Stations of Advent

 

Advent stations | Ancestors of Christ

Opening prayer 0:09

The First Station: Adam & Eve 1:09

Walk to The Second Station 3:00

The Second Station: Abraham & Sarah 4:00

Walk to The Third Station 5:31

The Third Station: Joshua & Rahab 6:31

Walk to The Fourth Station 7:58

The Fourth Station: Boaz & Ruth 8:58

Walk to the Fifth Station 10:22

The Fifth Station: David & Bathsheba

Walk to the Sixth Station 12:53

The Sixth Station: Mary & Joseph 13:53

Walk to Final Meditations 15:41

1 of 3 Collect from Times and Seasons: Advent, CoE,

2 of 3 Collect for the First Sunday of Advent, BCP,

3 of 3 Orthodox prayer for the second Sunday before Christmas 16:41

Advent is a penitential season that begins on the fourth Sunday before December 25th, which is called Advent Sunday in our tradition. It might be hard to believe that Advent is a penitential season today, but in ages past there were strict fasting rules and the liturgy had a somber tone just as it does today in Lent.  Most often the Gloria, the song sung  to the shepherds by the angels in the field outside Bethlehem, was omitted from the liturgy and only returned at the First Mass of Christmas. In the Western Church the season was certainly established by the late 5th century and the Council  of Tours in 567 ordered all monks to fast on every day of December.

During Advent the Church looks back on the whole history of salvation where God reaches out to His people again and again to be in relationship with them. The birth of Christ is God’s breaking into human history in a profound and physical way by becoming a human being. Advent also looks forward to Christ’s Second Coming in glory to fulfill the promise of the Kingdom of God for all people.  In the same  way that we prepare for Christmas and the celebration of Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem, we should prepare for his return on that last day.

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We are blessed to have some works of art to help us explore the mystery of the Advent season. Simon Carr and Joan Elizabeth Goodman have created images of some of the ancestors of Christ. We are invited to look back at the people who were chosen by God to be part of the family of Jesus. They are so much like us. None of them is perfect, yet God calls each of them to do amazing things.

Thank you to Cindy Brome for the beautiful photographs of the stations.

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The St Luke’s Art Guild

The Art Guild is an ad hoc group  of  parishioners,  who  are also artists, collaborating on different projects to challenge the religious imaginations of the parish.

James Middleton and Simon Carr have both created their own 8 scene Stations of the Cross series for the parish which we have used during Lent in the past few years. In 2016 we had a group of fourteen artists, including three young artists, who had each created one of the traditional fourteen Stations of the Cross which hung in the church nave from Ash Wednesday until Holy Saturday.

The guild is responsible for the ofrenda that is set up in late October by the columbarium where we remember and honor our dead. The guild also sets up the Christmas Crèche with the assistance of the St Luke’s flower and altar guilds that is such a beautiful part of our celebration of Christmas.

Suggestions for new exhibits are the Prophets of the Old Testament for Advent, the men and women of the Early Church for the Season of Pentecost, and Saints of the Month where one or two saints from the church calendar are celebrated with a selection of artworks on the walls of the church nave during the month where that saint’s feast day is celebrated.