Darkness to Light
Hindon Sunday 3rd December
The Nadder Valley Benefice invites you to this special service to mark the start of the Advent Season – at St John’s Church, Hindon on Sunday 3rd December at 6pm. The service includes readings and Advent hymns and carols sung by the Hindon and Chilmark Choir.
In the Middle Ages, the Church kept Advent as a season of great solemnity – and it remains a time in which to prepare for the coming of the Christ child, through prayer and reflection. Advent, though, was also a time of great rejoicing. Processions from west to east, and the use of lights, spoke of the Church’s hope in the coming of Christ – the Light of the world – to banish sin and darkness. Through anthems calling upon God to deliver his people, and readings from the Old Testament we look forward to the fulfilment of God’s purposes in Jesus.
This Service aims to recapture something of that Advent longing and hope. It begins in darkness with the Advent Responsory, in which Christ’s coming is announced ‘from afar’. The Light is carried to all parts of the Church as the Procession moves towards the altar and then the light is carried back through the Church by the lighting of the people’s candles.
The remainder of the Service is structured around the great Advent Hymns and readings. The Service ends with Wesley’s hymn ‘Lo he comes with clouds descending’, the last words of which are the entreaty
“O come quickly! Thou shalt reign and thou alone!”
ALL WELCOME.
