Propers and Announcements for the First Sunday in Advent: November 30th, 2025

The “Tables of Precedence” found in The Book of Common Prayer 1928,  the only edition of The Book of Common Prayer specifically approved for our jurisdiction of the Anglican tradition within Christ’s one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church, is very clear that the first among those Holy Days having “precedence of any other Sunday or Holy Day” are “The Sundays in Advent” – the first of which is this coming Sunday, the 30th of November.

But the specifics of the way the Church Kalendar and the secular calendar interact with one another are such that this Sunday is the Feast of St. Andrew the Apostle: a significant saint in his own right – being the first-called of the Apostles, and one who led others to the service of Christ Jesus, including Simon Peter, who became the chief of the Apostles.

He is also of interest to a number of folks in this area of North Carolina, influenced strongly, as it was, by Scots settlers – and St. Andrew being the patron saint of Scotland! The white saltire cross on the blue flag of Scotland recalls St. Andrew’s being crucified on an X-shaped cross, as early narratives relate. We will have a Scottish theme in our refreshments this Sunday, and please feel free to wear tartan, if you so desire!

The Second Sunday of Advent falls the day after another notable saint: St. Nicholas, the 4th-century Bishop of Myra, in Asia Minor, who attended the Council of Nicaea in 325, where he is reported to have smacked or punched the heretical presbyter Arius, who denied the full divinity, consubstantiality, and co-eternality of Christ with God the Father. St. Nicholas stood with those who adhered to the orthodox, catholic faith that, as St. John’s Gospel put it,

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made… And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:1-3, 14).

St. Nicholas soon became known as the patron saint and protector of children, due to several stories of events in his life: in one, he threw three bags of gold coins into the house of a poor man in his episcopal city of Myra, who had no money for the dowries of his three daughters – saving them from lives of either spinsterhood or concubinage. If you’re thinking of a later “St. Nicholas” bringing gifts down the chimney, or the chocolate “gold” coins which still sometimes appear in stockings at Christmas, you’re on the right track!

In other stories, he actually saved the lives of children – in each case, in multiples of three, which may have (intentionally or otherwise) mirrored the Holy Trinity! He was also the patron of sailors, and was especially revered in Holland, which in the 16th and 17th centuries became a great sea power. Dutch sailors who settled the then-Dutch colony in America whose capital was New Amsterdam (rechristened New York, following the Anglo-Dutch war of 1664).

They brought with them their tradition of honouring “Sinter Klaas,” as they called him – and of leaving a wooden shoe, later a stocking, outside the door of children’s bedrooms, for the good saint to fill with treats such as peppermint sticks, oranges (very valuable, in those days, given the difficulty and expense of transporting them from tropical realms!), nuts, and peppermint sticks. Hid name was later Anglicized to the former better known to us, today…

The Third Sunday of Advent is, again, a day after the commemoration of St. Lucy, or Lucia, whose name means “Light”: she was of Sicilian origin, and reportedly ministered to the earliest Christians in the Roman catacombs, wearing a wreath of candles on her head, to provide light, while leaving both hands free to carry food and other supplies to them. She is also said to have refused to marry a pagan suitor, choosing instead to remain a virgin for God. She is known for her miraculous healing of her mother and her eventual martyrdom, during which her eyes were gouged out, leading to her being recognized as the patron saint of the blind and those with eye problems.

Despite her Mediterranean origin, she has become especially beloved of Christians in Scandinavia, where a saint who is associated with a crown of candles, and whose very name means “Light,” has special resonance in the midst of the deepest darkness of Winter. St. Lucia’s day, coming as it does at the mid-point of Advent, and approximately two weeks before both the Winter Solstice and the birth of the Sun of Righteousness, may be seen as a foreshadowing of Him who was born to be the Light of the World: the light which “shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (John 1:5).

And the fourth Sunday of Advent falls this year upon the very date of the Feast of St. Thomas the Apostle: my own name saint, though my Methodist parents were probably not thinking of it in precisely those terms when they named me! Though he is known as “Doubting Thomas” for his initial refusal to believe the account of his fellow-apostles of Christ’s post-Resurrection appearance, it is likely that he simply did not want his heart broken again, if they were by any chance mistaken. In any case, when he saw the resurrected Christ with his own eyes, he had no more hesitation, but immediately responded, “My Lord, and my God!”

These are the Saints of Advent: Andrew, Nicholas, Lucia, and Thomas – two Biblical, two post-Biblical, but all linked in close and fitting ways to their Lord and ours, whose Advent (the Latin word which means “is to come”) we celebrate, and whose Nativity we await. I may have more to say of them on the days in question, but for now, let look upon them as guidepost and lodestars, leadiong us to the contemplation of Christ Himself! And I wish you all, brothers and sisters, a joyful and blessed season of Advent.

Faithfully yours in Christ,

Fr. Tom Harbold