Possibly the best-known Christmas service in the Western world is the festival of Nine Lessons and Carols held each year since 1918 at King’s College, Cambridge, England. Adapted by churches all over the world as part of their Advent and Christmas worship, Lessons and Carols is a service which celebrates the birth of Jesus through selected passages of Scripture interspersed with choral music and congregational singing which reflect on those Scriptural passages.
Pacific Hills' Advent Lessons and Carols Service
Pacific Hills’ annual service of Advent Lessons and Carols will take place on Sunday, December 9, during the 8:00 am and 10:30 am services. Our service begins the same way in which the King’s College Christmas celebration begins – by recalling the rebellion and fall of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and the need for a Savior. We then hear prophecies from Isaiah, Jeremiah and Micah which unfold God’s message of love and redemption; God comforts His people, calls on them to prepare for their Savior to come, and promises a new covenant – a righteous branch to be born in Bethlehem to save us all.
The festival culminates with a reading from the Gospel of St. Luke in which John the Baptist proclaims the Advent of the Messiah and calls us all to repentance as we prepare to meet him.
Advent is both a time of spiritual reflection and of joyful expectation as we watch, wait, and pray together as a community of faith. I can’t imagine a more powerful service to invite a friend to attend with you than this one! What a marvelous opportunity we have to add new voices to our congregational song! Who do you know that needs to hear the message of hope and salvation? Invite them to come with you.
Peace,
Jeffrey Blersch
Director of Music