Nicholas Holtam was Bishop of Salisbury from 2011 to 2021 and the Church of England's lead bishop for the environment, chairing the Environmental Working Group from 2014 to 2021. A Durham geographer before training for ordination, he lives in Brighton and is married to Helen with 4 adult children. Nicholas is the author of The Art of Worship: Paintings, Prayers, and Readings for Meditation and A Room with a View: Ministry with the World at Your Door. Sleepers Wake! is his first Advent book.

With this vast, beautifully diverse family of believers in mind, Arun Arora steers us through many of the anxieties and pressures of the season, with reflections that keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, and offer hope, comfort and joy. In one of the obligatory encomia that books now include, “Reading this was like spending an afternoon with Bishop Arun at the pub.” The notion of a bishop’s spending an afternoon in a pub — even a suffragan bishop — is beyond the scope of this review. If you’re looking for great family devotionals through the year, don’t forget to take a look at my recommendations here: 10 Best Family Devotions.) Advent study for small groups

Church Times/Sarum College:

It’s nearly the happiest season of all—Christmas! Which means it’s time to start thinking about ways to make this holiday merry and bright…and one of the best ways to do that this year is with book advent calendars. The Advent season is one of the most special times of the year, when candles twinkle, the Christmas tree is decorated, and the smells of cinnamon, nutmeg and clove fill the kitchen. The ideal Advent companion! Rooted in both the Bible and the current environmental crisis, Bishop Holtam’s meditations help us to face the challenge of the Saviour who will finally come in judgement of what we have done to God’s world, while we are preparing to offer all we have to the Babe of Bethlehem. Read it yourself daily, study it in weekly groups – but, most importantly, wake from sleep and act now before it is too late.’ David Sims, a church leader and adoptive and additional needs dad of 3, has struggled to find resources to lead his family in faith. This is his solution! And it’s wonderful: a gloriously-illustrated A4 book of fun and creative ways to engage with God’s Word within the home this Advent. Each day comprises a Bible passage (written out in full for ease), short devotional to read, then options to pray, think and do! There are beautifully-lettered phrases, plus plenty of space for journaling or doodling your own thoughts. A wonderful Advent devotion for families! The God of Amazing Gifts (Lizzie Laferton, 2022)

Buy the 12 Day Bookish Advent Calendar now! (or buy it on Etsy here!) 2. 25 Days Book Christmas Advent Calendar Dr Carys Walsh, curate at All Saints’, Kettering, leapfrogs all these divisions by offering a book completed a year ago. Frequencies of God should become something of a classic. The author interprets the poetry of the Welsh priest R. S. Thomas through the Advent prisms of waiting, accepting, journeying, birthing, and seeing. She reveals both knowledge of and love for his verse. This bookish advent calendar comes with 12 individually-wrapped, book-themed gifts that are perfect for any book lover. It is meant to be opened in the last 12 days leading up to Christmas Eve/Christmas, which means you’ll start opening the gifts on December 13th or 14th. Bookworms are sure to enjoy opening each day’s item for a fun surprise leading up to the holidays! On the staff at the 2008 Lambeth Conference, he describes the Anglican Communion, touchingly, as “a vast and diverse family which points to that picture of heaven in the book of Revelation”. By the time he attends the 2022 Conference as a new bishop, he finds that “provinces, mainly from Africa, were offered financial inducements by church organisations in wealthier parts of the world if they agreed to boycott the conference.” If you’re looking for an Advent guide which will widen your experience beyond the gospel retellings, here it is. Like a grown-up version of the Jesse Tree, The Whole Christmas Story does just that: it ponders the whole Christmas story, starting with creation in Genesis and ending with the new heaven and new earth described in Revelation. The format is traditional: Bible passage (helpfully included in full), followed by articulate and warm commentary. Jo Swinney expounds Scripture deeply and wisely, with nuance which stems from a recent tragedy. A worthy companion to your Advent. The Promise and the Light (Katy Morgan, 2021)The author believes in the “bounty of Christmas” and is happy to find this bounty in the everyday. Here is a timely reminder that, while some of the celebrations may be different this year, it is impossible to “cancel” Christmas. So with the definition of an ‘Advent devotional’ as something which will encourage your faith, here are my recommendations! Christmas and Advent devotions for families If you’re looking for a book to help you explore lament, pain, suffering and darkness in an accessible but theologically-rich way, this is the one. It’s not been written specifically as an Advent devotional, but the six chapters follow the liturgical year – starting with Advent then Christmas, Ordinary Time, Lent, Easter and Ordinary Time – so to read it during Advent would be highly appropriate. I love Rachael Newham‘s warm style, dotted with anecdotes from her own experience, connecting with us in our hard times, and deeply persuading us that lament has an important role to play in life and faith. The questions at the end of each chapter would make a great Advent study for small groups – you could read a chapter each week of Advent and take the rest into January (or start the whole thing in November!). Brightest and Best (Philippa Ruth Wilson, 2022) If you want a book advent calendar that specifically features books you can read (instead of just book-themed gifts), then this 25 Days Book Christmas Advent Calendar is a great option! The theme of waiting for light is one Lent shares with Advent, as each week, candles are lit to anticipate the coming of Christ into the world”, writes Arun.

In this short and easy-to-read devotional, Sarah Tummey focuses purely on Old Testament passages. Rather than looking at the gospel story, she skilfully explains how particular prophecies, Psalms and other OT writings came to be fulfilled in the birth of Jesus. This would make an excellent devotional for a newer Christian, a Christian who hasn’t used an Advent devotional before, or anyone who is interested to develop their understanding of the narrative of Scripture. The Coming of the King (J C Ryle/Mary Davis , 2022) Some Celtic spirituality risks being away with the hobbits; David Cole is a more considerable figure. As deputy guardian for the Community of Aidan and Hilda, his work is rooted in the tradition of the north-east of England. His readers can start this book now and run through to October 2021, when the turning world may well turn out to be well again. In a phrase: Imagined storytellings and Bible studies based on Sarah, Isaiah, John the Baptist and MaryThe New Daylight series of daily Bible readings, gathered in a booklet, Journeying through Advent, are written this year by David Winter, Steve Aisthorpe, Amy Boucher Pye, Andy John, and Margaret Cundiff (who died in 2011). As Archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell, writes in his foreword to the book, Advent is not only a time for anticipating the moment Jesus Christ came into the world but also reflecting on the ‘last things’ foretold in the Book of Revelation where people of every tribe, tongue and nation rejoice before the throne of God.

The 24 Days of Bookish Gifts Advent Calendar Box is another option that will bring bookish Christmas cheer to you this year!From a book of cheer to the downright jokey comes The Glorious Journey. Liam Kelly has produced an Advent book based on the Netflix film The Two Popes. He works at Ampleforth Abbey in the abbot’s office and offers a nicely balanced secular commentary on seasonal themes such as listening, change, mercy, and loneliness. In her introduction, the editor, Sally Welch, writes of a “world covering itself in glitter and sparkle, immersed in an orgy of spending and over-indulging in which the church alone stands sober and still, determinedly counter-cultural”. The Bible Reading Fellowship must surely have been able to tinker with its publishing schedule enough to ensure a less out-of-touch approach. Everything about these reflections is solid and worth while, simply less than fully helpful in Advent 2020. Here is a resource which, whilst not technically an Advent devotional, does a good job of pretending. After all, what could be more appropriate in a season which is all about waiting than studying the lives of four Bible characters who ‘waited’? For those of us currently in limbo – perhaps waiting for a job, some news from the doctor, or a forthcoming marriage – this book would be especially helpful. I love the expert way Tanya Marlow combines imaginative storytelling with incisive Biblical commentary – sometimes it can feel like resources have to choose one or the other, but this does both. If you want to go deeper in your journey with God this Advent, but do it creatively, this is for you. Tracing Glory: The Christmas Story through the Bible (Sarah Rice, 2021) – devotional and ornament activity book The books divide themselves several ways: for individual use or for group use; having daily or weekly readings; according to faith tradition or consciously ecumenical; and then, of course, by relevance; for there are those that choose not to offer understanding and consolation “in a time of plague”, and those that consciously attempt to shine a beacon of hope onto our troubled times. Put another way, there are books that could have worked in any Advent up to this year, and those that — casting publishing deadlines to the winds — deliberately target 2020.