[Society of Saint John the Evangelist] Advent — from Nov. 27 to Dec. 24 — is the season when Christians observe a time of expectant waiting and preparation for the celebration of the birth of Jesus at Christmas. It is a time traditionally marked in Christian tradition with an Advent Calendar to countdown until the joyous birth of Christ. It is also a time when we will be on our phones and social media a lot.

The Anglican Communion Office, London, in partnership with Anglican/Episcopal monks of the Society of Saint John the Evangelist (SSJE) with the are offering a way for people all over the world to pray through your phone every day of Advent and help create a global Advent Calendar by contributing pictures on social media.

“AdventWord is a wonderfully innovative way to engage people in prayer all over the world. I am so encouraged to see such a creative use of social media to bring the community of Christ together. The Bible calls on us to bring prayers and petitions to God. I urge Anglicans everywhere to sign up and get involved in what will be an extraordinary, powerful and global wave of prayer.” Secretary General of the Anglican Communion, the Rt. Rev. Josiah Atkins Idowu-Fearon.

“[AdventWord has] been a wonderful avenue through which to share about the Gospel message and God’s creation. I have the parish and several friends participating in it, as well as personally participating from my own social media accounts.”  Sandra Alagona, Communications Director, Church of the Good Shepherd, Hemet, California.

How does it work? Sign up for a daily email at AdventWord.org and at 5am where ever you are in the world you will receive an email with a meditation and a beautiful image and invitation to respond with a picture of your own on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. When you respond your photograph becomes part of the Advent Calendar and you can view all the images that come in from all around the world. AdventWord shows people coming together in joy day by day.

“When I was a kid I loved opening the windows in the Advent calendar. Each window was a message that led us to the greater mystery of Christmas. Advent is that time when we look forward with expectation and hopefulness to the gift of Christ at Christmas. And now, much to my great delight, you can actually log on to adventword.org and pull back the windows for your own Advent calendar. And what’s more, you can add your own photos and experience the joy of praying with others from around the globe through Advent.” Brother Jim Woodrum, Society of Saint John the Evangelist

Through partnerships with volunteer translators throughout the Anglican Communion, AdventWord is available in Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Hindi, Portuguese, Spanish, Tamil and American Sign Language.

New this year, AdventWord resources have been made available earlier than usual so that clergy, chaplains and communicators who want to use AdventWord with students, congregations and for outreach leading up to Christmas have adequate time to plan. Resources are currently available at aco.org/adventword.

One organization taking advantage of an early partnership with AdventWord is Bread for the World (Bread.org). AdventWord will be available on the Bread for the World website and the organization is reaching out to all its members to participate.

“We are delighted to work with the Society of St. John the Evangelist, especially since this is the first time we have partnered with a monastic order. As a pan-Christian organization, we are excited to bring Bread for the World’s members into AdventWord and give them the opportunity to participate with other Christians in the creation of the Global Advent Calendar, since our mission concerns God’s wider world. We also look forward to the SSJE monks’ words of wisdom as we celebrate the coming of Christ.”

Adlai Amor, director of communications and marketing at Bread for the World.

AdventWord is made possible by partners around the world including: Colleges & Universities of the Anglican Communion (CUAC); Lady Doak College, Madurai, India; Cathedral of St. George the Martyr, Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem; Faculdade Anglicana de Erechim, Brazil; The Convocation of Episcopal Churches in Europe; Episcopal Diocese of Taiwan; St. John’s Church, Episcopal Diocese of West Michigan and  El Buen Pastor, Iglesia Episcopal, Redwood City, Episcopal Diocese of California. It was conceived with ideas from the Episcopal Diocese of Texas and The Episcopal Church.