KANE — Presbyterian Church of Kane and St. John’s Episcopal Church will join for evening vespers this Advent season.
The Sunday evening services will take place at 6:30 p.m. at St. John’s, 427 Chase St., Nov. 10 through Dec. 22. The Rev. Carol Sharp and the Rev. Rebecca Harris will jointly lead worship and fellowship each week.
Harris said, “Advent is one of the oldest of all Christian commemorations and was celebrated beginning on the Sunday after All Saints Sunday. Since the early 2000s there has been a modern revival of the ancient tradition of marking the Advent season with seven weeks, rather than the four weeks before Christmas. Originally, for the earliest Christians, this was a time to look forward to the returning of Jesus, the ‘Second Coming,’ rather than Jesus’s birth, which was not widely celebrated until the eighth century AD.
“By lengthening the Advent season, we have time to reflect upon the meaning of both Jesus’s birth and His return. It also helps to move our minds away from the commercial holiday celebrations to a deeper understanding of the season and Christ’s presence in our lives, not only at Christmas, but all year long,” Harris continued. “Everyone, of every faith, or no faith, is welcome to join us as, with hope and joy, we rediscover Advent. Let us, during this season, anticipate not only Jesus’s birth, but his coming again, and the establishment of ‘God’s Kingdom, on Earth as it is in Heaven’.”
Each Sunday vesper service will be followed by “Coffee, Dessert and Conversation” time in the Fellowship Hall. For more information, call (814) 598-6162 if you have any questions.
