Time was when a carol service meant Christmas carols. (It has a sister in the ‘carol concert’, a format I’ve never really enjoyed because it feels wrong to pay for something that is often very similar to a service.) Advent carol services are now well established, and my church has had both of these in December for many years.
This year I marked four stages in the nativity story with a carol service; as well as Advent, Christmas and Epiphany (see the previous post; this was the odd one out as it was in Bath Abbey) we had one for Candlemas. This last had a Nunc Dimittis and several anthems from our repertoire (including Mathias’ Lift up your heads – another way of repurposing it as the Ascensiontide season is so short).
The format is fairly standard: appropriate music for choir interspersed with hymns, prayers and readings, either biblical or otherwise suited to the season. (Bath Abbey’s Epiphany service last year was rather more experimental but this format clearly lay behind it.)
At least the turn of phrase ‘Help us, for whom Lent is near’ was more appropriate this year. It felt very odd last year when we anticipated Candlemas on the last Sunday in January, and Lent was at that point not until the month after next.