Church of the Advent

08/25/2026

Blessing your timeline with another text-heavy, Hildegard-laden image replete with opportunities to connect in the coming month. All are enthusiastically invited and welcome ⭐️

08/25/2026

Blessing your timeline with more text-heavy & Hildegard-laden images replete with opportunity to connect next month. All are enthusiastically invited and welcome ⭐️

08/20/2026

Summer is flying by but the growing season is far from over in Cincinnati! It’s been a delicious season full of honey, sweet peppers, juicy toms, and sunflowers bigger than your head.

Recently, we made plaques honoring some of our favorite figures of Christian history whose legacies shapes our community’s imagination — one for each garden bed!

We’re still looking for volunteers to help out around the garden as we transition into fall. Drop by Wednesdays from 9a–12p or Thursdays from 4–6p. If neither time works for you, reach out to our Minister for Land Justice, Megan, at [email protected] to find other ways to get involved ⭐️

08/05/2026

We talk a lot around here about art and the role of the arts in shaping Christian imagination and forming the kinds of people that God would have us be. In 2024, we founded “Advent Workshop” as the umbrella for our community’s arts and media project–a creative hub and growing resource library for theological education and spiritual formation. Since then, the widespread introduction and accelerating adoption of AI technologies has posed new questions and challenges to our creative endeavors and to the arts more broadly.

We’ve had the following statement sitting quietly on our website since 2024, but in the light of recent ecclesial statements on the use of generative AI both inside and outside church contexts (see Pope Leo’s “Magnifica Humanitas” and the Archbishop of Canterbury’s recent comments in the House of Lords) we thought it would be a good time to highlight our stance as a community committed to the thoroughly relational, bodily, often imperfect and inefficient work of making art, growing food, praying, and doing church. And given the many ways these technologies have begun to shape the arts and digital media specifically, we want to draw attention — through the introduction of this new logo, which you may have already noticed on our digital media — to our commitment to working with artists, designers, and animators to produce hand-, heart-, and mind-made materials, uninfluenced by generative AI.

AI is–for everything else it is–a theological issue, and we feel it is our responsibility to respond with creative faithfulness and careful discernment. What follows is not a thoroughgoing policy or manifesto, but rather the foundation for a timely and important conversation we want to have as a community about how these technologies are shaping us, and an articulation of our guiding values as we all navigate the terra incognita of an AI-changed world.

07/25/2026

Hope y’all are staying cool and hydrated out there—summer is flying by, and we’ve got a stacked August coming right around the corner. Mark your calendars for these upcoming formation events and gatherings at COTA.

Join us for three one-hour conversational classes from noon-1pm on the first three Sundays of the month after service where we’ll explore your questions about Church of the Advent and our broader Anglican Tradition. These classes are a great entry point for newcomers, but they’re also more than that: a chance to learn about the bigger theological and historical story to which we belong. What do we believe as a church? Where do we come from? How do we understand the purpose of a Christian life? These sort of issues will be our focus as we grapple with the question: ‘Why put down roots in a church like this?’

Week One: Why Anglican?
The Anglican branch of the Christian family tree has its own distinctive history and approach to Christian worship and theology. We’ll explore that story and the way it has shaped us over the centuries. What’s an Anglican? What’s an Episcopalian? What’s the Book of Common Prayer? Come join us and add your own questions to the conversation!

Week Two: Why ‘A Church of Word & Sacrament’’?
The Episcopal Church defines itself as a church of ‘Word & Sacrament’. What does that mean? How do we understand the nature and role of the Bible? How do we understand baptism and Eucharist? Why do we center our worship so squarely on these things? Join us as the conversation continues!

Week Three: Why Church of the Advent?
Church of the Advent was founded in Walnut Hills in 1855. It has a particular history full of unexpected twists and turns which led us our calling in the present moment. What is our local mission? In what ways are we similar to (and different from) other Episcopal churches? Why? In this final week, we’ll explore the nature of our parish roots as a community.

Finally, join us on August 23rd for a potluck and the following Sunday for our end-of-the-month potluck—bring a dish to share!

07/17/2026

Thank you to everyone who came out to celebrate Rev. Dan’s installation as Rector of Church of the Advent this past week—especially Bishop Kristin and our friends throughout the Diocese of Southern Ohio, Rev. Jacob from Holy Family Episcopal Church who brought the word, and the many folks in our community who volunteered their time to make it such a special evening which naturally included, a red velvet Revelation Lamb cake 🎉

07/17/2026

First fruits from the Advent hives with an abundance of gratitude for our winged, pollinating colleagues🌻🌻

07/09/2026

WILLIAM STRINGFELLOW is the subject of our newest installment of “Cloud of Witnesses,” our animated series exploring the lives and work of saints and figures throughout church history whose stories continue to resonate with our way of being church at Advent. As an Episcopalian living in a political environment not terribly dissimilar from our own, Stringfellow is a particularly important figure for us. His prophetic witness on how to live out the gospel in a 1950s–70s America plagued by the demons of militarism, racism, consumerism, and political deception continues to resonate deeply today. We hope you enjoy this brief introduction to an extremely rich biography.

Want to learn more? We recommend Stringfellow’s own “An Ethic for Christians and Other Aliens in a Strange Land,” Bill Wylie-Kellerman’s “Principalities in Particular” alongside his collections of Stringfellow’s work with Orbis Books and Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, and the work of Walter Wink as great places to start.

We are grateful to have the exceptionally talented animator and storyteller Abbey Flory—who did all the animation work—as a parishioner at Advent. And likewise the inimitable David True, who did all the awesome sound design, in our community.

Animations by Abbey FlorySound design by David Truewww.adventcin...

07/07/2026

Join us next Wednesday, July 15th, at 6p for the installation of Rev. Dan as the Rector of Church of the Advent! All are welcome. Here’s a reflection from Dan about the shift.

05/24/2026

May the Spirit, who hovered over the waters when the world was created, breathe into you the life that she gives.

May the Spirit, who overshadowed the Virgin when the eternal Son came among us, make you joyful in the service of the Lord.

May the spirit, who set the Church aflame on the Day of Pentecost, bring this world alive with the love of the risen Christ.

And the blessing of God almighty, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, be among you and remain with you always.

—

Grateful to wade through the waters of baptism with three of our young ones today. Happy Pentecost to all🔥

(Blessing adapted from the Church of England’s Solemn Blessing for Pentecost (Common Worship)