Year B
Sunday, 9.15am Holy Communion see also Readings
Regular Services
Lectionary
The full text of the readings for Sunday are available in our Sunday's Readings section.
Other Resources
Textweek The Text This Week - Revised Common Lectionary, Scripture Study and Worship Links
Online Revised Common Lectionary Vanderbilt Divinity Library
Earlier Thoughts Year B 0506 Year C 0607 Year A 0708
Sunday, 9.15am Holy Communion
LITURGICAL NOTE: From the start of Advent we follow the YEAR C readings in the three-year lectionary cycle. See the inside back cover for more about the liturgical year.
Before entering the sanctuary or the vestry…
Please allow the Choir to complete the ‘postlude’ and any additional songs that are part of our offering in worship – Our holding the sacred space is part of our common union - our being together in communion
The Lord’s Prayer
To give us the opportunity to reflect on this prayer, the prayer will be ‘restated’ by the Liturgical Assistant after we have joined together in sharing the prayer during the service. It also provides us with a reminder (or with permission) to revisit our traditional understandings… and to see the ancient wisdom of our tradition in a contemporary context
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Prepare the way of the Lord
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Prepare the way of the Lord........
Like John the Baptist, we are called to prepare a pathway into the future....... To speak out from the wilderness of our culture and to speak into a Divine future.
During Advent we “prepare”...... and for many this preparation will culminate in the ‘event’ of Christmas... However, like all births, Christmas is not an event in itself, rather it is a beginning..... And so our Advent preparations should have an orientation that goes beyond Christmas..
As we see the new East End of St Paul’s taking shape there is a growing energy and a growing maturity..... Perhaps a similar process is being engaged.... The new East end will not be finished when the builders have completed their work... that will give us a new beginning and a new opportunity for the church is changing its shape and its form... growing and moving in the direction of the rising Son.
HOPE PEACE JOY LOVE
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ADVENT Candles
Today we light a second candle – PEACE - for all God’s prophets, those who see the truth and have courage to tell the truth. Their witness is almost always very costly, and often they pay the price with their lives. The prophets are candles in our darkness, little lights and little Christs, flames gathering to a singular brilliance in the birth of the Light of the world.
Take time to dream to find the vision of which you are a part
Adapted from Advent Candlelighting by Rev David Wood
We participate in the birth of tomorrow: not just in the day after today but in the birth of every tomorrow.
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It is a time for us all - we who have lost touch with the tale - to rediscover the wondrous, the miraculous, the unspeakable; the wild, the odd, the strange; the impossible world of the child, the improbable faith of the believer.
"The Crime of Christmas," Commentary, Animating Illustrations, Quotations, and Children’s Sermon. Homiletics Online, 1991.
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THE COLOUR of ADVENT
Advent marks the beginning of a new liturgical year. The liturgical cycle, the series of festivals and seasons celebrated throughout the Church year, is a symbolic, commemoration of the life of Christ. The four Sundays of Advent herald the birth of Christ and trace the journeys of the main characters in the drama: Mary and Joseph, the Star, Herod and the Wise Men, shepherds, angels and archangels. And lo, we are prepared for the celebration of the revealing of the Light!
When you enter from the porch and think, ‘the church looks nice today’, knowing something of the symbols can help you to enjoy the visual sensation even more. The colour for Advent (and Lent) is purple or violet. The altar cloth and priest’s vestments are violet, and the flowers, ribbons, even the service sheet cover carry the theme.
Purple signifies royalty - an outward sign of wealth, luxury and status; the purple of Advent symbolises the kingship and reign of Christ. The regal associations derive from the expensive fabric dyes created from tiny Mediterranean molluscs; only the very wealthy could afford such fabrics. Perhaps it is significant that many shellfish had to be crushed to yield up their precious colour.
But the purple shades also invite meditation. Gazing at a violet or the indigo part of the rainbow, watching denim clouds gather before a storm or entering into the introspection of a heather-covered mountain, you will come to know the contemplative mood of liturgical purple. It calls us inside, to spend time in our internal landscape and tend our spirit.
The reason for contemplation during Lent is plain; we have forty days to think about Christ’s humanity, his physical privation and spiritual tempering. But why should Advent be a contemplative time? Surely Christmas is about joyous anticipation of the birth of the Divine Child? One possible reason is that we may sense a desire for some soul-searching: if this is a new year, how have I spent the old one and how might I bring to birth a divine fullness in my life? But just as compelling is that birth makes manifest the vulnerability and utter dependence of a new baby. Here is the mystery, the paradox of purple: God, the beginning and the end, Alpha and Omega, King, comes as a helpless child whom anyone could harm, even by accident. Here is the amazing reversal of the world order: omnipotent God utterly dependent. A wealth of mystery to ponder and dwell in for four weeks! From ‘Colours of the Liturgical Year’, Gabby Dean 2007
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