We are planning a diocesan ‘posada’ during Advent this year with Mary and Joseph travelling around to a different church in the diocese each day from 1 December.
Posada is the Spanish word for lodging or accommodation, so each stop on this journey is their lodging for the night, representing the lodging places Mary and Joseph stayed at on their way to Bethlehem.
Our diocesan posada will visit each deanery for four days and there will be a simple liturgy and reflection provided for every day. We hope that at each location the posada visits, the parish will send us a photo of the posada in location to share on social media and then arrange to pass it on to the next place. We are also planning to come and do some filming with the posada in some locations.
Would your church like to be involved?
We’d really like parishes to find an innovative way of sharing the posada with their community – perhaps involving a school, uniformed organisation or organising a short service in the church which people could be invited to. Doug Chaplin will be preparing a set of liturgical and prayer resources to accompany the figures, that you will be able to adapt or use ready-made.
We obviously need to ensure a good spread of parishes for the Holy Family to visit and plan a sensible route, but if you would like them to come to you, please do get in touch with Sam Setchell on ssetchell@cofe-worcester.org.uk. It would be helpful if you could give us an idea of how you might share the posada with others while it is with you.
As the posada can only visit four places in each deanery, we will work with the Area Deans and Deanery Lay Chairs to put a route together and will be back in touch to confirm if we can offer you a date and finalise arrangements.
If you have any queries, please do get in touch with either Sam or Doug.