Seasonal Events

Gingerbread Coffee Hour

Sunday, December 17, our very own Tim Heath-Swanson will be hosting a Gingerbread Sunday with gingerbread houses for the children and gingerbread cookies for the adults. You do not want to miss out on this special coffee hour.

Christmas Eve Reception

Please join the clergy and musicians for a yearly gathering for light snacks and treats at 6:15 pm - 7:30 pm in the undercroft on Christmas Eve.

Stay for 15 minutes after the 5:00p service or come early for the 8:00 pm service and celebrate Christmas with your parish family.

Advent Lessons and Carols

A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE SERVICE
King’s College Chapel, Cambridge, UK.

A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols was first held at King’s on Christmas Eve 1918. It was planned by Eric Milner-White, who had just been appointed Dean after experience as an army chaplain; this experience convinced him that the Church of England needed more imaginative worship. Evensong, topped and tailed with carols, had been the Christmas Eve service until then but the young Dean, only thirty-four at the time, decided that there was scope for something a little more imaginative.

The 1918 service was adapted from an order drawn up by E. W. Benson for use at 10 pm on Christmas Eve in 1880, in the large wooden ‘shed’ which then served as his Cathedral in Truro.

C. Benson recalled: ‘My father arranged from ancient sources a little service for Christmas Eve – nine carols and nine tiny lessons, which were read by various officers of the Church, beginning with a chorister, and ending, through the different grades, with the Bishop.’ Milner-White used Benson’s plan, but wrote the now classic Bidding Prayer to set the tone at the beginning. Since then the spoken parts, which provide the backbone of the service, have only occasionally been changed.

The service was first broadcast in 1928 and, with the exception of 1930, it has been broadcast annually, even during the Second World War, when the ancient glass had been removed from the Chapel – some say you could hear the tar-paper flapping in the background over the radio.

In the early 1930s the BBC began broadcasting the service on overseas programmes. It is estimated that there are millions of listeners worldwide, including those on Radio Four in the United Kingdom. A recording of the service is broadcast on Christmas Day on Radio Three. It was first transmitted to the United States in the 1970s on Minnesota Public Radio and is now relayed by hundreds of radio stations there.

From time to time the College receives copies of services held many thousands of miles from Cambridge, and these show how widely the tradition has spread. The broadcasts, too, have become part of Christmas for many far from Cambridge. One correspondent wrote of hearing the service in a tent on the foothills of Everest; another, in the desert. Many listen at home, some are busy with their own preparations for Christmas; others make time to sit down, either alone or with friends, and join in with the congregational carols, perhaps having previously printed out this order of service.

Wherever the service is heard and however it is adapted, whether the music is provided by choir or congregation, the pattern and strength of the service, as Milner-White pointed out, derive from the lessons. ‘The main theme is the development of the loving purposes of God …’ seen ‘through the windows and the words of the Bible’. Local interests appear, as they do here, in the Bidding Prayer. Personal circumstances give point to different parts of the service. Many of those who took part in the first service must have recalled those killed in the Great War when it came to the famous passage ‘all those who rejoice with us, but upon another shore and in a greater light’. When they hear these words, following the extraordinary events of this year, many today might be thinking of a loved one who has died recently.

The Short Course Ministry at St. John's in the Mountains offers parish members and friends the opportunity to learn about faith, scripture, spirituality, and worship in four-week long courses throughout the year. Each course will be held twice weekly: Tuesdays from 12n-1 p.m. online and Thursday evenings from 6 - 7:30 p.m. in-person at St. John's. Attend all four, or just one as your time allows, and mix and match online or in person. Course overviews and weekly topics will be published on the parish website and in St. John's Weekly. Courses will be facilitated by Fr. Rick and special guests. Quiet Days will be held in Advent and Lent. 2023 courses are:

Lent 2023, Feb 28 - March 30; The Book of Common Prayer: How Praying Shapes Believing and Ministry

June 6-29; The Gospel of Matthew: How Reading Matthew on Sunday Empowers the Rest of Our Week

October 31 - November 23 - Exploring Food Scarcity through the Scriptures, our Baptismal Covenant, and Sara Miles' book Take this Bread: A Radical Conversion lead with parishioner, David Small

December 9 Advent Quiet Day: Listening to St. John the Baptist and the Angel Gabriel to hear the message of Christmas.

Exploring Food Scarcity
October 31 to November 16

Exploring food scarcity will explore how being fed and feeding others in Jesus makes our faith come alive. This short course will explore the Baptismal Covenant in the Book of Common Prayer, 1979 and the memoir Take this Bread by Sara Miles.

This course will meet:

Online- via Zoom Join the weekly Zoom meeting here. The passcode is 802, if needed.

Tuesday, October 31, November 7 and 14 at 12n, and,

In-person on Thursdays, November 2, 9, and 16, at 6:30p.

The same conversation will take place during both meetings in a single week. Come to one, come to all. Knowledge of the Book of Common Prayer or Take this Bread is not necessary or required.

Each course will be held twice weekly: Tuesdays from 12n-1 p.m. online and Thursday evenings from 6 - 7:30 p.m. in-person at St. John's. Attend all three, or just one as your time allows, and mix and match online or in person. Course overviews and weekly topics will be published on the parish website and in St. John's Weekly. Courses will be facilitated by Fr. Rick and special guests. Quiet Days will be held in Advent and Lent

Please see David Small at Sunday worship, or email him at dsheritage07@gmail.com for any questions on the book.