful courage, justice, and hope inspired by Mary’s song in Luke 1:46–55. This is a digital gathering space to inspire and connect faith leaders, worship planners, and communities of faith as they prepare for the coming of Christ. More than a collection of materials, the Advent Hub invites collaboration and reflection. It seeks to nurture spiritual formation, amplify diverse voices, and make accessible the many ways the Church bears witness to God’s transforming presence in the world.
“And Mary said, 'My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked with favor on the lowly state of his servant. Surely from now on all generations will call me blessed, for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name; indeed, his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. He has brought down the powerful from their thrones and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty. He has come to the aid of his child Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, according to the promise he made to our ancestors, to Abraham and to his descendants forever.' — Luke 1:46–55”
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Columbia’s beautiful Wreath Liturgy for 2025 is the work of many hands in the Columbia community. Each week a different guest writer prepared gathering words, scripture engagement, candle-lighting words, hymn verses, prayers, and closing acclamations.
We offer it to you as a digital download, or as blog posts for you to share, or copy/paste for your bulletins.
Download text here
Introduction
Advent week one liturgy
Advent week two liturgy
Advent week three liturgy
Advent week four liturgy
Christmas Candle lighting liturgy
MAGNIFY THE JOY: AN ADVENT PLAYLIST OF RESISTANCE & RESILIENCE brings together voices and rhythms from around the world to celebrate joy as a radical act of faith and freedom. Created by the Columbia Theological Seminary community, this playlist complements the MAGNIFY JOY initiative’s call to live, worship, and resist with joy at the center.
We’ve created Advent images and we want to share them with you! Use them in bulletins, emails, or for any of your organization’s needs. These downloadable image files are stored on Photoshelter, so you will need to create an account to access them. The images are free to use for church-related, non-commercial purposes, with attribution to Columbia Theological Seminary. They may not be used for any commercial or for-profit venture.
We’ve included images of the Advent words as well as candle-lighting images. Thirteen different images in all, with transparent backgrounds.
Join Dr. William P. Brown, the William Marcellus McPheeters Professor of Old Testament, as he walks through the lessons of Advent. These videos were created to stimulate conversations about this season, give thought to the words, actions, and waiting that Advent invites us into. Additional study questions can be found here.
Weeks three and four will be published shortly!
We’ve gathered a few additional resources to help you this season
To supplement their series What do you Fear? Insisting on Hope this Advent, A Sanctified Art offers this simple worship outline as a way to make space for difficult emotions during the holiday season, particularly surrounding the fear of the world. This could be offered as a slight alternative to a traditional Blue Christmas or Longest Night service. As this liturgy is inspired by candlelight vigils, you might even choose to hold the service outdoors after dark. They have included notes about how the service might best be adapted for outdoor worship without bulletins or screens.
The Magnificat Chapel Service is a 40-minute worship experience focused on Luke 1:46-55. Members of the Columbia Seminary community to offer an artistic or theological worship element (song, instrumental piece, visual art, poem, or spoken word, dance, story, dramatic presentation or other) that interprets this passage in some way during a season when we look for the coming of Christ and celebrate Mary's powerful and prophetic vision of God's justice through her child for the world. Lessons and Carols is a Christmas service that combines nine (or more) Scripture readings with Christmas carols and hymns to tell the story of Christmas. The Magnificat Chapel Service Tuesday, December 2 at 10:10 am Lessons and Carols Service Friday, December 6 at 10:10 am Both services will be livestreamed at the link below. If you are able to join us in person, services will be in the Harrington Center Chapel.
