It’s beginning to feel a lot like … Advent! This Sunday we will light the first of the Advent candles, and, in the evening, there is our wonderful and atmospheric Advent Procession. Advent is perhaps my favourite of the Church’s seasons, with its themes of darkness and light, its wonderful music, and its atmosphere of serious yet hopeful preparation and expectation.
The readings this Sunday introduce what is paradoxical about Advent: that the Christian year begins not with creation, but with an ending, as Jesus predicts the destruction of the Temple and the end of all things. That’s because we wait both for the one who has come – for the glorious incarnation of God in that tiny baby born in Bethlehem – and for the one who will come again, in his full glory, to be the judge of all things.
I’m glad that our services this Sunday will allow us to concentrate on Advent, for after that we will be trying to stay in Advent while also anticipating Christmas as our festive activities begin. Of course, for most people, Advent doesn’t really exist, and Christmas begins in early December, ending on Christmas Day – when, liturgically, it’s only just beginning!
This year we have a full programme of Christmas services starting on Sunday 5th December, with the Live Nativity at the Cottingham Christmas Festival and Family Carols in the afternoon. There are flyers and window posters in church: please do take some to display or give to friends and family.
with my prayers and blessings, Nicola