Advent Online

Today is the first Sunday of Advent, which marks the beginning of the church year. We use our calendars to mark our time. Whether you buy a new one every January and stick it up on the fridge, or you have gone all digital, calendars are essential to our lives. They bring order and organisation to the constant cycle of life – things to do, dates to remember and events to tick off.

But Advent places us on God’s calendar. Throughout the church year we remember the events of Jesus’ life that define God’s work in our world, in creation and in each of our lives – Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Holy week and Easter, Ascension and Pentecost, Creation tide and Kingdom season. By beginning in Advent, we lift our heads and look forward to Jesus’ first coming as a baby at Christmas and return in triumph to judge the world at the end of time.

As Christians, we believe history is not merely some cycle that goes around endlessly, but is heading in a direction. This is a journey with a beginning and an ending, both defined by God and one on which God accompanies us. Advent comes from the Latin 'adventus', meaning ‘coming’. The church year begins as we lift our heads and look forward in hope for the coming of Christ.

Let’s start the church year today by looking forward together in hope. Not in a ‘what gifts I’m hoping for this Christmas’ sense, but a deep Christian hope for the Kingdom God has promised us: for a new heaven and earth. Every generation of Christians has lived in anticipation and expectation of this. The New Testament records one of the earliest Christian prayers as ‘maranatha’ – ‘Come, Lord Jesus’.

As we look forward in hope, we anticipate the day of Christ and pray this ancient prayer with longing, expectation and trust.

What does it mean to watch in Advent? https://www.theschooloftheology.org/posts/essay/hymns-and-carols-creator-of-the-stars-of-night

Hymns and Carols: Creator of the Stars of Night — St Mary Magdalen School of Theology The beauty of the hymn Creator of the Stars of Night is that it seems to provide a spiritual instruction manual for watching. It achieves this through its content but also through its form, both poetic and, arguably, musical. As such, it can function as a meditative aid as Advent draws towards its d

https://adventonline.faith/william-byrd-rorate-coeli-peterborough-cathedral-choir/

William Byrd, Rorate Coeli, Peterborough Cathedral Choir - Advent Online Share on Facebook Tweet Follow us Share Share Share Share Share

Advent, Day 1 LOOK: “At Dusk (Boston Common at Twilight)” by Childe Hassam | LISTEN: “Psalm 25” by Poor Bishop Hooper

Advent has begun and so we begin sharing with you all again. Feel free to share the links and resources we provide here. Don’t forget that www.adventonline.faith is still live with an Advent Calendar and library of resources.

Front Page - Advent Online Advent Online is an incredible library of resources for churches and individual Christians, reaching out right across the world. Over 3,000 global Christians, involved in leading worship, have gathered together online over the last eight weeks to share their resources, gifts, skills and ideas to pla...

Happy Easter everyone … do share your Easter pictures below … what have you seen or how have you celebrated the Risen Christ this year?

He is Risen by Emma Major https://youtu.be/Ed_Tbr8bkM0

He is Risen Easter DayHe is RisenI have seen the LordJohn 20:11-18Jesus Appears to Mary MagdaleneNow Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to lo...

I have seen the Lord,
by Ally Barratt

Sanctified linens, an Easter observation from the sacristy by The Rev'd Arwen Folkes https://lentonline.faith/2021/03/31/sanctified-linens/

There is a Saviour,
sung by Emma Hopegood-Jones and played by Calum Zuckert
https://soundcloud.com/lent-to-easter-online/there-is-a-saviour-ehj-cz

A very Happy Easter to you all!
Do explore the Easter material to enter into this great feast of the resurrection and the new creation. Alleluia, Christ is Risen, he is Risen indeed, Alleluia!

https://lentonline.faith/easter-day/

It is Finished, by Emma Major

https://youtu.be/tm4NlhPOFpA

it is finished! Good FridayIt is finishedRead the verses below and then watch the video putting yourself at the foot of the cross. How do you feel? John 19:28-30Later, know...

On this Good Friday afternoon, come and pray the Stations of the Cross by The Rev'd Petra Shakeshaft, using the work of Eric Gillhttps://lentonline.faith/ash/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Stations-of-the-Cross-2021-1.pdf

Mount Calvary is the academy of love.
~ St Francis de Sales

Before the Cross, all is stripped bare: Reflections on the characters in the passion by The Rev'd James Pacey https://lentonline.faith/ash/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Lent-Online-Before-the-Cross-I-am-Stripped-Bare.pdf

Soul of my Saviour, recorded for Lent Online by Emma Hopegood-Jones and Calum Zuckert
https://soundcloud.com/lent-to-easter-online/soul-of-my-saviour-ehj-cz-2

Soul Of My Saviour EHJ - CZ 2 Listen to Soul Of My Saviour EHJ - CZ 2 by Lent to Easter Online on

Good Friday. The culmination of Our Lord's Passion.

https://lentonline.faith/good-friday/

As Maundy Evening draws closer, this little prayer from Ruth Burgess helps us to prepare: https://lentonline.faith/2021/03/31/a-prayer-before-maundy-thursday/

A Prayer before Maundy Thursday - Lent Online Prayer before going to the Eucharist on Maundy ThursdayI will walk in the windto meet you Jesusto let you wash my feet. I don’t want to.I would rather stay here in the warm,away from your towels and waterand offers of forgiveness,for I know what you mean,what you ask,what you give. But I will come...

On this Maundy Thursday, the Rev'd Petra Shakeshaft explores the betrayal of Christ with these striking words and images. https://lentonline.faith/2021/03/31/betray/

betray - Lent Online Here, the beginning of everything moves among the olive trees, He, alone and lonely, prays that this cup may be taken away; the cup that is his alone to drink. Only into hands which fashioned the hills and mountains; only into those hands can the nails be driven. The feet that have trod these hillsi...

Wash and Weep - the perspective of Mary by The Rev'd Cara Smart https://lentonline.faith/2021/03/31/wash-and-weep/

wash and weep - Lent Online Wash and Weep – Mary Rev’d Cara Smart, Assistant Curate, St Paul’s, Wokingham  I walk, the hot dust sticking to my skin, children call to each other with carefree glee,mothers nurse their children, traders sell their goods… When a heavenly silence hits and I see a perfume jarsweet smelling ...

Emma Hopegood Jones and Calum Zuckert offer this beautiful recording of An Upper Room https://soundcloud.com/lent-to-easter-online/an-upper-room-ehj-voice-cz-piano

An Upper Room EHJ Voice CZ Piano Listen to An Upper Room EHJ Voice CZ Piano by Lent to Easter Online on

Today is Maundy Thursday:
Maundy comes from the latin mandatum meaning commandment: mandatum nova - the new commandment.

Maundy Thursday, or Holy Thursday. This Thursday before Easter commemorates the Washing of the Feet and Last Supper of Jesus Christ with the Apostles, as described in the canonical gospels. And so we explore the words, serve, wash and betray https://lentonline.faith/maundy-thursday/

Holy Wednesday draws us deeper into the mystery of this most Holy of weeks ....

Palm Sunday:
https://lentonline.faith/palm-sunday/
Hosanna, King, Bystander

What shapes judgment?