As the season of Advent draws to a close, four local clergy have offered their perspectives of the importance of Advent as it relates to their particular denomination.

The Rev. Rusty Vincent of St. Paul Catholic Church, The Rev. Nathaniel Stamper of Westminster Presbyterian, The Rev. Rick Roessler of Holy Trinity Episcopal and The Rev. Tom Potter of Crawford St. United Methodist Church have contributed their thoughts.

“Advent is the time of preparation for the coming of the Lord at Christmas,” Vincent said.

“Advent, from the Latin ‘Adventus,’ meaning ‘coming,’ is a time of waiting and expectancy as we prepare for Christ’s second coming, just as God’s people awaited his first coming 2,000 years ago” Stamper said.

“The first season of the church year, beginning with the fourth Sunday before Christmas and continuing through the day before Christmas . . . is a time of preparation and expectation for the coming celebration of our Lord’s nativity and for the final coming of Christ ‘in power and glory,” Roessler explained.

“In the United Methodist Church, we recognize Advent as the beginning of our liturgical year,” Potter said. “This continues church tradition dating back to the 1400s A.D.”

Stamper said Advent is one of the most important times of the year.

“The first Advent was to redeem sinners, but He will return as King and judge of the nations,” he said. “We live between these two world-consequential events, and Advent focuses us on how Christians are called to live as redeemed people in a fallen world.”

“Advent signifies both repentance and royalty, represented by the ‘official’ liturgical color of purple, as in the royalty of King Jesus,” Potter added.

“The importance gets to the deeper level of preparation,” Vincent said. “It is a preparation for the Lord to come into our lives at any moment and preparation for his final coming. It is a recognition that the Lord will come and asking ourselves ‘am I ready for that moment’ or ‘what do I need to change’ to be ready.”

“Advent is considered a penitential time, a time when we remember that without Jesus we would be stuck in our current state: in pain, and sin, and death,” Roessler said. “It is also a season of great joy as we await both Christ’s birthday and anticipate Christ’s triumphant return and the day when sin and death (are) finally vanquished and we can all live together with God and each other in peace.”

Each denomination has different and similar ways of observing Advent. Generally, the colors of Advent are purple, for royalty (sometimes blue), signifying peace, hope and faith. The rose-colored candle, lit on the third Sunday of Advent, symbolizes joy. Some use a fifth, white candle in the middle of the display, to signify love, or Christ.

“Some of the things Crawford St. UMC does in observation of the Advent season begin with the Hanging of the Greens Service, along with the lighting of the Chrismon Tree,” Potter said. “Laity participates each week in lighting the candles of the Advent wreath during worship. We also have a new tradition, Yule with Luke, in which all the members of the church read Luke Chapter 1 on December 1, continuing until we finish Chapter 24 on Christmas Eve Day. We have even produced a daily devotional book to go along with all our members’ reading of the scripture each day.”

Roessler said that, during the observation of weeks one, two and four of Advent, “the Episcopal Church is decked in purple or blue; Holy Trinity has a beautiful set of blue garments that are utilized at this time. For week three, also known as Gaudete Sunday (rejoice), Holy Trinity displays rose colored garments.”

“There are a few things, as Catholics, we do to observe Advent,” Vincent said. “We have an Advent wreath, which we light for each of the four weeks before Christmas. We light a purple candle for the first, second and fourth week and the third week, we light the pink to represent we are getting closer to the moment of his birth.”

Like in the Episcopal church, this is referred to as Gaudete.

“Scripture readings focus on the preparation, particularly the message of John the Baptist of repentance with the latter part of the season focusing on the Nativity,” Vincent said. “We also put out our Nativity Set throughout the Advent.”

“At Westminster Presbyterian Church, we celebrate Advent with worship services featuring liturgy and hymns invocative of Christ’s coming,” Stamper said. “Our sermons focus on Old Testament prophecies of Christ’s two advents. We light candles on a wreath surrounding the central Christ candle, each representing an aspect of Christ’s first advent. At our Lessons and Carols service, we’ll sing ‘Silent Night,’ lighting congregational candles from Christ’s candle to illustrate His light entering the darkness and our role as His bearers of this light.

“In the new year after Advent, Westminster will begin a sermon series on the Gospel according to Matthew to focus on the life and ministry of Jesus Christ. Advent season is a perfect segue to look closely at what Jesus Christ’s first advent means for us individually and hope his second coming gives the world.”

“Christmastide (the season between Christmas ‘the day’ just before Epiphany) is a separate season for Episcopal/Anglican churches,” Roessler explained.

He went on to say that some families choose to display their Christmas trees until Epiphany, which takes place Jan. 6 and commemorates the day the wise men from the East visited Jesus and gave him gifts.

Potter said the Methodist church also recognizes Epiphany on Jan. 6. The next liturgical season is Lent.

“The Christmas season follows for a few weeks after Christmas Day . . . and focuses on those 12 days leading to the Epiphany when the three magi come to the Christ child,” Vincent said. “The season of Christmas also includes the Feast of the Holy Family and the Feast of Mary as Mother of God on Jan. 1st. The liturgical color shifts from purple to white to symbolize the change from preparation to the celebration of the light coming into the world.”