When? Sunday before Advent
One in three women worldwide experience physical or sexual violence mostly by an intimate partner. Violence against women and girls is a human rights violation.
Since the outbreak of COVID-19, emerging data and reports from those on the front lines, have shown that all types of violence against women and girls, particularly domestic violence, has intensified. (UN Women website)
Resources for Women against Violence Sunday from Chile (pdf)
This further Service for Women against Violence Sunday (pdf) includes hymn suggestions, prayers and a meditation. (Introductory notes and hymn suggestions also below.)
Three more additional resources are available here.
Notes
On the Sunday before Advent we are reminded of the nature of the one who is to come. We call him 'king' but his kingdom is very different from what people expect. The Gospel passage (John 18: 33-37) reminds us that God's kingdom is not one of power through violence (the model of kingship in Jesus' time); rather, God's kingdom is one where truth, life, and right relationships are valued. Elsewhere in the Gospels we discover more about the nature of God's kingdom. Elsewhere in John's Gospel we learn that Christ the King has friends, not servants, and in this way he subverts the notion of status.
Suggested hymns and songs
A touching place (Christ's is the world in which we move) (Iona Abbey Music Book)
Be still, for the presence of the Lord (StF 20)
Brother, sister, let me serve you (StF 611)
From Heaven you came, helpless babe (StF 272)
Gifts of the Spirit (When our Lord walked the earth) (Iona Abbey Music Book)
Great God, your love has called us here (StF 499)
Let love be real, in giving and receiving (StF 625)
Meekness and Majesty (StF 362)
Praise to God, the world's creator (Jan Berry/SongSelect)
The kingdom of God is justice and joy (StF 255)
We cannot measure how you heal (StF 655)
We lay our broken world in sorrow at your feet (StF 718)
We shall go out with hope of resurrection (June Boyce-Tillman/WorshipWords)