When I was in seminary in the late 1970s we were encouraged to embrace the seasons of the liturgical year, a practice which was not part of my experience of the congregations in which I was raised. I did appreciate the framework for worship which the lectionary readings and those seasons provided, beginning with Advent.
It's interesting that in recent years a growing number of conservative Christians have explored this practice as well, wanting to go deeper into the rich traditions of their faith. Some prominent evangelicals have left their entertainment style worship roots and joined congregations which have those traditional rhythms of the church year.
Unfortunately there are some pastors and priests who seem to see themselves as "defenders of the true faith" when it comes to Advent. One octogenarian American Episcopalian priest who is a celebrated author I do admire has taken to Twitter to fulminate about what she describes as Advent Lite. Here is an example:
There's no more vivid example of Advent "lite" than the very recent invention of substituting love, joy, peace etc for Death, Judgment, Heaven and Hell (the traditional Four Last Things of Advent). As grownups we need to face the magnitude of the Powers arrayed against the Lord.
This made me roll my eyes, shake my head, and chortle at the same time -- no easy feat. Recent invention? Employing the themes of Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love has been around for the better part of half a century and in any congregation I'm aware of they are explored with thoughtfulness and Advent meaning. And can you imagine if Death, Judgement and Hell were the focus of services during Advent? Through the years I experienced frustration and even minor rebellion by some for not leaping into Christmas well before Christmas Eve. I would have been run out of town if I'd decided to follow the "real" Advent.
Of course, there is no mention of Advent as a season in the bible, or Christmas or Easter for that matter. Christ's living church has chosen this as a way to deepen and enrich faith, not to demonstrate theological correctness or superiority.
So, to the Advent grinches, who may also want to argue that the length of the season should be seven weeks instead of four, or that the true liturgical colour is purple rather than blue please "lite"en up a little -- for the love of Jesus!
In my Groundling blog I've been offering an "outside in" series featuring artwork in our home. Today I include a reproduction of a painting by Emily Carr which does reflect our colonial Christian past groundlingearthyheavenly.blogspot.com/2022/12/happy-
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