Put on the armour of light

The season of Advent has been disappearing for a long time. Alan Bennett in "Writing Home" wrote gloomily that Advent is now "the run up to Christmas". Advent calendars are not called Advent calendars, they are "Countdown to Christmas". Last week at one of our church services on Advent Sunday; no Advent hymns; the first candle on the Advent wreath lit, without comment or prayer; two lines of the Advent collect quoted but the whole prayer not used. This in a stew of different themes; Good news, good deeds; a bit of Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony; part of a short story by O. Henry ("Who's he, children?" "Does he play for Arsenal?"); The Good Samaritan; a plug for Amnesty International. It was like flipping through a magazine in a dentist's waiting room. I wish I'd gone to the Cathedral for the Advent Carol Service.