Happy First Sunday in Advent, everyone!

[Lydia Leftcoast]

We started the season off with a bang, including our afternoon Advent Carol service.

It began with Palestrina's setting of "I look from afar...," sung from the balcony.

Then we sang the following anthems, each proceeded by an appropriate Bible reading and a Gregorian chant:

Rorate Coeli --Palestrina
Jesus Christ the Apple Tree--Poston
Canite Tuba--Guerero
Laetentur Caeli--Byrd
Hymn to the Virgin--Britten
Adam Lay Ybounden--Ledger
Ave Maris Stella--Grieg

The older I get, the more I appreciate Advent as a quiet, contemplative way of avoiding the madness that Christmas has become in this country.