One of the most beautiful services of the year, this is the perfect way to enter into the Advent spirit of hope and expectation. All Saints’ Choir will offer our parish’s traditional Advent Festival of Lessons & Carols. Biblical readings prophesying the advent of a Messiah all the way through to the angel’s promise to Mary that she will bear the Christ are interspersed with choral and congregational carols that elaborate these themes. The candlelit Church will resound with traditional choral favorites (such as Poston’s Jesus Christ the apple tree; Howells’ luscious A spotless Rose; and Cleobury’s rollicking arrangement of The Seven Joys of Mary) and rarely heard masterpieces (Finzi’s Magnificat and Bruckner’s Ave Maria), combining to form a perfect opportunity to step back and contemplate the true meaning of the season.

Palestrina, Matins Responsory
plainsong, Advent Prose and O Antiphons
Elizabeth Poston, Jesus Christ the apple tree
Hymn 57, “Lo, he comes with clouds descending” Helmsley
Herbert Howells, A spotless rose
Hymn 65, “Prepare the way, O Zion” Bereden väg för Herran
arr. Stephen Cleobury, Joys Seven
Hymn 268, “Ye who claim the faith of Jesus” Julion
Anton Bruckner, Ave Maria à 8
Gerald Finzi, Magnificat
Hymn 56, “O come, O come, Emmanuel” Veni, veni, Emmanuel
Palestrina, Vespers Responsory