Magical Christingle
On Sunday 5th December we held our super All Age Christingle service. Thanks to the wonderful organisation of Maureen and her team, and Jeremy guiding us through the construction, everyone was able to make a Christingle.
The inspiration for a Christingle service was as a fund raising idea for The Children’s Society, one of the charities that Hampstead Parish Church supports. The Society also produces Christingle resources for churches that need them, which in the past Jeremy has been involved with producing. Last year 2,000 churches held Christingle services, despite lockdown, and this raised over £600,000 for the Society. All our collections from this Sunday’s services will be sent to The Children’s Society.
The Christingle can represent so many things for us – first and foremost the candle symbolising Christ coming soon as the Light of the World, but also the light of the valuable work done by the Children’s Society, shining in the darkness of the lives of so many of the children it supports. The orange representing the world, but also the beauty of creation and our responsibility to care for it. The red band around the middle of the orange representing Christ’s blood, but also that in Christ we are united as one world. And the four sticks with sweets – these can represent the four evangelists but also an excuse to break our Advent fast, if this is something we are trying to do!
