Advent Lessons & Carols
Date and Time
Join us for our Annual Advent Lessons and Carols— a candlelit evening of sacred music and scripture that celebrates the hope and beauty of the Advent season. Under the direction of Jim Broussard, our Organist and Choirmaster, the Parish Choir, soloists, and a string quartet will offer traditional carols, choral anthems, and instrumental pieces that prepare our hearts for Christ’s coming. This special service will take place on Sunday, December 14 in the Parish Hall and is free and open to the entire community. We hope you will join us.
"Our Music Must Be Alive", Jim Broussard
The tradition of the Lessons and Carols service has its origins in late nineteenth century Anglicanism. The first formal service was conducted on Christmas Eve at Truro Cathedral in Cornwall, England in 1880.
Although it had its origins in Protestantism, Lessons and Carols is a custom which has also been adapted by many traditions, as a way to prepare for the coming of Christ at Christmas. The lessons (or readings) and the carols provide us with a kind of communal lectio divina – a time to pray, sing, and ponder over the sacred texts in common, a time to contemplate the great mystery of our Lord’s Incarnation and joyfully to anticipate his second coming.
Through Word and music the story of the coming of Christ gradually unfolds as we come to understand the depth of God’s love made manifest in the culminating event we know as the Incarnation. That love is the source of our redemption and hope as Christians. For many, this is a poignant Advent tradition. As the Dean of King’s College once described the service, its purpose is “not celebrate Christmas, but to anticipate it. Lessons and Carols help us look to Christmas with anticipation while we wait for it and wait for Christ himself.
This year’s Candlelight Lessons and Carols is on December 14th at 7 pm in the Parish Hall. Our program features the Parish Choir, soloists, and a string quartet. It is my hope that our evening of readings and song will help prepare our hearts for that most “special beauty,” the beauty of Christ in His Incarnation, as we prepare our hearts to receive well the newborn Child at Christmas.