The name Advent is derived from a Latin root which means "coming to" or "arriving."  Advent developed in Gaul as the beginning of the church year, a season of celebration in preparation for the festival of the nativity - Christmas.  By the latter half of the 6th century, however, Advent, still the beginning of the year, had become a penitential season as the idea of a time of preparation of the second coming of Christ as judge at the last day became prevalent.

In Rome the logic of Advent as the starting point was not accepted initially.  The oldest Roman lectionary begins with Christmas and ends the year with Advent.  Over time, however, Advent became the beginning of the year throughout the Church and came to mark preparation for the coming of Christ in a double manner; first, as the baby born in Bethlehem and, second, in his second coming at the end of time.

Advent is a season of hope and expectation.  As Christians we live in the time in which Christ has already achieved victory over death, but the final fulfillment of the Kingdom of God is not yet accomplished.  We live in the hope and expectation that Christ will come again just as he first came on the day we call Christmas.  Advent is a time of preparation - preparing for the celebration of the Incarnation, preparing ourselves for the second coming of Christ. 

Changes in our worship are designed to support our preparation for the coming of Christ into our lives.

• Throughout Advent, we light an Advent Wreath containing four candles at the beginning of each service.  Formerly, we observed the Roman Catholic tradition of lighting three candles that are purple, representing repentance.  Today, like many Anglicans, we have chosen to observe the tradition of the medieval English of having three blue candles.  Blue is the color of sky and signals hope, expectation and anticipation from beyond our world.  In both traditions, the fourth candle is rose-colored; it is lit on the 3rd Sunday in Advent, representing joy in anticipation of the coming of Christ.
  
  The Advent Wreath dates back to ancient celebrations of the winter solstice -- that time in the year when the sun reaches its southern-most point in the heavens and the days are the darkest and most gloomy.  Because they longed for the return of the sun's light and life, the ancients stopped all usual activity, sacrificed the use of their wagon wheels, and hung them up in their celebration halls, festooning them with lights and greens.  There they awaited the return of their sun-god, thinking of the warmth and light he brought.  Celebrations culminated in the "nativity" of the sun -- the turning point of the year.
  
  As Christians, we use the same meaningful custom to anticipate the feast of light and life:  The Nativity of the Savior.  We add one light on the wreath for each Sunday in Advent.  We think of the darkness after Adam's sin and watch the growing hope and light as the prophets and the virgin help us prepare for His saving birth.
   
• Advent is a somber, yet hopeful season.  We will not use the Gloria in Excelsis.  We'll use form VI of the Prayers of the People, and may vary the way we read the psalms.
   
• Eucharistic Prayer B, with its focus on the incarnation, is especially appropriate for Advent, Christmas and Epiphany.  We will likely use it throughout the Christmas Cycle.

Daily Prayers for Lighting the Advent Wreath

The following prayers are from the Bread On the Waters web page at http://www.cptryon.org/prayer/adx/adwreath.html.  We have cut and pasted the prayers into our web site just in case the link to the site gets broken.

First Week
O Emmanuel, Jesus Christ,
desire of every nation,
Savior of all peoples,
come and dwell among us.

Second Week
O King of all nations, Jesus Christ,
only joy of every heart,
come and save your people.

Third Week
O Key of David, Jesus Christ,
the gates of heaven open at your command,
come and show us the way to salvation.

Fourth Week
O Wisdom, holy Word of God, Jesus Christ,
all things are in your hands,
come and show us the way to salvation.