How many?

The total number of carols sung this year (barring any late changes tomorrow) has been just 50. This is less than I thought it would be but is still enough.

I am coming down slowly I put the finishing touches to tomorrow's service by listening to a vintage XTC concert from 22nd December 1980. The picture is a bit earlier than that I think as I think that is Barry Andrews on keyboards and he had left by then to be in Shriekback.

Like you care!

Anyhow, MERRY CHRISTMAS - have yourself a merry little one!

Carols by Candlelight

Well, despite the onset of carol fatigue we had a great day yesterday. The morning service was a good time, especially as we welcomed two couples into membership. One couple are already deeply into the life and work of the church but have taken some time to get to this point concerning membership. They are great people, really solid, and an encouragement ever since we got here - in fact they threw in their lot with us at the time we arrived, as did a number of other people; more than a coincidence, I feel.

The other couple are older retired folk who have been in churches all their lives. They described themselves yesterday as being comfortable when they got here but that they were less so as a result of being in the church (!) and that they had both re-dedicated their lives to God since being here. There's a good definition of effective preaching that fits - that the comfortable would be disturbed and that the disturbed would be comforted. The sermon looked at Christmas from a Child's Viewpoint and challenged us to be more like children in order to enter the kingdom. Child-like as opposed to being childish.

The evening service is perhaps our best of the year. We light dozens, perhaps hundreds, of candles and the whole thing has a wonderfully intimate feel to it. We sang favourite carols together with the best of the new ones; Underneath the Shining Star, Joy Has Dawned, and From the Squalor... and read the usual passages plus a couple from the wonderful Jesus Storybook Bible by Sally Lloyd-Jones. And afterwards we all came out of the service to see a light dusting of snow on everything. It was like being in a film. A good day.

(Not quite) all aboard

Today a whole lot of people from church are going on the Carol Train. A steam train makes it way up the line and at every station people get out and sing a coupel of carols, all pile back in and do it again at the next station.

I managed to shock someone from the congregation today who had dropped into the office and in parting he said, "See you tonight". His jaw literally dropped and he didn't know what to say when I told him I wasn't going. "But you...", he spluttered before being unable to finish the sentence. Because surely if there's one thing a vicar likes more than singing carols it's steam trains?

I went to a carol service last night and I have two more tomorrow. So far I have sung 32 this season. Why would I want to sing carols tonight as well?

Humbug!

Carol Count

I've decided to keep a count of the number of times I end up singing a carol in a service or at a meeting or gathering this year. I am only on 9 so far. What do you reckon the final score will be?

Hope you like the picture of the brother and sisters in their frocks.

Gone to the Dogs

The organist is away for Christmas, leaving me searching for CD versions of carols for a few services. We often sing to CDs so it shouldn't be a problem. But finding decent versions is proving harder. The worst of the lot is this CD of Christmas Carol Favourites for Dog Lovers. Until you have heard Spike and Jerry bark along to Hark the Herald, Christmas hasn't really started. You can check for yourself if you wish....

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Christmas-Carol-Favorites-Dog-Lovers/dp/B001HAZXUE/ref=sr_1_30?ie=UTF8&s=dmusic&qid=1259586121&sr=1-30

The one about the Bishop and the Carol Singers

Thanks to the BUGB website I give you this excerpt from today's Daily Mail, quoting the Bishop of Croydon:

In Why Wish You A Merry Christmas - a new book published by the Church of England - the bishop also criticised schools which introduce snakes and grizzly bears to nativity plays.
He said it had the effect of 'relegating the story [of Christ] to fictional fantasy'.

'I always find it a slightly bizarre sight when I see parents and grandparents at a nativity play singing Away In A Manger as if it actually related to reality,' he writes.

'I can understand the little children being quite taken with the sort of baby of whom it can be said "no crying he makes", but how can any adult sing this without embarrassment?'

However, the Right Reverend Nick Baines calls carols 'embarrassing'
He said that Jesus would be abnormal if he had not cried as a baby.
'If we sing nonsense, is it any surprise that children grow into adults and throw out the tearless baby Jesus with Father Christmas and other fantasy figures?' he added.

'Once In Royal David’s City has Jesus as "our childhood’s pattern" — even though we know almost nothing of his childhood apart from one incident when he was 12 years old and being disobedient to his parents — and invites children to be "mild, obedient, good as he", which means what, exactly?

'This sounds suspiciously like Victorian behaviour control to me."

Has to be said I have some sympathy for him.

PS - I have posted the picture of the Bishop in case anyone thinks it's the other Nick Baines, out of the Kaiser Chiefs.