Watchnight

Christmas Eve has its rituals. Last minute purchases, present wrapping, dusting and tidying, Christmas dinner preparations, visits from friends, setting the table and so on. Today we added another welcome extra visit from a friend at lunchtime.

At the end of the evening however there is the candlelit Watchnight service. It was held last year but under Covid restrictions so tonight felt like old times.

The music and singing was magnificent. There was a sense of peace and excitement and really set me up for Christmas Day. The service is always tinged with memories as our father died on the 22nd December 30 years ago and there are moments in the service when I am transported back to him and my mother and brother in the pews singing Silent Night. This year one of their great friends - and mother of one of our friends - passed away after a short illness. So the memories were even more intense.

The service is primarily by candlelight and the transformation from the somewhat bare church - see yesterday’s blip - is lovely.