Categories: uncategorized
Date: 08 December 2003 11:05:58
The weekend started with a bang, or rather a toot, as the annual Dickensian Evening, complete with steam traction engines and roasted chestnuts, got underway. Dedication required a half-mile walk to choirpractice avoiding road blocks, and rehearsal of Christmas music accompanied by strains of steam whistle from outside. Then out into the c-c-c-c-cold night air to sing in the open-air Carol Service in the square, under the lit-up town hall Christmas Trees. Very festive, and who cares if it's three weeks early!
Popped into church on Saturday to pick up something I'd forgotten and found myself in the middle of a Christingle factory sweatshop. Had great suspicion that more sweets were being consumed by the 'workers' than were being put on the lolly sticks :D
Sneezed and coughed my way through the Sunday Eucharist ('He broke it and gave it to his disciples saying: Atchoo!....') as did several other members of the Choir, but mercifully throats and noses cleared in time for the Anthem, the Basque Carol: O Bethlehem. I enjoy singing the Kyrie instead of the Gloria during Advent, and it was good to sing the Benedictus for a change. Sermon included comments about the Bishop of Salisbury's new book on Worship and a precis of our own church's Mystery Worship report, which sounded amazing to be read out loud. I think I will buy a '12 Days of Kitchmas Jesus Fairy' for the vicar's Christmas Tree to mark the occasion ;)
Evensong, as usual, was a quiet affair, although numbers and visitors do seem to be on the up again. Maybe word is getting around that we are one of the few churches in the area to offer an (almost) weekly Choral Evensong. We sang the Basque Carol again - it is surprising how the same anthem, if we do that, can sound so different when sung at a different time of day, different service, and from the choir stalls rather than the back of church, or with a different combination of singers. All part of life's rich variety.....