Christmas is always a busy and joyous time at St Paternus, beginning on the first day of  Advent and ending on the 6th January at Epiphany. We present here a series of reports on these events as they happened, beginning with our Advent Carol Service on the first day of Advent.

Advent Carol Service - Sunday 1st December

It was wonderful to celebrate the beginning of the four weeks of Advent with our annual Advent Carol Service on the very first day of December.

The service was ably led by James Wonnacott and, after the opening address by James, a series of readings, prayers, contemplations and, of course, carols followed, which mirrored the lighting and placement on the church window sills of four advent candles by members of the congregation; one each of the candles representing the four weeks of Advent and the virtues of hope, peace, joy and love. Traditional carols such as Oh Come Oh Come Emanuel were sung by all, including a new Advent Carol written by a member of the congregation.

At the close of the service, a fifth candle, known as the Christ Candle was lit and placed by James to represent purity.

It was a very enjoyable service and good to celebrate the beginning of this joyous time.

Service of Nine Lessons & Carols - Sunday 15th December

With the Christmas tree adorned with beautiful golden lights, the church bells ringing and the nave lit with candles, the scene was set for our annual service of Nine Lessons and Carols.

The lessons were well read with clarity and enthusiasm by nine volunteers and carols, both new and old were sung, including the new "Through The Dark A Light Has Shone", "Hark The Herald Angels Sing" and "Once in Royal David's City" into which the congregation were led by Olivia singing the first verse solo whilst walking the length of the nave.

Following the service, the congregation enjoyed the traditional mulled wine and mince pies before heading home.

North Petherwin Primary School Nativity Play - Tuesday 17th December

Once again we were presented with a very enjoyable production of the Nativity by North Petherwin School. The theme this year was set around the Star of Bethlehem, with a group of youngsters brightly dressed as giant gold stars, the chief of these being the main narrator of the story of Mary and Joseph's trek to Bethlehem and the birth of Jesus.

This was a very musical production, with some fine singing by the school boys and girls. We were treated at the end to the very upbeat "Rocking Around The Christmas Tree" (first recorded by Brenda Lee in 1958, when she was just 13 years old) which sent us all away with happy hearts and full of the Christmas spirit.

Christingle - Tuesday 24th December

At St Paternus Church on Christmas Eve, a Christingle Service was held. Some people walked to the service commencing at the Parish Hall, they sang carols on route stopping at Beaumont Court Residential Home to sing to residents who were unable to attend the service. For those people walking, this represented a journey perhaps rather like in the Nativity Story.

The service commenced with a welcome and the lighting of the Advent Candles. Helen carefully chose members of our community to light the candles for hope, faith, joy, peace and Christ's light. One of the Bonnie read a prayer - A Blessing of the Crib. North Petherwin Parish Councillors and some other willing volunteers acted out a short Nativity Story which involved a Grumpy Old Owl finding the Joy of Christmas. We were blessed to have some great actors, costumes and a real Baby Jesus! The Congregation actively got involved with the Story saying "I don't give a hoot!' when prompted.

A short summary of what the Christingle represents was given by Julie followed by distributing the Christingles to all the children. Nick read a prayer of Blessing the Christingles.

Throughout the service four well known Christmas Carols were sung accompanied by Jo on the organ, a special mention to "Away in a Manger" where the children were asked to sing the first verse (whilst holding their lit Christingles) and everyone joined in for the second and third verses. During the final Carol - "Hark the Herald Angel Sing", a collection was taken for Children's Hospice South West and NSPCC. The service ended with a Christmas Blessing.

Special thanks to all the amazing team that contributed to the service in anyway. 

Epiphany - Sunday 5th January

Illness and holidays prevented too many people from attending this most beautiful Holy Communion service, led by Rev'd Jess, whose sermon on how the gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh to the baby Jesus tied in with God's prophesied gift to the human race.

Jess introduced to our Church an age-old Christian custom of "Chalking the Door", whereby volunteers chalked on the upper reaches of the church entrance doors the number 20, followed by the initials of the three kings, C, M and B, followed by the number 25, to complete the number of years ago that they followed the star to Bethlehem. Afterwards we all said Aaron`s Blessing (Numbers 6:24-26) : "The Lord bless us and keep us; the Lord make his face shine upon us and be gracious to us; the Lord turn his face toward us and give us peace. Amen"

Following the service, we were treated to a beautiful rendition of Vidor`s Toccata by Edward on the church organ.

PLEASE NOTE. This and all other entries in 'News and Notices' are usually listed in order of date published or amended.