Tonight’s carol service took the form of a Christingle service. The Sunday school sang a song:
Dave spoke about how in the beginning there was no light and yet how God has always existed and spoke light into being. His light now is available to shine in us. The origins of the Christingle service lay in the Moravian church when all were encouraged to bring their gifts to offer to God. One family had very little to bring and so came with just an orange, a red ribbon tied around the orange with sticks and some fruit stuck on the sticks. People laughed at this offering because it was so meagre, but the priest reminded everyone that the orange is circular, like God’s world, and the red ribbon represented Christ’s blood, shed for all the world. The sticks demonstrated that God is ruling over His world from north, east, south and west and the fruit and sweets represent God’s graciousness in giving us food to eat. Now the Christingle orange reminds us of these truths and the candle attached to the top symbolises that Christ is the Light of the world.
Everyone then had the opportunity to make their own Christingles:
Some Christingles were more personalised than others:
We sang a song written for this kind of service (sung to the tune of ‘Show Me The Way To Amarillo’) and concluded our service by singing ‘Silent Night’ and waving our Christingles:
We also had a special birthday to celebrate:
