Through Advent to Christmas

Interior view of St. Clement's Church, Prague on the Fourth Sunday of Advent © Ricky Yates
Interior view of St. Clement’s Church, Prague on the Fourth Sunday of Advent © Ricky Yates

As I start compiling this post, so it has just gone dark outside, therefore meaning that Advent has ended and the Christmas season has begun. I’m very aware that I’ve only written and posted one blogpost during Advent this year and that was in no way related to this important liturgical season. So this my small attempt to make amends by reflecting on the past twenty-four days of Advent 2013.

For once, this year Advent started on the day all manufacturers of Advent calenders think it always does – 1st December. For those who don’t know, Advent begins four Sundays before Christmas Day, thus meaning it can begin as early as 27th November or as late as 3rd December. Whilst we should use the season to help prepare ourselves to be ready to celebrate the Incarnation at Christmas, it is inevitable, especially with mainly expatriate congregations like mine, that earlier celebrations of Christmas intrude into the Advent season in the form of Services of Lessons and Carols.

Therefore, maintaining the established pattern of having worship on the second Sunday of the month in Brno, we held a Service of Lessons and Carols there on the evening of Sunday 8th December. This effectively marked the second anniversary of the establishment of the Brno Anglican congregation, as we held our first ever service in Brno; also one of Lessons and Carols, in December 2011.

This year’s Brno Carol Service was a real encouragement as several of the existing small congregation, invited other friends who came along and attended for the first time. We also were joined by a British/Romanian couple who had just discovered us via our Church website. Together, we made a very joyful noise with our singing of familiar Christmas Carols, interspersed by readings from scripture. It is a shame that it will be a full five weeks before our next Brno service on Sunday 12th January 2014. But all of the new worshippers gave me their contact details and were keen to join us again in the new year.

The following Sunday evening, 15th December, we held the Prague Service of Lessons and Carols. There was a similar programme to the Brno service but with the addition of three delightful solos. The congregation itself was a mixture of regulars, some infrequent Church attendees, together with a number of visitors. Seasonal refreshments in the warmth of the Church Hall in Klimentská 18 following the service, gave me a chance to talk with at least some of the new faces.

The Carly under light snow © Ricky Yates
The Carly under light snow © Ricky Yates

We have yet to have any really severe winter weather in Prague though we did get a dusting of snow on the day before the Brno Carol Service.

Sunset on the evening of Sunday 15th December © Ricky Yates
Sunset on the evening of Sunday 15th December © Ricky Yates

And we have also been treated to several delightful sunsets. This one is from the evening of Sunday 15th December just before leaving the Chaplaincy Flat for the Prague Carol Service

Sunset on the evening of Saturday 21st December - the winter solstice © Ricky Yates
Sunset on the evening of Saturday 21st December – the winter solstice © Ricky Yates

Whilst this one is from the evening of Saturday 21st December – the winter solstice.

The following day was the Fourth Sunday of Advent. As can be seen in the slightly fuzzy photograph at the beginning of this post, not only did we have the wonderful hanging Advent Ring with all four candles lit, our host Czech congregation had also erected their Christmas Tree, ready for the forthcoming days of the Christmas season.

Our Gospel reading last Sunday, told of the annunciation of the birth of Jesus to Joseph as recorded in Matthew 1. 18-25. Together with the Old Testament reading, Isaiah 7. 10-16, they are the only two places in scripture where the name ‘Emmanuel – God is with us’, appears. We therefore had to sing that great mediaeval Advent hymn, translated from the original Latin, ‘O come, O come Emmanuel’, that expresses our longing for the coming of Christ – for God to come down and dwell with us.

But we ended our worship by singing a twentieth century hymn by the Methodist hymn-writer Fred Pratt Green, ‘Long ago, prophets knew’. At the end of the first three verses, the question is asked, ‘When he comes, when he comes, who will make him welcome?’ But in the chorus that follows the fourth and final verse, a positive affirmation is made; ‘Jesus comes! Jesus comes! We will make him welcome!’

If you are unfamiliar with this modern Advent hymn, I found this version on You Tube. Don’t be confused by the opening with a couple of lines of ‘This is the truth sent from above’, sung by a soloist – the correct hymn then follows! May we all be ready this Christmas, to make welcome, God with us – Emmanuel.

Advent Sunday

The Advent Ring in St. Clement’s Church with the first candle lit for Advent Sunday © Ricky Yates

Yesterday was Advent Sunday which marks the beginning of the Church Liturgical Year. Contrary to what the manufacturers of Advent calendars believe, Advent only occasionally begins on 1st December. Instead it begins four Sundays before Christmas Day. With Christmas Day this year falling on a Sunday, (which is every clergyperson’s delight!), it means that this year, Advent begins on the earliest date possible and lasts a full four weeks.

In preparing for worship last week, I was particularly struck by the opening words of the Collect for Advent Sunday, “Almighty God, give us grace to cast away the works of darkness and to put on the armour of light….”. It is a reminder of one of the great themes of the Advent season – darkness and light, and the need for each of us to use this season to prepare ourselves once more to receive the light of Christ. To be able to welcome the incarnate Son of God, born into our world on Christmas Day.

It is a particular theme of the Gospel of John and the prologue of that Gospel which I shall read as the last lesson in our Service of Lessons & Carols in a couple of week’s time and at our Midnight Eucharist on Christmas Eve. “What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it”. John 1. 4-5 NRSV.

In many Churches throughout the world, there is the tradition of having an Advent Wreath, Advent Ring or Advent Crown, made of greenery and with four candles, one to be lit on each Sunday during the Advent season. Sometimes there is a further, usually white candle, in the middle, which is lit on Christmas Day.

Here in the Czech Republic, rather than having an Advent wreath sitting on a table near the front of the Church or on a windowsill, the tradition is to have a large Advent Ring hanging from the ceiling, behind or at the side of the altar. And because we do not own our Church building but rent it from the Kliment congregation of the Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren, we do not even need to provide our own Advent Ring as they provide one for us! As they always have their Sunday service at 09.30 before we have our Eucharist at 11.00, we inherit it already appropriately lit. All we have to do is ensure we snuff out the Advent candle(s) at the end our worship as part of our responsibility of leaving the Church safe and secure!

The lighting of an additional candle each Sunday does illustrate the approaching coming of light into our dark world in the person of the Infant Jesus. But the challenge I put to both myself and the congregation last Sunday was the question as to what ‘work of darkness’ each of us needed to ‘cast away’ as the increasing light of Christ shines into the various dark corners of our lives which most of us would prefer to remain hidden.

For contrary to popular opinion, Advent is not simply a countdown to the celebration of Christmas. Rather, it should be a penitential season, a ‘mini Lent’, so that both our hearts and lives are ready to welcome God’s Son Jesus Christ who ‘came to us in great humility’ at his first Advent, and thus be ready, ‘when he shall come again in his glorious majesty’ at his second Advent.

The Advent Ring hanging behind the altar in St Clement’s Church on Advent Sunday © Ricky Yates

 

 

 

Collect for Advent Sunday

Almighty God,
give us grace to cast away the works of darkness
and to put on the armour of light,
now in the time of this mortal life,
in which your Son Jesus Christ came to us in great humility;
that on the last day,
when he shall come again in his glorious majesty
to judge the living and the dead,
we may rise to the life immortal;
through him who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen