05648
Dec. 6, 2005

Some churches usher in Christmas
with monthlong fest of Advent caroling

Music of hope and expectation provides
liturgical-calendar ‘workaround’

by Kevin Eckstrom
Religion News Service      

WASHINGTON — The Christmas tree is up at Christ Lutheran Church in Marietta, GA, and the Rev. Rusty Edwards can’t wait to sing a few lines of “O Little Town of Bethlehem,” his favorite carol.

        “’The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight,’” Edwards said, recalling lyrics written by Phillips Brooks in 1867. “It’s the greatest line of any hymn ever written.”

        However, the liturgical calendar, which lays out the songs and scriptures for every Sunday of the church year, doesn’t include those beloved Christmas carols and hymns until Dec. 25.

        No matter what Macy’s and Wal-Mart might say, Christmas doesn’t start until then, and in many churches, it runs well past New Year’s Day.

        So, for the four Sundays of Advent, Edwards’ church will sing Advent hymns, not Christmas ones.

        That’s an aspect of church music that many musicians say is overlooked and underdeveloped, although a recent burst of Advent hymn-writing is filling the gap.

        For Edwards, the anticipation of his favorite carols is like that of a 5-year-old waiting for a visit from Santa on Christmas Eve.

        So he recently led his congregation in a Saturday night caroling service.

        “Singing Christmas songs after Christmas reminds me of people who send belated birthday cards,” Edwards said. “Nice try, but a little late.”

        In Catholic and many Protestant congregations, the church year starts on the first Sunday of Advent; this year that was Nov. 27.

        The Christmas “season” doesn’t start until Dec. 25 and usually lasts for 12 days — with those eight maids a-milking and seven swans a-swimming — until the Feast of the Epiphany, Jan. 6.

        That gives churches two Sundays this year, Dec. 25 and Jan. 1, to sing Christmas carols and songs. Edwards says he knows and understands the rules, but still wishes he could sing more of the songs he’s already hearing on the radio.

        Champions of Advent say it is a season of preparation and anticipation, a kinder and gentler version of Lent, the 40 days of prayer and penance leading up to Easter.

        Advent has its own songs and traditions, including the lighting of the four candles of the Advent wreath. Musicians say it would be premature to sing about the birth of Christ.

        “It would be a little bit like opening your Christmas presents before Christmas morning, like sneaking into the closet and ruining the surprise,” says Kathleen Pluth, a Catholic hymnwriter in Washington, DC. “It’s a bit of a letdown.”

        Michael McCarthy, the music director at Washington National Cathedral, asks, “Would you sing ‘Happy Birthday’ before someone’s birthday? That’s basically it.”

        The problem with Advent music is that there’s not much of it — at least, not much that is as familiar as Christmas carols. The perennial favorite is “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel,” based on an ancient 12th century chant. Others include “Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus,” and “Comfort, Comfort You My People.”

        Pluth, who has written Advent hymns, concedes that “’O Come, O Come, Emmanuel,’ yes, is overdone.” She’s especially proud of her Advent hymn, “On Walls Around Jerusalem.” Edwards also has written new hymns for Advent, including one, “To a Maid Engaged to Joseph,” that’s in Methodist and Presbyterian hymnals.

        Mary Louise VanDyke, director of the Dictionary of American Hymnology at Oberlin College in Ohio, says hymnwriters are rediscovering Advent, which has long been overshadowed by all the “bright tinselly stuff” of Christmas.

        “People are just so anxious to sing Christmas carols that they’re smothering the Advent hymns,” she says. “But there’s a lot of new activity going on in composing Advent hymns. These aren’t old yellowed hymns.”

        Pluth and others say Advent hymns are actually easier to write than Christmas songs, in part because the sweet sentiments of Christmas have already been captured for the ages.

        Peter Latona, director of music at Washington’s Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, says the kind of Advent music that gives him “goosebumps” looks with hope to the end of time.

        “That’s what all the good Advent texts have in them — the second coming and the role of Jesus as savior, not just the baby in the crib,” he says.

        Many evangelical and non-denominational churches don’t follow a liturgical calendar, so they can usher in Christmas music as soon as Thanksgiving has come and gone.