laudable Practice

now in the time of this mortal life, in which thy Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility ... Despite what the Advent purists tell us, that Advent stands entirely apart from Christmas, that any anticipation of the celebrations of the Lord's Nativity pollutes Advent, Cranmer's collect for the season - prayed from Evensong on the eve of Advent Sunday until Christmas Eve - sets before us, throughout Advent, morning and evening, the approach of the Nativity. Cranmer could, of course, have composed the Advent collect without any reference to the Nativity. This is the case, after all, with the collects for Advent II and IV. While, however, this may be true of those two collects, it is not the case with the pre-1662 collect for Advent III : Lord, we beseche thee, geve eare to our prayers, and by thy gracious visitacion lighten the darkenes of our hearte, by our Lorde Jesus Christe. It is difficult, I think, to contend that this collect is not an anticipation of Christmas. ...

Francis Atterbury's ' A Sermon preached before the Sons of the Clergy ' was delivered on 6th December 1709, in the Cathedral Church of Saint Paul, London. Atterbury, later Bishop of Rochester, was then Dean of Christ Church, Oxford. The Corporation of the Sons of the Clergy had been established in 1655, receiving its Royal Charter in 1678. It held a yearly festival in Saint Paul's in order to raise funds for poorer clergy, and the widows and children of deceased clergy. Atterbury's sermon referenced the season in which the event occurred: It is said of our Blessed Saviour (whose Advent we now celebrate) that he came Eating and Drinking, and that he went about doing good. I join these two Parts of his Character, because He himself often exerted them together, and made use of the One, as affording him fit Opportunities to abound in the Other. He disdained not to appear at great Tables and Festival Entertainments, that he might more illustriously manifest his Divine Ch...

Like last year, our Episcopal Church is Christmas caroling on December 31st. I don't care if it is liturgically better than before Christmas. It's dumb and embarrassing. None of the random houses we go to will understand why we are showing up a week after Christmas. This statement on Twitter caught my attention last weekend, as the parish in which I serve was preparing for a joyful Nine Lessons and Carols on Sunday morning (the Fourth Sunday in Advent) with no sense at all that this supposedly disturbed Advent or was an apparently unfortunate compromise with secular culture. Now, to be clear, we should, of course, be still singing carols on 31st December.  That is not the problem.  The problem is banishing carols from Advent, exalting a purist approach to a liturgical season over the proper and wholesome desire to anticipate the joy of Christmas. Historical evidence in terms of Anglican preaching and piety does suggest a significant and enduring awareness that Advent cannot be...