Dr Rowan Williams said many people are unwilling to wait for Christmas Day to enjoy themselves because of the culture of instant gratification, and so spend the whole of December shopping and eating chocolates from their Advent Calendars. He pointed out that Advent is a separate, significant part of the Christian year but complained that this message is often drowned out by the shopping frenzy and by carols that are piped through stores.
His comments, in a film made for the video-sharing website YouTube, come as part of a campaign by the Church of England to encourage worshippers to reflect on the wait before the birth of Jesus Christ during the four weeks of Advent, rather than just seeing it as a time to shop and party.
In the video message, which contrasts images of High Street sales with those of religious paintings and people praying, Dr Williams says: "I suppose if you did one of those word association tests on 'Advent', the other word you'd come up with straight away would be 'calendar'.
"That's all that most people these days are really aware of where Advent is concerned. The Advent Calendar is a countdown to Christmas, and it means daily sweets and chocolates.
"It's a slightly thin and inadequate account of what has been for a long time one of the most important and significant times in the Church's year – a time of waiting, we sometimes say.
"But once we've said waiting, of course that's not a very attractive word. We're not a culture that's very used to waiting."
He said the advertising slogan once used by the credit card Access – "take the waiting out of wanting" – illustrates how many people want to possess things the minute they decide they want them, whereas waiting is seen as passive and boring.
But the Archbishop went on to say that waiting is central to the Biblical story of Advent, when John the Baptist announced the coming of Christ and Mary quietly waited for the birth of her child.
He said Christians should see Advent as a time to reflect on this waiting, and also to examine the extent to which they have allowed Jesus into their lives.
Dr Williams went on: "It's been said so often it hardly needs saying again, but it is rather a pity that for a few weeks before Christmas we are saturated with Christmas carols.
"We don't have quite the sort of quiet we need to think, 'Well what would it be if Jesus really came as if for the first time into my life'.
"All those bits of our contemporary culture which are about rushing to get gratification, all those habits of our culture which so drive the crises of our culture, whether it's the credit crunch of the environmental crisis, all those things we have to cast a rather cold eye on during Advent and say slow down, take time."
The Bishop of Reading, the Rt Rev Stephen Cottrell, who has written a book about ways to reduce the excesses of consumerism associated with the festive season, added: "I think the Archbishop is referring to the piped carols you hear as muzak everywhere you go. There's a strange mix of muzak carols and Slade which has become the standard, which can be pretty dispiriting."
www.WhyWeAreWaiting.com
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(Source: TT)