The Season of Advent: An Anglican Perspective

The Season of Advent

Advent is the season with which the Anglican liturgical year begins — four weeks of preparation, expectation, and penitential prayer leading to Christmas. It is not the Christmas season. It is the season that precedes Christmas, and the distinction matters: where the culture fills the weeks before December 25 with celebration and festivity, the Church fills them with waiting. Advent is a season of darkness that knows what is coming. It is the Church’s annual practice of learning to hope.

The BCP 2019 appoints four Sundays in Advent, each with its own collect and lectionary readings, the full season beginning on the Sunday nearest to November 30 — the Feast of Saint Andrew — and ending on Christmas Eve. The BCP 2019 appoints collects on pages 596–599 and lectionary readings on page 718 for the season. The season is brief: four Sundays at most, and as few as twenty-two days when Advent begins on November 27. But its brevity is part of its character. Advent does not allow the Church to settle into waiting. It asks for attentiveness, for watchfulness, for the posture of those who are expecting something that could arrive at any moment.

The Twofold Coming

Advent is unique among the Church’s seasons in holding two distinct comings of Christ before the congregation simultaneously. The first is the coming the season leads toward: the Incarnation, the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem, the Word made flesh in the fullness of time. The second is the coming the season looks further toward: the return of Christ at the end of history, his coming in power and great glory to judge the living and the dead. These are not two separate theological topics that happen to share a season. They are two dimensions of a single reality — the God who came in humility will come in majesty, and the Church that prepares to celebrate the first coming is also being prepared for the second.

The First Sunday of Advent collect, on page 596 of the BCP 2019, holds both comings in a single prayer: “Almighty God, give us grace to cast away the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light, now in the time of this mortal life in which your Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the living and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal; through him who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.” The collect names both comings explicitly. He came to visit us in great humility: that is Christmas. He shall come again in his glorious majesty: that is the Last Day. And the petition that holds them together is not sentimental but urgent: give us grace to cast away the works of darkness and put on the armor of light now — in the time of this mortal life, between the two comings, in exactly the moment the Church inhabits every Advent.

The Preface of Advent, found on page 153 of the BCP 2019, is used at the Eucharist throughout the season and names the same dual horizon: “Because you sent your beloved Son to redeem us from sin and death, and to make us heirs in him of everlasting life; that when he shall come again in power and great glory to judge the world, we may without shame or fear rejoice to behold his appearing.” (BCP 2019, p. 153) To rejoice without shame or fear at the appearing of the Judge — this is what Advent prepares the Church for. The season’s preparation is not the hanging of decorations but the examination of conscience, the putting on of the armor of light. Every Advent collect presses the same question: when he comes, will you be ready to rejoice?

The Four Sundays of Advent

The BCP 2019 appoints collects and lectionary readings for each of the four Sundays of Advent on pages 596–599, with the lectionary on page 718. Each Sunday carries a distinctive theological emphasis, and together they trace the arc from watchfulness and eschatological expectation through prophetic preparation to the threshold of the Incarnation.

The First Sunday of Advent is the Sunday of the Second Coming — the eschatological Sunday. The Gospel across all three years draws from Jesus’ own teachings about the end: Year A appoints Matthew 24:37–44, the warning to be ready as in the days of Noah; Year B appoints Mark 13:33–37, the parable of the doorkeeper told to watch; Year C appoints Luke 21:25–36, the signs of the coming of the Son of Man. The season opens not with nostalgia for Bethlehem but with a summons to watchfulness. The First Sunday of Advent is the Church’s annual confrontation with the fact that history is moving toward a destination, and the one who came in humility will come again in glory.

The Second Sunday of Advent is the Sunday of John the Baptist as herald and prophet. The voice crying in the wilderness — “Prepare the way of the Lord” — is the voice of Advent itself. John stands at the hinge of the Testaments, the last of the prophets and the first herald of the Kingdom, calling Israel to repentance and pointing toward the one whose sandals he is not worthy to untie. The Second Sunday places the Church in John’s position: the voice that prepares the way, the community called to make the crooked paths straight in its own life and in the world.

The Third Sunday of Advent is traditionally called Gaudete Sunday — from the Latin gaudete, meaning rejoice, drawn from Philippians 4:4: “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice.” It is the Sunday of joy breaking into the penitential discipline of the season. Rose or pink vestments may be worn on this Sunday in some parishes as a mark of the season’s midpoint joy — though this is a matter of local custom rather than BCP rubric. The lectionary draws from the Magnificat tradition, from Isaiah’s songs of joy, and from John the Baptist’s testimony about the one who is coming. Gaudete Sunday is Advent’s reminder that the waiting is not mere endurance. It is expectant joy.

The Fourth Sunday of Advent stands one week before Christmas and brings the season’s focus to the Incarnation itself: the annunciation to Mary in Year A’s Gospel (Matthew 1:18–25), the Visitation in Year C (Luke 1:39–45), and Mary’s response of faith in Year B (Luke 1:26–38). The collect on page 599 captures the season’s urgency in its opening word: “Stir up your power, O Lord, and with great might come among us; and as we are sorely hindered by our sins from running the race that is set before us, let your bountiful grace and mercy speedily help and deliver us.” Stir up — the old collect tradition of the season’s final Sundays. The Church arrives at the last Sunday of Advent still needing to be stirred, still hindered by sin, still asking for the power and might and mercy that only God can provide. Advent does not end in the Church’s readiness. It ends in God’s coming.

The Advent Lectionary

The lectionary readings for Advent are found on page 718 of the BCP 2019 and vary across the three-year cycle, though the structure of each Sunday’s emphasis is consistent across all three years. Year A draws heavily from Isaiah and Matthew: Isaiah’s vision of the mountain of the Lord to which all nations stream, Matthew’s urgency about readiness and the sign of Emmanuel. Year B draws from Isaiah 40, the voice crying in the wilderness, and from the Johannine witness: John 1’s testimony that he himself is not the light but came to bear witness to the Light. Year C draws from Jeremiah’s promise of the righteous Branch, from the Benedictus, and from Luke’s portraits of the birth narratives. Across all three years, the Old Testament readings for Advent are predominantly from Isaiah — the prophet whose vision of the coming redemption has shaped Christian Advent piety more than any other single voice in Scripture.

The Epistle readings trace the practical shape of Advent waiting: Romans 13 on waking from sleep and putting on the armor of light, Philippians 4 on the peace that passes understanding, 1 Thessalonians 5 on watching and being sober, James 5 on the patient farmer waiting for the harvest. These are not merely doctrinal but pastoral: they answer the question of what it actually looks like to live in the space between the two comings.

The Character of Advent

Advent is a penitential season, though lighter in its penitence than Lent. Where Lent’s discipline is shaped by mourning and the weight of the cross, Advent’s character is one of expectant watchfulness — a leaning forward rather than a bowing down. Lent’s penitence is shaped by the cross: the examination of sin in the light of what the Passion accomplished. Advent’s penitence is shaped by the coming: the examination of the life in the light of the one who is approaching. Lent asks, what has sin cost? Advent asks, are you ready for what is coming? The two seasons are complementary forms of the same self-examination, arriving at the same posture of dependence on grace.

Advent vestments in Anglican practice are either purple or violet, or blue — and the choice carries theological weight. Purple, the color shared with Lent, emphasizes the season’s penitential and preparatory character. Blue — sometimes called Sarum blue, after the medieval Salisbury use — is a traditional option in some Anglican streams, evoking hope and expectant waiting. Both colors are legitimate in Anglican practice; blue distinguishes Advent’s waiting from Lent’s mourning, while purple links the two seasons as times of preparation and self-examination. Either way, the vestments mark Advent as distinct from the white and gold of the Christmas and Easter seasons. Purple or violet vestments are worn throughout Advent, as noted in the vestments section of the season. Blue — Sarum blue — is also used in some Anglican parishes, evoking hope and expectant waiting. Both are legitimate; each names a dimension of the season’s character. The Gloria in Excelsis may be omitted during Advent, reserving its full exuberance for Christmas. The Alleluia continues — unlike Lent, Advent does not suppress the Alleluia, because Advent’s waiting is joyful waiting.

The Advent wreath is not prescribed in the BCP 2019 but is a widespread custom with a long history in Anglican parishes. It consists of four candles arranged in a circle of evergreen, lit one by one across the four Sundays, with a fifth white candle at the center lit on Christmas Day. The four outer candles are traditionally three purple (or blue) and one rose or pink, corresponding to the three weeks of penitential preparation and the one Sunday of Gaudete joy. The traditional names assigned to the four candles vary by parish and tradition, but the most common pattern names them Hope (First Sunday), Peace (Second Sunday), Joy (Third Sunday, the rose candle), and Love (Fourth Sunday). These names are devotional customs, not universal or required — they vary from parish to parish and tradition to tradition. The BCP 2019 does not mandate them, and parishes are free to follow the tradition or to allow the candles to speak through the readings and collects of each Sunday. What the wreath teaches in any case is the same: darkness being overcome candle by candle, week by week, the light growing as Christmas approaches, until the Christ candle at the center is lit on Christmas Day and the season ends in the full blaze of the Incarnation.

The winter Ember Days fall within Advent — on the Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday following St. Lucy’s Day on December 13, in the third week of the season. The BCP 2019 notes this explicitly. The Ember Days are days of prayer for those called to Holy Orders, fasting, and penitential discipline — and their placement within Advent gives them an eschatological context: the Church praying for its ministers in the season when it is preparing to receive its Lord.

The BCP 2019 Collects and Preface

The Second Sunday collect on page 597 is one of the most beloved prayers in the Anglican tradition, centering on Scripture as the ground of Advent hope: “Blessed Lord, who caused all Holy Scriptures to be written for our learning: Grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that by patience and the comfort of your holy Word we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which you have given us in our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.” The Third Sunday collect on page 598, fittingly assigned during the Advent Ember Days, focuses on the ministry of those who prepare the way: “O Lord Jesus Christ, you sent your messengers the prophets to preach repentance and prepare the way for our salvation: Grant that the ministers and stewards of your mysteries may likewise make ready your way, by turning the hearts of the disobedient toward the wisdom of the just, that at your second coming to judge the world, we may be found a people acceptable in your sight; for with the Father and the Holy Spirit you live and reign, one God, now and for ever. Amen.” And the Fourth Sunday collect on page 599 presses with urgent simplicity: “Stir up your power, O Lord, and with great might come among us; and as we are sorely hindered by our sins from running the race that is set before us, let your bountiful grace and mercy speedily help and deliver us; through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with you and the Holy Spirit, be honor and glory, now and for ever. Amen.” (BCP 2019, p. 599)

The great Advent hymns that have shaped Anglican worship — O Come, O Come, Emmanuel; Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus; Lo, He Comes with Clouds Descending — each carry the season’s dual character in their verses. O Come, O Come, Emmanuel is drawn from the ancient O Antiphons, the great series of sung invocations sung at Evening Prayer on the seven days before Christmas Eve, each addressing Christ by one of his Old Testament titles: O Wisdom, O Lord of Lords, O Root of Jesse, O Key of David, O Dayspring, O King of the Nations, O Emmanuel. The antiphons are the liturgical heartbeat of the final week of Advent, and O Come, O Come, Emmanuel carries their ancient longing into congregational song.

Advent is also the season when the Daily Office, faithfully kept, gives the Church its fullest Advent formation. The morning and evening readings of the Office lectionary carry the congregation through the prophetic books, the eschatological discourses of the Gospels, and the apostolic letters on watchfulness and readiness. The season’s piety is shaped as much by the daily rhythm of the Office as by the Sunday liturgy — perhaps more so, since Advent’s character is one of sustained attentiveness rather than punctual celebration.

Observing Advent

Advent begins on the Sunday nearest to November 30 and runs through Christmas Eve. The four Sundays each have their own collect and lectionary readings in the BCP 2019, beginning on page 596 for the collects and page 718 for the lectionary. The winter Ember Days fall in the third week of Advent: Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday after St. Lucy’s Day on December 13.

To observe the season: resist the cultural pressure to begin Christmas before it arrives. Advent is not early Christmas. It is the season of not-yet — the season of longing, of preparation, of honest acknowledgment that the world is still waiting for its redemption to be completed. Pray the collect appointed for each Sunday. Read the prophets — Isaiah above all — and let their vision of the coming kingdom be the lens through which the season is understood. Read the eschatological Gospels of the First Sunday and let them press the question Jesus presses: are you ready? Keep the Ember Days with fasting and prayer for those called to ministry.

Practical observances to consider: light the Advent wreath at home, one candle per Sunday, with a brief prayer before the evening meal. Pray the Daily Office and follow the Office lectionary through Isaiah during the four weeks. Sing or pray the O Antiphons, traditionally used at the Magnificat during Vespers or Evening Prayer from December 17 through 23, letting their ancient titles for Christ — O Wisdom, O Lord of Lords, O Root of Jesse, O Key of David, O Dayspring, O King of the Nations, O Emmanuel — be the meditation of the final days before Christmas. These are not elaborate disciplines. They are the small, regular acts of attention through which Advent does its formative work.

Let the four weeks of Advent do what they are designed to do: form the heart to receive what Christmas announces. The Christ who comes at Christmas is the Christ who will come again in glory. The Church that has kept a faithful Advent — that has cast away the works of darkness, that has prepared the way, that has stirred up its longing — will celebrate Christmas not merely as a cultural event but as the arrival of the one for whom it has been genuinely waiting.

Conclusion

Advent is the Church’s annual school of hope. It teaches the Church to wait — not the passive waiting of resignation but the active waiting of those who know who is coming and are preparing themselves to receive him. The season holds before the congregation the whole sweep of salvation: the prophets who longed for the coming of the Lord, the Baptist who prepared his way, the Virgin who received the announcement with faith, and the whole of creation still groaning for the redemption that is not yet complete. It is the season in which the Church most fully inhabits the ‘not yet’ of the Christian life — confident that the one who came will come again, and forming itself accordingly.

“Give us grace to cast away the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light, now in the time of this mortal life in which your Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the living and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal.” (BCP 2019, p. 596)