You can join the service on YouTube!
The stream will begin shortly before 10 am, and you’re able to watch or re-watch the live-stream at this YouTube link at any time.
The order of service is available here.
Having it handy will make it easier to join in more fully–includes the words to the hymns, the readings & all of the responses.
In place of our usual celebration of the Eucharist this Sunday, we offer a special service of Lessons and Carols for Advent. You’ll hear readings drawn from all of scripture that speak about God’s light, and can join in as we sing familiar carols about the birth of Jesus–the Light of the World, for whom we wait.
Lessons and Carols is a tradition that emerged in Truro Cathedral in Cornwall, starting around 1878. In 1880, the Bishop of Truro (the Right Reverend Edward White Benson) was deeply concerned by how much alcohol was being drunk in the holiday season. He wanted to offer a celebration to draw people out of the Cornish pubs and into the Church. The succentor of the cathedral, the Reverend George Walpole devised the first service of Nine Lessons and Carols. With short readings from scripture and carols–which were still new to being used in church, instead of sung at people’s homes–they attracted some 400 people for that first service of Lessons and Carols on Christmas Eve.
Since then, the service has evolved. You can still watch the service from King’s College, Cambridge, every year. But in addition to Nine Lessons and Carols for Christmas, the Church has experimented with other ways to tell the story of our faith. During Advent, our focus is still on waiting for Christ’s coming, and we’re not yet ready to burst into full celebration. We wait for God’s light which will shine on the darkness of the world, and bring about all God hopes for. Marantha! Come, Lord Jesus!