Advent Sunday

Today is the beginning of Advent, the season when the church traditionally looks forward to Christ’s return. Daniel Newman’s excellent post here explains how this has been lost in the flurry of preparations for the celebration of Christ’s first coming. I realise I have been guilty of this in giving my blog Christmas [...]

I knew it!

When we were singing ‘O Come, O Come Emmanuel’ on Sunday, I knew there was something odd about the tune.  In the chorus, the final syllable of the word Emmanuel was being held for three beats and I kept wanting to move on after just one.  Anyway, I’m currently listening to the Advent Carol Service [...]

O Come, O Come Emmanuel

I think Advent is my favourite season of the Church calendar.
It has the best hymns, obviously: Lo, He Comes With Clouds Descending; Come Thou Long-Expected Jesus; Hail To The Lord’s Anointed; Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence; Hark the Glad Sound, the Saviour Comes; and the eponymous, O Come, O Come Emmanuel. All are [...]