This project came out of a love for Christmas music, and a desire to add to the musical liturgy, Rite 7, that we had created a couple of years earlier.
We chose the songs to highlight the revolutionary message of the good news of Advent that is often sublimated by the cultural sentimentality and materialism that is almost inescapable this time of year. Many of these songs are several hundred years old, and come from a tradition of singing to raise money for the poor, with messages that highlight the poverty of the Christ-child, that message of hope and love, but also justice and mercy and transformation for a broken world.