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Breaking Silences - Advent 2017 Reflection Resources

Jesus does not want children to suffer. 

Yet today, and every day, they do. More than 1.7 billion of them, in every country and every community, experience violence every year. 

You will know of a child who has been or is being abused, exploited, neglected, or experiencing another form of violence. And people in your faith community will know children experiencing this. Staying silent should not be an option for people of faith. 

Jesus was clear in his commitment to recognising and valuing the image of God in every person – never more so than the most vulnerable, children. 

Our prayer is that this Advent these few simple resources will provide you with ways to help your faith communities become more aware of the violence that is happening to children, and encourage them to start breaking the silences that have surrounded those forms of violence against children, whether they are in their neighbourhood or further afield in the global community.

Each theme offers an alternative that speaks to the need for us to break silences around violence against children. These themes offer a more challenging look at Advent that moves beyond the romanticised images of Christmas to provoke thinking. 

Advent One: Hope – Hopelessness 

Advent Two: Peace - Violence 

Advent Three: Joy – Anxiety 

Advent Four: Love – Indifference 

Advent Five: Christmas Day

Please click on the Advent theme below to download resources:

ADVENT ONE

The God who comes as a vulnerable child, experiences, suffers and transforms this violence, and calls on us to do the same on behalf of others today.

ADVENT TWO

We gather this Advent to express our faith a God who knows what it is to become a child.

ADVENT THREE

Each day of our lives we have the choice to harm or heal.

ADVENT FOUR

We remember children who today will be treated with indifference.

ADVENT FIVE

This is a time of joy, we see the expectant, happy faces of children around us.