Advent Resources

Recorded at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, Borys Hede Wassayle Quire provides a number of Christmas selections for your free use. Sing along, use a tune as a prelude, or play the songs in the background during a festive gathering. Selections include:

• Ding Dong, Merrily on High (G. R. Woodward)
• God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen (Trad. English)
• Sans Day Carol (Trad. Cornish)
• Noel Nouvelet (Trad. French)
• Sussex Carol (Trad. English)
• Joseph lieber, Joseh mein (Trad. German)
• I Saw Three Ships (Trad. English)

In this liturgy, the Rev. Jeff Eddings '08 renames the traditional Advent candles of hope, peace, love, and joy to spaciousness, contemplation, commitment, and imagination. Consider using these weekly readings this year as you light the Advent candles in your church.

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The Rev. Dr. Graham D. S. Deans '06 has written a new Advent hymn to the tune of Menuet Gothique. Use this as a congregational hymn, sung by your church choir, or even special music.

Download the lyrics

Download the sheet music

The Worship Planning Calendar covers the First Sunday of Advent through Epiphany. The Planning Pages include the name of the day, Scripture readings based on the Revised Common Lectionary Passages, some suggested themes and Scripture resources, as well as suggested hymns and prayers. There's also space for free writing. Compliments of the Miller Summer Youth Institute and the Seminary's Worship Program.

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Download Word Doc

Here you will find suggested song selections related to the Lectionary’s festival passages for each Sunday in Year 2, thanks to the Seminary's Worship program.

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The SYI Guitar Hymnal is available for a wide range of guitar players and musical environments. This first iteration of the SYI Guitar Hymnal coordinates with the 1990 Presbyterian Hymnal.

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Planning an Advent service of word and song at your church? Check out this bulletin from a 2016 service at Pittsburgh Seminary. The PDF provides song suggestions as well as prayers and background info about the Advent season.

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Director of the Worship Program the Rev. Kendra Buckwalter Smith ’12/’13 shares "An Advent Service of Lessons and Carols" bulletin, which your church may want to follow this year.

Download Lessons and Carols bulletin

This litany, drawing on scripture and reflecting on the season of Advent, was written by the Seminary’s Worship Director the Rev. Kendra Buckwalter Smith and can be used in corporate worship or group devotional settings.

Download the litany

Explore the history and tradition of using Advent wreaths in personal and corporate worship. Read aloud the weekly devotions and prayers written by members of the Pittsburgh Seminary community.

Download the Advent wreath guide

Signup to receive our daily Advent devotionals. Written each year by members of the PTS community, these daily messages are available online, via e-mail, on social media, and can be printed and shared. You can also access past years.

Signup for the next Advent devotional

The Rev. Scott Dennis ’13 reflects on Advent and the anticipation, eagerness, and excitement this season brings. This meditation fits best in week four of Advent or in your Christmas Eve or Christmas Day services. 

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The Seminary's “Big Book of Advent Devotionals – Year 1” gives you a valuable resource for personal and corporate spiritual formation during the Advent season. From Day 1 through Day 29 (Christmas), each section includes multiple biblical passages from the daily lectionary, reflections based on those passages, and accompanying prayers based on each reflection.

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The Seminary’s 2021 “Big Book of Advent Devotionals—Year 2” gives you a valuable resource for personal and corporate Spiritual formation during the Advent season. Each section includes multiple biblical passages from the daily lectionary, reflections based on those passages, and accompanying prayers based on each reflection. 

Download the Big Book of Advent - Year 2

Written by members of the Seminary's faculty, the Advent prayer book offers Scripture passages (based on Year C) for the Sundays of Advent and accompanying prayers.

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Dr. Shan Overton, director of the Center for Writing and Learning Support, offers this original poem based on Luke 1:38. 

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Use these previously posted PTS blogs as sermon inspiration or illustrations. Professor John Burgess discusses fasting in Orthodox Russia, Director of the Center for Adaptive and Innovative Ministry Karen Rohrer reflects on the symbolism of candles and connection to new worshiping communities, and professor Roger Owens writes about ruptured relationships and God's restoration of all things.

Download PDF - Burgess

Download PDF - Rohrer

Download PDF - Owens

The Rev. Dr. Steven Tuell, James A. Kelso Professor of Hebrew and Old Testament, writes about the winter solstice in this blog post, which appeared on The Bible Guy. We have been taught—and rightly—that God creates the universe out of nothing. It all begins with shapeless, formless water. But when God speaks God’s creative word—“God said, ‘Let there be light’”—God imposes order on that chaos. The implicit question in Genesis 1, then, is not, "How did the world begin?" but rather, "Does the world make sense?" God establishes order and meaning in place of disorder and meaninglessness. 

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Use this brief poem by inaugural Director of the Center for Writing and Learning Support Dr. Shan Overton in your Advent bulletin as a meditative invitation to quiet one’s heart and shift one’s focus while awaiting the start of your worship service(s).

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Everyone loves Christmas cookies—especially children! Make these holiday-titled recipes for or with your Sunday school students, and tell the associated biblical stories as you share in sampling these sweets on Sunday morning and throughout the Advent season.

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The Rev. Jeremy Collins ’14 shares this children’s sermon for use in your Christmas Eve or Christmas Day worship service.

Download the children's sermon

Take this Advent Quiz with your family around the dinner table, give it to your high school or adult Sunday school class, discuss it in your Bible Study group, or test your knowledge on your own and perhaps learn something new about this special time of the year.

Download PDF Quiz

Download PDF Quiz and Answers

In her blog post "Awaiting His Advent Actively," Dr. Edith Humphrey, William F. Orr Professor Emerita, writes "Advent, or the Fast of the Nativity, is a time of waiting:  preparing for when we will joyfully celebrate, yet again, Christ’s nativity (His first Advent!) and waiting with patience for when He will come again in glory at his second promised Advent.  Consider this stirring and demanding passage from Colossians 3:4-11, prescribed for Divine Liturgy this week, that captures the kind of “active waiting” to which we are called."

Access the blog.

Use this Christmas Eve reflection by PC(USA) mission co-worker the Rev. Kay Day ’97, serving in Rwanda, to inform your perspective on the reconciliation with God and each other made possible by Jesus Christ.

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This well known Christmas hymn has a long and interesting past! Fully explore the song's history, meaning, and verses in this Advent study, perfect for small groups (think adult education during the Sundays in Advent), corporate worship (read the Scriptures and sing the verses), or personal devotions. This study is provided by the Seminary's Miller Summer Youth Institute. 

In addition, encourage the guitar players in your congregation to perform the song, thanks to sheet music provided in the Miller Summer Youth Institute Guitar Hymnal. You can even watch an SYI musician teach folks to play the song on guitar in the YouTube video.

After clicking "Download the PowerPoint," be sure to "Save As" to enable editing and picture viewing.

Download Study PDF

Download Lyrics PowerPoint 

Download Lyrics PDF

Download the Lyrical Videos

Full Song (Hymnal Order)
Verse 1
Verse 2
Verse 3
Verse 4
Verse 5
Verse 6
Verse 7

Download the Music Tracks

Full Song (Hymnal Order)
Verse 1
Verse 2
Verse 3
Verse 4
Verse 5
Verse 6
Verse 7

Video

Watch Video

Consider these child-friendly activities to involve the kids in your church in various hanging of the greens festivities. 

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Just what kind of savior is Jesus—the kind we want, or the kind we need? In this brief lesson from the prophet Micah, James A. Kelso Professor Emeritus of Hebrew and Old Testament the Rev. Dr. Steven Tuell helps us understand the kind of distance Jesus bridges in order to set us on the right path. Consider incorporating it into your celebration of communion during Advent.

Download Micah study

This Advent slideshow contains many historic lantern slides of Christmas-related scenes from the Holy Land collected by former PTS professor of biblical archaeology Melvin Grove Kyle. Use this PowerPoint slideshow, which includes captions from the Bible, as a background for your Advent worship services, Christmas fellowship gatherings, or Sunday School classes. Pairing the show with the Borys Heade Wassail Quire Christmas carols provides a festively meaningful atmosphere at your Advent and Christmas services and celebrations.

Download the PowerPoint After clicking "Download the PowerPoint," be sure to "Save As" to enable editing and picture viewing.

Download the PDF

In this sermon by the Rev. Rebecca S. Jones '11, she invites readers to listen to the message of Matthew 2:1-2 as though they are hearing the story for the first time. When we picture the wise men bearing gifts in our minds, the image likely is more informed by pageants and our own imaginations than the biblical account. 

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In this 10-minute talk from an Orthodox perspective, William F. Orr Professor of New Testament Dr. Edith M.Humphrey keys off Genesis 1-3; 22:18, and 1 Chronicles 16:8-36 to show how Mary’s joyful and profound hymn (known by Protestants as The Magnificat) is understood more fully by contrasting Mary’s “yes” to Eve’s rebellion; seeing the Incarnation as the beginning of the new creation; and seeing the parallel between David’s joyful procession with the Ark to Bethlehem and Mary’s carrying our Lord into that same city for our salvation. Listen to her podcast or read the written version of Dr. Humphrey’s talk, with the same title, on the blog. 

The Miller Summer Youth Institute leadership offer this workbook, pairing passages from Luke with paintings by master artists, as a four-week study through Advent for your Sunday School program, Bible Study, private devotions, or just for fun!

Download Picturing Advent

This sermon provides a hope-filled outlook on the season and the world at this time of year. Consider using this sermon by the Rev. Dr. Susan Moudry '10 in your worship service or Bible Study group on Christmas Eve or any time during the week before Dec. 25.

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This sermon by the Rev. Bala Khyllep, associate director of the World Mission Initiative, reminds us all the reasons we have to rejoice this Advent season. Consider using this sermon early in the Advent season. 

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