Following the Star

Building on the very positive feedback and huge amount of diocesan and local church engagement from the national '#FollowTheStar' campaign in 2018, it has returned again this year as the main Church of England theme for Advent and Christmas 2019.

As well as all the material that allowed churches to participate in #FollowTheStar last year, this year there is a booklet offering a brand-new reflection for each of the 12 days of Christmas with a short Bible passage, a simple prayer and a challenge.

Written by Revd Mina Munns, the new Church House Publishing reflections invite you on a journey, experiencing the wonder and excitement of the Wise Men’s journey as they travel towards Jesus.

There is also the #FollowTheStar leaflet for churches who wish to promote the campaign to large groups of people. It contains a short challenge for each day, plus QR codes linking to the full reflections on the #FollowTheStar app.

This year, the Church of England has provided more content for Advent, with video content and customisable videos and are encouraging churches to hold ‘Night of the Stars’ events.

Last year, for the first time the campaign spanned digital, print and traditional media and broadcast, and it had a total social media reach of 7.94 million, up by 1.14 million on 2017.

More than 120,000 copies of the #FollowTheStar booklet sold and 'A Church Near You' received more page views than 2017, up from 1.5 million to 1.66 million.

On top of that, more than 50,000 items were sold through the online store - bookmarks, booklets and flyers were particularly popular.

So if you want to join in, why not order the '#FollowTheStar: Twelve days of Wonder' booklets, download the free app, and encourage your church to display a star?

Click here for more details and don't forget to email Grapevine to tell us all about what you are up to as you 'Follow the Star' this year.