The Church of Christ the Saviour, Bournemouth, Advent Carol Service took place this year on Sunday 9 December.  Numbers were up on recent years and the enthusiastic congregation sang with joy and gusto.  As the service is based on that anciently sung with the Magnificat in Vespers during Advent, the Magnificat was included, being chanted antiphonally.  Further additions to the carols in the printed service were two beautiful solos by Diana Radu, Romanian Carols sung in her native language.  The address was given by Subdeacon Antony-Paul Holland.  He admitted that he had not always been “a great fan of carols” but had come to appreciate them for a number of reasons.  There was the unity they offered “with our forbears”, those Christians of previous generations who had sung them before us and indeed who had composed them.  Then there was their link with the scriptures, particularly “the prophecies of the coming of a Messiah such as those in the book of Isaiah, and the stories surrounding the Nativity in the New Testament.”  Carols also helped us fulfil the numerous Biblical exhortations to sing and to join with the choirs of angels: “Our carolling is certainly an opportunity to join with this unceasing hymn of praise…”