Advent is often described as a season of waiting. Advent waiting is not passive, because this is a time of year pregnant with anticipation!

St. Philip’s has many special services and other events during Advent! Click here for a schedule in pdf form.

Advent kicks off with the annual Advent Festival of Lights Service, on Tuesday, December 1, at 7:00 p.m. This annual candlelit service seeks to illuminate the feminine face of God, with a focus this year on Advent, wisdom, and change. The service will feature readings, prayers, instrumental music, and congregational singing. Following the service, there will be reception with cookies and coffee in the Murphey Gallery at St. Philip’s. A freewill offering will benefit Emerge! Center Against Domestic Abuse. Emerge! provides domestic abuse crisis intervention and housing, prevention and education, and support and advocacy services to women and children. Emerge! is the largest domestic abuse shelter and provider of domestic abuse prevention programs in Southern Arizona.

The service is followed by cookies and coffee in the Murphey Gallery. The public is cordially invited to attend.

First Sunday Music, on Sunday, December 6, at the 9 and 11:15 a.m. services is entitled “Welcoming Advent with Masters of the Baroque” with St. Philip’s adult and youth choirs and chamber orchestra. Cantata BWV 61, Nun Komm der Heiden Heiland, by Johann Sebastian Bach and Magnificat by Antonio Vivaldi will be used as a part of the liturgy.

Cantata 61 will begin our worship service with the serious and majestic tone of the Advent season. The famous opening movement combines orchestra in “French overture” style with other movements with soloists depicting the idea of longing for the coming of baby Jesus. “Magnificat,” a hymn of praise by Mary when she visits her cousin Elizabeth, the mother of St. John the Baptist, is set to music by Antonio Vivaldi. Movements from the Magnificat will bring a jubilant tone to the conclusion of our service in the midst of our Advent season.

Beginning on December 6 at 10:15 a.m. in the Murphey Gallery, Dr. Kevin Lane Justus leads a three-part lecture series entitled “Tapestry of Stars—A Renaissance Advent.” Topics are: WONDERMENT: Giotto’s Arena Chapel and the Life of Christ—The New Language of Medieval Spiritualism (December 6); KNOWLEDGE:  Leonardo da Vinci’s Madonna of the Rocks  and The Last Supper—God Is in the Details and the Manifestation of Faith (December 13); and MYSTICISM: Tintoretto’s Scuola Grande di San Rocco—The Glory and Tragedy of Advent; The Intensity of Faith (TBA in January). There is no charge for this series.

On Sunday, December 20, at 4 p.m., the St. Nicholas Choir and Schola Cantorum will lead Solemn Choral Evensong. The service is preceded by a short organ concert, presented by Sara Tobe, Director of Music at First United Methodist Church, Tucson. The choirs will lead us through the rarely heard liturgy from the 1662 Book of Common Prayer with Canticle by Sir Hugh Blair and magnificent anthem, “Evening Hymn” by B. Gardiner. Our youth in these choirs will be traveling to the UK next summer to be the resident choir at Worcester Cathedral.

A special reception follows the service, to celebrate the generous culture of philanthropic giving that exists at St. Philip’s.  There will be wine, soft drinks and food.  Carols will be sung by members of our youth choirs

St. Philip’s is located at 4440 N. Campbell Avenue at River Road. Ample parking is available in the north parking lot or under the solar parking structure on the east side. The office phone number is 299-6421.