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We were lucky this year to be able to celebrate the Christmas season from start to finish. Our Advent Sunday evening service on 1st December saw the church beautifully decorated with pew candles, flowers, a brightly lit Christmas tree and of course the Advent Ring. Advent hymns, Bible readings, poems and prayers focused on light in the darkness and put us in a good frame of mind to prepare for Christmas.
The traditional Carol Service followed on 20th December, our way through the churchyard lit by lanterns. As usual we enjoyed hearing the Christmas story, singing well-known carols and being introduced to a few new readings; joining us 'from another shore' were, among many others former worshippers at St Giles, Pam Mears, Bishop Alan, Mike Andrews and Revd Norman Thorp. People lingered afterwards to enjoy each other's company over hot mulled wine, mince pies and other Christmassy treats.
The end of Christmas was celebrated on 9th February (a week after the official Candlemas Day) at a benefice Family Communion, with the choir as a bonus, and Christmas decorations were then removed – we observe 'long Christmas', as the late Queen liked to do at Sandringham. Appropriately, there are lovely patches of snowdrops, 'Candlemas bells', in the churchyard. Candlemas Day itself was bright and sunny, so we hope the folklore will prove wrong: 'If Candlemas be fine and clear / There'll be two winters in that year.' (Charles Causley). Apparently, the groundhog also predicted bad weather to come in the USA.
We now look forward toward spring and Easter. On 30th March we will host a Mothering Sunday service for the benefice at 10.30am (but be warned: clocks go forward in the early hours of that morning – mothers might need to forgo breakfast in bed). Primroses should be abundant in the churchyard by then, the 'rose without a thorn', a traditional image for Mary, mother of Jesus - the feast of the Annunciation falls this month. Then, for the first time in several years, there will be an Easter Sunday service at St Giles: Family Communion at 9am. Wild daffodils, 'Lent lilies', will add to the occasion. In May, by which time the weather must surely be warmer, and the countryside looking wonderful with cow parsley and may in bloom, the annual Rogation service and walk will start in the churchyard at 3pm.
There is much to look back on with enjoyment and more to look forward to; grateful thanks to everyone who makes these events possible.
Only those on the church electoral roll can elect or be on the PCC and every six years we have to draw up a new roll from scratch. If you wish to remain on the roll or would like to join it, please contact Mike before our Annual Parochial Church Meeting on 28th April.
