With all our usual children, family, youth and senior’s groups physically grounded it will be great this coming Sunday for the whole church, via Youtube, to be able to come together for an online Christingle Service. As far as children, youth and seniors are concerned, like so much else these days organising this Service has involved an enormous amount of extra work for Shelley, Kate, Diane and Karen who over the last few days have been busy putting together over 100 individual bags each containing everything required to make your very own Christingle. And then of course for a dozen or so delivery drivers to make doorstep deliveries in and around north Leeds.
In addition, early next week and fully aware that not everyone is hooked up to the internet Carole and some members of her Senior’s Team will then make sure that all their Lunch Club regulars, and a few more besides are also able to get involved by again hand delivering bespoke packs to everyone on their register.
The history of the Christingle is really interesting and can be traced back to Moravian Bishop Johannes de Watteville, who started the tradition in Germany in 1747. At that time it was just a red ruff wrapped around a candle. In the intervening years, the Moravian Church spread the tradition of Christingle through their early role in the Protestant missionary movement. It was popularized in the United Kingdom by John Pensom in 1968. He was raising funds for the charity . In the 2000s over 5,000 Christingle services were being held in the UK every year. In 2018, over 6,000 services were held for The Children’s society. Each year Christingle raises over £1.2million to help vulnerable young people.
In 2018, The Children’s Society launched its #Christingle50 campaign, which included festive services in schools and churches for the 50th year.
A Christingle usually consists of: An orange, representing the world. A candle pushed into the centre of the orange, then lit, representing Jesus Christ as Light of the World. A red ribbon wrapped around the orange or a paper frill around the candle, representing the blood of Christ. Dried fruits and/or sweets skewered on cocktail sticks pushed into the orange, representing the fruits of the earth and the four seasons.
We were hoping that each of our packs would also contain an envelope in which you could make a donation to the Children’s Society. Sadly these haven’t arrived yet but all is not lost because if you follow this link https://www.childrenssociety.org.uk/how-you-can-help/donate you can arrange to make a donation to this amazing organisation either by post or online.
And don’t forget that this year our Christingle is just one of our many family focused pre – Christmas events. Already Shelley has hosted an After School Christmas Special, next Thursday at 11am we have our Santa zoom and Christmas party (incl. a nativity scavenger hunt) for our under 5’s, and then at 9.30am on Sunday 20th and ahead of our evening Carol Service we have courtesy of Zoom a breakfast Nativity.
The direct link to our Christingle Service is here
If you would like to join us for any (or all) of these events please leave a message for Shelley or Kate on 0113 2693750 (email: Admin@moortownbaptistchurch.onmicrosoft.com) and we’ll make sure you receive the Zoom invitation.