𝗙𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 𝗦𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗮𝘆 𝗼𝗳 𝗔𝗱𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘁 - 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗣𝗮𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵𝘀
𝗙𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 𝗦𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗮𝘆 𝗼𝗳 𝗔𝗱𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘁 - 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗣𝗮𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵𝘀
This Sunday we light the first candle for the Patriarchs – Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and those ancient fathers who walked by faith when the promises seemed impossible. Abraham left everything for a land he'd never seen and descendants he couldn't yet imagine. He believed God in the darkness, and it was counted to him as righteousness. The wreath's first flame flickers like those campfires under star-filled Mesopotamian skies, where an old man counted stars and trusted impossible promises. The Patriarchs teach us that faith begins with hearing and responding. God speaks, we set out. God promises, we wait. They didn't see the fulfilment – that would take centuries – but they walked faithfully toward it anyway. As this single candle burns in our cathedral, it represents something small but significant: the beginning of a story that will change everything. We too are Advent people, living between promise and fulfilment. We light this candle knowing how the story ends, yet we practise the same radical trust. What promises of God are you holding onto this Advent? What journey of faith is God calling you toward?
𝘿𝙚𝙖𝙣 𝘽𝙤𝙗
𝗝𝗼𝗶𝗻 𝘂𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗔𝗱𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗦𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗮𝘆 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗮 𝗳𝘂𝗹𝗹 𝗱𝗮𝘆 𝗼𝗳 𝗽𝗿𝗮𝘆𝗲𝗿, 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽, 𝗿𝗲𝗳𝗹𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗺𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗰
🙏 7:30am Morning Prayer
✝️ 8:00am Holy Communion
We have some outstanding music for you this Advent Sunday from the choir, led by Katherine Dienes-Williams, our Organist and Master of the Choristers. Advent Sunday, 30 November marks the beginning of the new church year, and the day’s music spans early polyphony, medieval carols, and contemporary works.
🎼 9:45am Cathedral Eucharist with guest preacher the Very Revd Victor Stock
The Mass setting is William Byrd’s Mass for Five Voices. During Advent the Kyrie is sung on its own as we await the return of the Gloria at Midnight Mass on 24 December. The Communion motet is the medieval carol Remember, O Thou Man in Thomas Ravenscroft’s early-seventeenth-century setting. Ravenscroft is known for his collections of folk music—catches, rounds, street cries, and vendor songs. This motet appears again later at the Advent Carol Service
✨ 11:45am Advent Reflections with Canon Chris Hollingshurst | Lady Chapel
🎹 5:30pm Organ Prelude with Organ Scholar Jozef Gaszka
Organ Prelude The evening begins with half an hour of reflective organ music from Organ Scholar Jozef Gaszka. He plays Bach’s three chorale preludes on Nun komm der Heiden Heiland: a lyrical setting, a trio, and a full organo-pleno version with the melody in the pedals. Interwoven with these are movements from Cecilia McDowall’s Advent Antiphons, based on the plainsong heard later in the service. The prelude concludes with Mendelssohn’s Overture to Saint Paul. 📺 This will be livestreamed so due tune in for the service stream from 5.30pm.
🎶 6:00pm Advent Carol Service.
Asher Oliver our sub organist plays Brahms’ Es ist ein’ Ros’ entsprungen as the choir processes to the west end to sing Palestrina’s Matin Responsory, marking the 500th anniversary of Palestrina’s birth. As the congregation sings Come, Thou Redeemer of the Earth, the choir moves to the cross aisle to sing Ravenscroft’s Remember, O Thou Man. This 16th-century carol, once known to Elizabethans as a “suffering ballad,” reflects on Adam’s fall. Thomas Hardy later described it as an “ancient and time-worn hymn.” Its long history stretches from Ravenscroft’s Melismata (1611) to Scottish collections such as Forbes’ Cantus, once taught in Aberdeen’s Music School. It was even—incorrectly—rumoured to be the source of God Save the King.
Music Through the Cathedral
The service continues with further Advent carols, including the much-loved Veni, Emmanuel.
The choir moves through the Cathedral spaces as they sing:
• In the Crossing: Bonnie Miksch’s There is no rose, a reflective setting of the Annunciation.
• Also in the Crossing: Bob Chilcott’s O clavis David, from his Advent Antiphons, weaving the plainsong into the choral texture.
• At the Organ: David McGregor’s carol combining the Advent prose Rorate coeli with a vibrant organ score, commissioned for the Choirs of the Chapel Royal, HM Tower of London, to text by medieval Scottish poet William Dunbar.
• In the Quire stalls: Iain Farrington’s energetic Nova, nova, complete with finger-clicking and foot-stamping.
• At the High Altar: Tarik O’Regan’s Threshold of Night, setting words by Kathleen Raine in which the “babe” speaks from the “threshold of night.”
The service concludes with Bach’s Fantasia and Fugue in G minor as the final organ voluntary. All are welcome to join us in the Cathedral or online.