LA MIRADA, CALIF. — Biola University's Center for Christianity, Culture, and the Arts launched its fourth advent calendar featuring a number of artists and writers. For the past three years, the CCCA has presented the Advent Project, a beautiful composition of art, words, Scripture, music and thoughtful prayer — all online. This year, the calendar will include a new entry each day of Advent, including Scripture, art, music and a written devotion.

“It has been very exciting to have this diverse tapestry of experts share their respective knowledge, gifts and creative energy to build the project into something that will hopefully be deeply enriching to those who follow it through the season,” said Luke Aleckson, executive director for the Center for Christianity, Culture, and the Arts.

The first day of Advent begins Dec. 3, 2017, and continues through Epiphany, Jan. 6, 2018, totaling 34 days. Greg Peters, director of faculty advancement for the Torrey Honors Institute, selected Scripture passages for each day. Betty Spackman, a Canadian installation artist, chose fine artworks to relate to each passage and collaborated with Rachel Glazener, professional musician and Biola alumna, for the music integrated in each piece. Additionally, Chris Davidson, poet and Biola English professor, curated the poetry featured in the project.

The Advent Project brings together a wide variety of musical and artistic styles. The pieces have been carefully selected to complement one another and create a rich meditative tapestry of prayerful thought, vision and sound.

There are more than 18,000 subscribers to the advent project from around the world, and thousands more who visit the ccca.biola.edu site during the project for the devotional experiences offered.

“We like to think of this as a moment of global, collective worship,” said Aleckson. “It is also meant as an articulation of the CCCA's vision of supporting and employing all forms of art and culture as vibrant facets of the endlessly inventive prism of human creativity. Though the Word of God is at the center of the project, human creative work is needed to illuminate and enliven it in people's' hearts and imaginations. We hope the Advent Project does exactly that.”

Participate in the free online advent calendar by visiting the CCCA website.

For more information, contact Jenna Loumagne, Media Relations Manager, at (562) 777-4061 or jenna.loumagne@biola.edu.