At 10:30 morning worship this Sunday, November 30, 2008, Tyrone Presbyterians will welcome Advent 2008 as a new church year will unfold with ancient chants, modern advent readings, an advent message, and the Lord’s Supper.
As cantor, Mrs. Dorothy Moore Liller will lead the audience from the balcony of the sanctuary in an antiphonal rendition of the 800 year old Advent chant that originated in Europe in the Middle Ages. In that chant, Mrs. Liller will sing the minor key melody which pleads, “O Come, O Come Emmanuel.” The audience will echo Liller’s melody with the triumphant major key response of “Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel! Shall come to thee O Israel.”
Deacon Jessie Anders will offer a modern Advent reading, after she lights the first candle on the Advent wreath, symbolic of believer’s hope in Christ. The Westminster Choir will echo Anders sentiments when they perform Alberto Taule’s 1972 Spanish carol appropriately titled, “All Earth is hopeful, the Savior comes at last/Furrows lie open, for God’s creative task!”
Epworth Manor chaplain and Presbyterian preaching pastor Mark Liller will present a message entitled, “Shadows of Advent.” Using Mark 13: 1 to 31 as his scriptural foundation, Reverend Liller will remind listeners that even as the shadows of this advent darken the lives of believers, hope appears on the horizon as people commemorate again the birth of Jesus Christ.
Finally, Tyrone Presbyterians will commemorate this first Sunday of Advent and the new church year when they gather around the communion table to celebrate the Lord’s Supper – until He comes again.
Even as economic shadows engulf the nation in this Advent 2008, Tyrone Presbyterians encourage the people of Tyrone join them for 10:30 worship this Sunday, November 30, 2008, where they can cast away those shadows and join in the hopeful song sung by church members at the close of this advent service: “On Jordon’s bank the Baptist’s cry/Announces that the Lord is nigh/Awake and hearken, for he brings/Glad tidings of the King of Kings.”
