ADVENT ALTERNATIVE GIFT FAIR
JUSTICE, PEACE, AND INTEGRITY OF CREATION (JPIC)
22ND ANNUAL
ADVENT ALTERNATIVE GIFT FAIR
December 06-07, 2025
(December 13-14: Honor Cards Only)
After All Masses - Gathering Space, Immaculate Conception Catholic Church
|
Our annual JPIC Advent Alternative Gift Fair is Immaculate Conception’s largest charitable event of the year! This event provides our parishioners with an opportunity to live out their Catholic faith in the spirit of the season by supporting local and global social justice organizations through honor Christmas card financial donations or purchasing a fair-trade gift benefitting those most in need.
|
If you have any questions, please contact: Ken Chiha, Director of Justice, Peace, and Integrity of Creation (JPIC) Isabel Kovalik, Assistant to the Director of Justice, Peace, and Integrity of Creation (JPIC) |
PREVIOUS ADVENT ALTERNATIVE GIFT FAIRS
2024 21ST ANNUAL ADVENT ALTERNATIVE GIFT FAIR
"BUILDING COMMUNITIES OF HOPE!"
THANK YOU!
“The foreigner who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the immigrant as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.” - Leviticus 19:34
|
On behalf of Immaculate Conception Catholic Church’s Justice, Peace, and Integrity of Creation (JPIC) ministries, thank you for lovingly supporting our “21st Annual JPIC Advent Alternative Gift Fair.” In the spirit of this year’s theme, "Building Communities of Hope,” together we raised over $17,400!
|
|
|
In Leviticus, God commands us to treat foreigners as if they are natives, loving the immigrant as ourselves, as we too were strangers in the land of Egypt. Once again, this central theme emerges at the heart of advent! In the Gospel of Matthew, the Holy Family also experienced this same vulnerability as foreigners, immigrants, and strangers. Yet, Scripture continues to remind us that in our vulnerability we also discover the fullness of our humanity through mercy and love. We can stand in solidarity with one another, “building communities of hope!”
|
In addition to your generous donations, we are especially grateful to this year’s organizations, our JPIC Advent Alternative Gift Fair Committee, and all the adult and youth parishioners who gave from their limited time to help make this Advent Alternative Gift Fair possible. May you continue to be blessed throughout the New Year!
Our AAGF fair-trade animal adoption raffle “mascots” helped our Laudato Si’, Franciscan parish community promote the important connections between fair trade practices and “Care for Creation.”
|
The “World Wildlife Fund” supports “global conservation efforts, save endangered wildlife, protect fragile ecosystems, and build a future where people live in harmony with nature!"
Father Hugh and the Berry family laugh together wondering how much adopting and feeding our hungry “Polar Bear” is going to add to their grocery bill!
|
Maya is “all smiles” with Father Manuel as she proudly adopts our “Artic Fox!”
|
2023 20TH ANNUAL
ADVENT ALTERNATIVE GIFT FAIR THANKYOU!
On behalf of Immaculate Conception Catholic Church’s Justice, Peace, and Integrity of Creation (JPIC) ministries, thank you for your support of our “20th Annual Advent Alternative Gift Fair!”
|
This year's Advent Alternative Gift Fair theme called us to reflect on Jesus’s “new commandment, that you love (AGAPĒ) one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:34-35). God’s agapē love is the model for the many ways we give as a parish with an intentional, conscious purpose to help those in need through our JPIC ministries. Giving both locally and globally in our Advent Alternative Gift Fair allows us to embody God’s agapē love in our actions for our neighbor as a mark of true discipleship.
|
2023 Advent Alternative Gift Fair Brochure |
We are especially grateful to this year’s organizations, our Advent Alternative Gift Fair staff member and parishioner planning committee, and adult and youth parishioners who nominated organizations and volunteered to help us with this year’s fair.
DONATION TOTALS
Our 2023 20th Annual Advent Alternative Gift Fair raised $13,605.50!!!
Local social justice organizations in Durham included Families Moving Forward, the Immaculate Conception's JPIC Furniture Project of Durham, Habitat for Humanity of Durham, the Immaculata School's Virgen de Guadalupe Scholarship Fund, and LIFE Skills Foundation.
Global solidarity and justice organizations included Bull City Fair Trade (Durham), La 72 Migrant and Refugee Shelter (Franciscan-run migrant and refugee shelter in Mexico), and Living Laudato Si’ Philippines, and World Central Kitchen (with a specific focus on those suffering/displaced due to war throughout the Holy Land).
Local social justice organizations in Durham included Families Moving Forward, the Immaculate Conception's JPIC Furniture Project of Durham, Habitat for Humanity of Durham, the Immaculata School's Virgen de Guadalupe Scholarship Fund, and LIFE Skills Foundation.
Global solidarity and justice organizations included Bull City Fair Trade (Durham), La 72 Migrant and Refugee Shelter (Franciscan-run migrant and refugee shelter in Mexico), and Living Laudato Si’ Philippines, and World Central Kitchen (with a specific focus on those suffering/displaced due to war throughout the Holy Land).
On behalf of our Justice, Peace, and Integrity of Creation ministries, Immaculate Conception Catholic Church, and all the local and global organizations you helped support through generous donations/agapē love, we thank you!
All donations were directly distributed to each organization.
All donations were directly distributed to each organization.
2023 ADVENT ALTERNATIVE GIFT FAIRSLIDESHOW
2022 19TH ANNUAL
ADVENT ALTERNATIVE GIFT FAIR THANKYOU!
On behalf of Justice, Peace, and Integrity of Creation (JPIC), the entire parish, and all our organizations, thank you for your support of Immaculate Conception’s “19th Annual Advent Alternative Gift Fair!”
|
This year’s theme, Prepare the Way of the Lord, reminded us of our Christian calling to align our lives and missions with the will of God and Christ’s teachings. By sharing your faith and commitment to the Gospel’s call to love and justice with a donation to these ministries for your family and friends you embodied the spirit of this season.
Thanks to all our volunteers that made this event possible. |
2022 Advent Alternative Gift Fair Brochure |
DONATION TOTALS
A RECORD-BREAKING YEAR!
Your purchases and donations set a JPIC Advent Alternative Gift Fair NEW RECORD, totaling $19,715.68!!!
|
Your acts of charity and justice helped us make God's love known to all those in need during this Christmas season.
Local social justice organizations in Durham included El Futuro, Families Moving Forward, the Immaculate Conception's JPIC Furniture Project of Durham, and Urban Ministries of Durham. Global solidarity and justice organizations Bull City Fair Trade (Durham), La 72 Migrant and Refugee Shelter (Franciscan-run migrant and refugee shelter in Mexico), and Serere Eco-Preserve (protecting biodiversity in the Amazon rainforest). |
|
We are truly grateful! All donations were directly distributed to each organization.
WINNER OF NAMING THE JAGUAR CONTEST
|
As part of the Advent Alternative Gift Fair, a girl by the name of Allison Barbara has named the jaguar toy "Tigrecito." Those who are interested in learning more about supporting the Amazon Rainforest's conservation efforts of Rosa Maria Ruiz at Serere Nature Preserve, click here.
|
© All rights reserved.
If you have questions regarding our various JPIC ministries, please contact:
Kennith M. Chiha, Director of Justice, Peace, and Integrity of Creation (JPIC)
Immaculate Conception Catholic Church - 901-A West Chapel Hill Street, Durham, NC 27701
(919) 682-3449 Ext. 293 - [email protected]
If you have questions regarding our various JPIC ministries, please contact:
Kennith M. Chiha, Director of Justice, Peace, and Integrity of Creation (JPIC)
Immaculate Conception Catholic Church - 901-A West Chapel Hill Street, Durham, NC 27701
(919) 682-3449 Ext. 293 - [email protected]