Steve Gushee is a columnist for the Palm Beach Post. He’s also an Episcopal priest and wrote a couple of columns last year, one sneering at the Terry Schiavo case and the other sneering at DVC concern, that prompted me to put him in a box.

But two recent columns have presented an intriguing contrast. The first, about a month ago, in which he wrote that sure, it would be great for more extensive use of Latin to return to the Catholic Mass. And then this one, passed on by reader Judy, in which he takes the Episcopal Church of his area to task for disappearing Advent:

The four weeks before Christmas are set aside in the church for a preparation of the end of all things. Sin, death and judgment are the topics of Advent that begins Sunday and ends Christmas Eve. Christ’s birth is meant to be a surprise reprieve from a long-dreaded judgment.

Advent is a penitential season filled with prayer, study and the terrible reality of having, at last, to pay the heavenly piper. Celebration is muted. Few if any flowers are used in services. Music is decidedly sober, and church color is that of penance.

The idea is to prepare for the coming retribution and then be overwhelmed and astonished when God’s act is the gift of a child rather than hell fire. Christmas properly begins with the birth of Jesus and continues for 12 days in which the church urges the faithful to celebrate the astounding news.

This year, however, the clergy of the Episcopal Church in South Florida will throw a Christmas party with all the trimmings the day after Advent begins. Good food, fun and fellowship are promised to kick off the season of somber preparation.

There will be parties by clergy and laity throughout the country as so much of the church has caved in to the secular demands of the culture. They make it difficult for the faithful to keep Advent traditions even though that would enhance their Christmas experience. Celebrations are always more powerful when proceeded by periods of solemn preparation.

snip

Religions do not generally die from cataclysmic events. They slowly wither to irrelevance from creeping indifference.

In faith traditions, little things matter. Neglect of them can be fatal.

(Remember he’s Episcopalian. Is Advent in the Episcopalian Church solemn and penitential? Just wondering because obviously, in the RC Church of late, great pains have been taken to say Advent is not like Lent….)