Carols are in the air – even in Tesco this morning at 8.15am Christmas Songs were being played – the checkout staff looked as if they’d heard it all a million times before!
Other people ‘bag Munros’ (apparently hikers in Scotland can climb 282 such summits) whilst I, at this time of year, seem to ‘bag Carol Services’. I’ve been to some super ones so far: The Albert Hall last week (on a church coach) to see John Rutter conduct a wonderful evening of music, and then on Sunday to a Service of Lessons and Carols at St Margaret’s next to Westminster Abbey. This Friday we’ve been invited to the Carol Service at St Alban’s Abbey and on Sunday the best of all..our own Carols by Candlelight at AFC!
My colleague has organised the service for the Sunday after Christmas and I have to confess I was relieved when I saw it in draft form - she hasn’t chosen a single carol for it!!
Yesterday evening Truro Cathedral reconstructed its carol service of 1880, devised by its then Bishop, Edward Benson, and later adopted and adapted all over the world, most famously at King’s College, Cambridge on Christmas Eve. For non-conformists a service of hymns, prayers and readings seems to be common fare yet for Victorian Anglicans used to Matins and Evensong it obviously felt revolutionary.
Carols come in all shapes and sizes. This year I’ve been struck by the simplicity of a gentler one – composed by Christina Rossetti, who often used to visit her grandfather’s house at Holmer Green, just south of Amersham. She wrote Love Came Down at Christmas in 1885 as a Christmas Poem for a Reading magazine:
Love came down at Christmas,
Love all lovely, Love Divine,
Love was born at Christmas,
Star and Angels gave the sign.
Worship we the Godhead,
Love Incarnate, Love Divine,
Worship we our Jesus,
But wherewith for sacred sign?
Love shall be our token,
Love shall be yours and love be mine,
Love to God and all men,
Love for plea and gift and sign.
Beautiful words.
Yet all of that seems a million miles away from the opening paragraph of a piece I read in The Evening Standard on the Tube whilst travelling home on Monday: It went:
For some, Christmas is all about Jesus Christ, for some about Santa Claus. For others, though, this time around, it’s all about Benedict Cumberbatch. He’s everywhere at the moment – and on New Year’s Day he’s rising from the dead, in series three of Sherlock...
Well, call me old fashioned, (and I actually love watching Sherlock) but I’ll take the first of those three options and say this festival is about Jesus Christ and the mystery of ‘Love – which came down at Christmas’.
May God’s peace and love touch all our lives over the next few days.
Best wishes,
Ian
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