Yesterday was Advent Sunday... which means it's nearly Christmas! But in the 'outside' (aka 'real') world, I expect it's been 'Christmas' for two months already, at least, and there'll be more and more 'Christmas' piled high and sold cheap as the shopping days count down. And there'll be nativity plays and carol singing and carol services galore, because these days not even churches are able to observe Advent. So I am really happy to be in community, and able and allowed to spend time waiting in expectation alongside Isaiah and Mary and John the Baptist.
One thing I do miss, however, is the Advent choral music. For the past few years I was part of a choir singing a candlelit service at St Petrox church down at the furthermost tip of Dartmouth, and before then went to the Advent Sunday choral service at Exeter Cathedral. It is the most beautiful music of the church year. I dare anyone not to be moved by the final verse of "Jesus Christ the Apple Tree" by Elizabeth Poston sung as a seven-part round. The music of longing...
Between September 2010 and September 2011, I lived alongside an Anglican Benedictine community of monks and nuns. In November 2010, we moved from Broad Marston Manor near Evesham to Mucknell Abbey, a new eco-monastery near Worcester. This blog was about things that I observed and things that interested me. I have now stopped writing it. Thank you to all who were also interested.
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