Carol Service

5 December 2011

Part 1 - Prepare a way for the Lord

Entrance	Litany of the Word (Bernadette Farrell)
Opening Responses
Reading	Isaiah 40:1–5 The prophet Isaiah tells the people of Israel to prepare a way for the Lord
Song	My soul in stillness waits (Marty Haugen)
Reading	Mark 1: 1-8 St Mark writes of John the Baptist who prepares a way for the Lord
Prayer
Hymn	O come, O come Emmanuel

Part 2 - Behold the virgin will conceive

Reading	Isaiah 7: 10-14 The prophet Isaiah tells of the coming of Emmanuel — God is with us
Carol	Adam lay ybounden (Boris Ord)
Reading	Luke 1: 26-38 St Luke tells of the Incarnation of Jesus
Carol	No wind at the window (Irish/Bell/Haugen)
Prayer
Carol	O little town of Bethlehem

Part 3 - Today is born a Saviour, Christ the Lord

Reading	Luke 2:1-14 St Luke tells of the birth of Jesus
Song	O holy night (Adolphe Adam)
Reading	Luke 2:15-20 St Luke tells of Mary who treasured all these things and pondered them in her heart.
Song	Night of Silence (Daniel Kantor)
Carol	Silent Night
Prayer

Part 4 - The Word was made flesh and lived among us

Reading	1 John 1:1–4 St John reflects on the Incarnation
Motet	Cantique de Jean Racine (Gabriel Fauré)
Reflection
Intercessions	Holden Evening Prayer Marty Haugen
Lord's Prayer & Blessing
Carol	O come all ye faithful

This year we tried something different. Firstly I wanted to establish a pattern or structure that we could use each year. Secondly we included Christmas. This came from two things: a suspicion that for some this maybe the only time they hear the Christmas story proclaimed; secondly observing the delight some (non church going) students took in singing carols. The structure was in four parts and in my original notes it went: Expectation, Mary, Birth, Consequences. I wonder if sometimes there is a naive fallacy at work - pretending that the birth did not happen whereas we know that God's promises have been and so will be fulfilled.

Musically, it needed to include items sung by the College Choir, the Music Group and all. I hope there was enough contrast. The 3rd section was probably a little too saccharine for my taste but I suspect it was the highlight for many. We began with a candle light procession with the Litany of the Word slowly building up.

For the prayers and final blessing we used texts from the new translation and for the scripture readings we used the English Standard Version which is being considered as the base translation of the Lectionary. On the whole it proclaimed well it was only a couple of phrases in the Annunciation that seemed awkward - but may be that was just unfamiliar.

The evening was finished off by mulled wine and mince pies in the cafe and a rendition of Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer.