It hardly seems possible that I’m compiling the Christmas issue of the magazine with the door open and balmy air drifting in, with roses still blooming among the holly berries and spiders growing ever larger on the unexpected bounty of such a mild autumn. But December it is and I have to apply myself to Carol services, decorations, putting up the Crib and all the paraphernalia of Christmas, to say nothing of Christmas shopping – what Louis MacNeice described as the accidental loot of the system’.
The ongoing saga of the boiler is just that really – an ongoing saga. The work hasn’t been done, the cold church we’ve been threatening could still / will still happen – sometime this month probably. Because of the mildest November on record’ and the fact that one boiler is still working the church has actually been rather warmer than usual, the theory being that if we get it thoroughly warm residual heat in the walls will keep us going through the cold days when they arrive. I need convincing on that!
Advent
Each Sunday in Advent the children will be starting in church for the lighting of the Advent candle before going down to their groups for the orgy of cutting and pasting and scattering of glitter without which no Christmas would be complete. Sunday evenings are particularly busy with the Advent Carol Service on 3rd, Confirmation on 10th and the Service of Nine Lessons and Carols on 17th.
We have the usual round of school carol services this year -they are in the Diary and although they’re intended for the schools anyone is welcome to pop in and listen; their choirs do sing
some of the most beautiful and unusual carols. We also have two Christmas conce
rts: The Royal Free Cancer Care annual concert with Camden Choir on Friday 8th featuring a medley of choir and congregational carols and the Hampstead Chamber Choir concert on Wednesday 20th.
Christmas
The Children’s Carol/Crib service is on Christmas Eve at 5.30pm. This follows the same format as previous years – a short nativity play interspersed with popular carols. We welcome any children to take part as kings, angels, shepherds, [and sheep]. In a bid to make it slightly less chaotic this year we’re asking parents please NOT to take photographs during the service but we do promise to keep the children on stage for a photo call at the end. Last year a few over-enthusiastic parents did get a bit carried away and rather spoilt the enjoyment for many others in what is always a packed church.
For those of you less than enchanted by all the hype of Christmas we have a sermon, reviews of the evening of celebration of Sir Alan Goodison’s life and a report from the Asrahawariat School in Ethiopia, one of the charities supported by the parish. There’s also an article by Anne Stevens on favourite hymns’ which contains [almost] no mention of carols. And the very first crossword puzzle [dating from 1913].
A Request
Because Christmas Eve is a Sunday we’ll need to put up the staging for the Children’s Service after the 10.30amParish Eucharist [the only Sunday’ service that day]. Can I ask for help now? It’s not that difficult – all the pieces we need are stored in the church. Taking it down afterwards is always my idea of hell – I find myself thinking “Suppose no one offers to help? Suppose we knock the Christmas tree over? Suppose – suppose……..” a hundred awful possibilities that could occur in the rather short space of time between that service and Midnight Mass. Thankfully, apart from the year someone disconnected the microphones and it took me all evening to retrieve the cables, none of these disastrous scenarios has ever happened.
And then the church is ready : ready for the Children’s Service, ready for Midnight Mass, ready for Christmas morning. The empty stable on Christmas Eve is a reminder that the stage is set and the world is waiting. There isn’t much waiting’ done on Christmas Eve – mostly it’s rush and bustle and excitement [and worry!] But the church waits. Waits for the children to arrive, waits for the congregation, waits for the lights and the music – and waits for the moment when we move from the past to the future, the moment of Hopkins’ moonless darkness’ between one world and the next, the moment it’s all about really, when we can truly sing Yea, Lord, we greet thee / born this happy morning’.
Judy East
December
Judy East