The Church's year starts on November 30th, marked with this dramatic and moving liturgy of music and readings, featuring the Choristers of St John the Divine. The service explores the themes of Advent - darkness, light, hope, endings, and beginnings - through a series of 'sequences' based around the mystery of the Eternal, the Promise of the Kingdom, John the Baptist the Forerunner of Christ, the Incarnation, and the Coming Again.
Music this year, in addition to the ancient chants of the O antiphons and congregational Advent hymns, will include:
- Third Song of Isaiah (David Stratkauskas)
- O Virtus Sapientiae (Hildegard of Bingen)
- O Radiant Dawn (James MacMillan)
- A Prayer to St John the Baptist (Cecilia McDowall)
- Bogoroditsye Dyevo (Sergei Rachmaninoff)
- Sanctus from the Mass in A minor (Imogen Holst)
- E'en so Lord Jesus, Quickly Come (Paul Manz)
- Advent O Carol (Joanna Forbes l'Estrange)