Holden Evening Prayer for Advent Season 2020

Welcome to New Salem, and thank you for joining us for the moving and joyous celebration of Advent that is Marty Haugen's Holden Evening Prayer. Advent is a season of the liturgical year observed in most denominations as a time of expectant waiting and preparation for both the celebration of the Nativity of Christ at Christmas and the return of Christ at the Second Coming. Advent is the beginning of the liturgical year in Western Christianity. The term adopted from Latin adventus “coming; arrival", translating Greek parousia. In the New Testament, this is the term used for the Second Coming of Christ. Thus, the season of Advent in the Christian calendar anticipates the "coming of Christ" from three different perspectives: the physical nativity in Bethlehem, the reception of Christ in the heart of the believer, and the eschatological Second Coming. In the Anglican, Lutheran, Moravian, Presbyterian, and Methodist calendars, Advent commences on the fourth Sunday before Christmas—the Sunday nearest to St. Andrew's Day (30 November). It can fall on any date between 27 November and 3 December. When Christmas Day is a Monday, Advent Sunday will fall on its latest possible date. Practices associated with Advent include keeping an Advent calendar, lighting an Advent wreath, praying an Advent daily devotional, erecting a Christmas tree or a Chrismon tree, as well as other ways of preparing for Christmas, such as setting up Christmas decorations, a custom that is sometimes done liturgically through a hanging of the greens ceremony. The equivalent of Advent in Eastern Christianity is called the Nativity Fast, but it differs in length and observances, and does not begin the liturgical church year as it does in the West. The Eastern Nativity Fast does not use the equivalent parousia in its preparatory services. Our Holden Evening Prayer Team: Presiding Clergy - Pastor Terry Hagensen; Recording and Production Engineer - Jon Enquist; Vocalists - Pastor Terry Hagensen, Jon Enquist, Pastor Mike Naylor, Traci Djonne Schanke; Pianist - Cheryl Durant Please note: Permission to podcast/stream the music in this service and include onscreen and in a printed worship guide has been obtained from ONE LICENSE, License #A-726224. All rights reserved.