by Suzanna Green, Director of Christian Formation
This year for Advent the Diocese of West Texas departments of Christian Formation, Latino+Immigration, and Small Church Ministries teamed up on a podcast called Advent: Stories of Movement and Migration! This podcast features a variety of stories of movement from around the diocese. The podcast is available now and can be streamed or downloaded from your favorite podcast app or at https://dwtxlaventana.podbean.com/.
The podcast series began with an introduction episode that was published on November 17. If you have not yet listened to that episode please do! In that introduction the three podcast hosts Suzanna Green, Leyla King, and Flor Saldivar define some important terms, do some theological reflection, and give the listener an idea of what to expect with the rest of the Advent series. Following the introductory episode is a Spanish episode but whether or not you speak Spanish you can still participate in this episode by reading the English transcript and listening to the English version of a theological reflection from Bp. Cortiñas available at dwtx.org/events/advent-podcast. All the following episodes are available in English and Spanish, with English episodes releasing Monday and Spanish episodes releasing on Wednesday of each week. In the Advent episodes you’ll hear stories from asylum seekers, clergy families, and second and fifth-generation immigrants who share their stories of movement and migration. You’ll also hear from various clergy around the diocese who will reflect on the scripture passage for each episode and talk a bit about how it relates to the stories shared in that episode.
One final episode will air on December 29 in English and December 31 in Spanish for the season of Epiphany. This episode will include stories from some churches in our diocese as well as scripture and theological reflection.
The episodes are 30-40 minutes long and come with discussion guides, available in both English and Spanish, for group use. Whether or not your church is studying these in a group setting, we hope you will send these podcast episodes out in your church email or put a link to them in the bulletin for folks to listen to during the week. There are also two opportunities to gather as a whole diocese during this series to discuss the episodes and hear from some of the folks who put them together. These discussions will take place on December 11 at 6:30pm and January 8 at 6:30pm. All the resources for this podcast series including links to each episode, discussion guides, transcripts, zoom links, children and youth adaptations, and more can be found at dwtx.org/events/advent-podcast.
Register for the online gatherings:
Advent: Stories of Movement and Migration Online Gathering and Discussion December 11, 6:30 p.m.
Advent: Stories of Movement and Migration Online Gathering and Discussion January 8, 6:30 p.m.
Please note, the Department of Christian Formation is committed to putting together an Advent and a Lent formation series each year from now on. The Lent study for 2026 will also be in a podcast format and will be fully bilingual with one episode in English and one in Spanish for each week of Lent aside from Holy Week. As you make your church’s formation plans please keep this in mind and feel free to contact me at formation@dwtx.org if you are looking for more information on the Lent series to help with your planning.
