We marked the beginning of Advent with a Christingle service, devised and led by Rosalind and Guy, assisted by puppeteers of all ages.
After Guy lit the first candle on our Advent wreath Ros opened our worship with a prayer then explained her theme: Tell out the news, a child is born, a Son is given. The children embellished our first hymn, Long ago prophets knew, with bells accompanied on keyboard by Jill Barnett.
Alice Lomas read from John 8 – Jesus, the light of the world. Penelope and Emma read their prayers of thanks for favourite things and Ros gave thanks for Jesus, praying that he will help us to pass on his message of joy and love especially to the darkest areas of our world. Ros reflected on the passage of over 2000 years since this portentous moment, the start of our lifelong journey to Christ.
The puppets performed “Away in a Manger” recorded by Aled Jones. Then Guy spoke of significant milestones in spreading the Christmas message up to the present day. We formed a circle round the church and our Christingles were lit as we sang Shine Jesus Shine. Margaret Maxwell read from Luke 2: the shepherds and the angels. Then puppeteers circled us to the music of Graham Kendrick’s Tell out the News, – a task we must all try to undertake.
The children distributed cards with the words of the song and a joyful face drawn by our children on the reverse.
