The Scottish Episcopal Church has created a digital Advent Calendar, offering visitors to its website – scotland.anglican.org – a different video each day in the run-up to Christmas. The short videos reflect a variety of Advent-related themes and reflections, “highlighting how the Church is living out the Advent promise and how individuals and groups respond to the call of Advent and look forward together to the Birth of Christ,” a spokeswoman for the Church said.

The first video, on 1 December, featured the Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church, the Bishop of Moray, Ross and Caithness, Mark Strange, explaining the thinking behind the video series. He said that the videos would “help us to reflect on the major themes of Advent, and some of the themes people come up with as they consider their preparations, as they prepare themselves to celebrate the birth of Christ, as they reflect on the second coming of Christ, and as they reflect on those issues and matters around the world which are closest to their hearts.”

Other videos released so far include a reflection on Joanna MacDonald, a student at the Scottish Episcopal Institute, on Mary’s experiences as she received the call to bear Jesus to the world; the collect for the first Sunday in Advent, read by a young woman Meghan Philp; the Revd Sally Foster-Fulton, Head of Christian Aid Scotland, talking about PresentAid; and the Revd Canon Dr Alison Peden reflecting on Mary, Elizabeth, and meeting with loved ones at important moments.

Today’s offering is a compilation of children from every diocese in the Scottish Episcopal Church reading the poem Christmas, by George Herbert.

You can access the online Advent Calendar and the short videos by visiting the Scottish Episcopal Church website.