NOTES
for the
Christingle Service
at
St. Augustine's

2008 December 24

These are notes and comments on some of the items which appear in the Christingle Service script. Links from the script point to these entries; clicking the links in the left hand column of the table takes you back to the corresponding link in the script - or, where more than one link from the script points to the note, back to the first such link.

The comments are typically related to features of the service which are specific to our church or the time of the service, or which for some other reason we think might require alteration for another setting.

For references to the internal geography of the church, it might be helpful to inspect the plan.

BEFORE THE SERVICE :
FURNITURE ETC. :

Inherited from the Carol Service :

Also :

PROPERTIES :

  • Demonstration Christingle parts, all ready to be carried on from organ side :
    • "Orange";
    • Four "arms" representing winter, spring, summer, autumn;
    • Red ribbon;
    • Candle.
  • Advent wreath : all candles lit.
  • Christingle kits for ( at least ) all the children.
  • One assembled Christingle at the lectern for the narrator to use.

PEOPLE :

  • Narrator at lectern ( or proceeds in from the back );
  • Reader at lectern ( or proceeds in from the back );
  • Computer person at computer;
  • Organist at organ.

ADVENT WREATH We follow the custom of the Advent Wreath ( described here - or, for a brief summary, here ). If you don't, you'll have to make a few minor changes to the service.

ALTAR RAIL GAP In the centre of the performance area, towards the front; somewhere very visible. The altar rail itself has no particular significance - it just happens to be there.

ARMS Instead of the usual fruity arms, for the demonstration Christingle we used arms specifically representing the four "joys" identified in the service. Here are pictures :

"The joy of being called by God to be His servant" :
"The joy of experiencing the Glory of the Lord" :
"The joy of giving our gifts and talents to God" :
"The joy of reading God's Holy Bible" :

As well as the arms themselves, we included pictures of them in the overhead projector presentation so that everyone could see.

CAMP FIRE Our usual electric "fire".

It was moved into position part way through the service because of our limited space; this area had already been the stable, and a room in Bethlehem.

CANDLE BEARERS The Candle Bearers animate the reading from Luke 11.33-36, where Jesus speaks of lighting a lamp and hiding it. Anyone who isn't doing anything else at the time can be a candle bearer; that included almost all our cast.

CARDS The seven cards identify the seven "joy"s. Each card is an A3 poster with the description of the "joy" clearly printed in a slightly decorative frame.

Here's an example :

CHRISTINGLE AND HOW TO MAKE IT We have omitted the details of this central part of the service because some are likely to depend on the geography of your building, how many people are available, etc. Here's a general description.

CHRISTMAS TREE Our usual Christmas tree, decorated with Christmas card bells and 'gold' bells. There were also lights, and the tree as a whole was illuminated with a spotlight.

CURTAIN The blue curtain is on the front wall of the church, behind the altar. Decorations :

  • At each top corner, greenery surrounding red bow with two gold bells underneath the bow;
  • between these corners the letters J O Y in gold - A4 size.

DEMONSTRATION CHRISTINGLE Our customary Demonstration Christingle.

HELPER 7a Originally intended for Helper 7, but another small helper turned up at the last minute so we invented this part for him. Including people is more important than sticking to the script.

GIFTS A selection from our stock.

MANGER Our usual manger.

MESSAGE The Message should ( obviously ) lead into the following card, which proclaims the "JOY OF KNOWING JESUS AND RECEIVING HIS FORGIVENESS".

STORY TELLER Room for flexibility. We had just one story teller who told three VERY SHORT ( 1 minute each ) stories about encounters with nature ( a fly, a bird, and a rat ) which had taught her something about God's creation. The stories were unscripted, so we can't include them here; as they are not referred to anywhere else in the service, you can use your own stories without constraint - or you could reorganise this bit completely.

TESTIMONY A member of our congregation gave a personal and unscripted testimony on how the Bible had changed her life.

The specific details of the testimony are not important (  for the purposes of this service ! ); the theme of the Bible changing someone's life is.

THREE TRUE STORIES The object of this section is to emphasise the "awe and wonder" which we can experience from pondering God's creation. This is how we did it; you might use a different approach.

It's important ( we think ) that this very introductory piece should be short and effective. Our storyteller worked hard to fit each of her stories into less than one minute, without spoiling the story.

WHAT CAN I GIVE HIM ? From the carol "In the bleak midwinter".