The village green outside the Old School Rooms in Stoke Gifford was host to crowds of carol singers on Saturday evening (8th December.
The event was organised by St Michael’s Church, with a band and celebratory hymns sung by St Michael’s School Choir and the church choir, joined by residents from the area. The area was decorated with lights, and lyrics to songs were displayed on a screen for the audience to follow and participate in.
Apart from singing carols, many young people held collection buckets to raise money for Carols on the Green. There were refreshments including hot food, traditional mulled wine and festive mince pies. Groups of people of different ethnicities and age groups prayed together for those facing difficulties in other parts of the world. They also prayed for the person standing next to them, which encouraged a sense of connection between unfamiliar faces.
We asked young people what they thought of the event and why it was relevant to them. Most of them did not want to be named individually, but they were enthusiastic to share their views and said that they appreciated the way such gatherings “bring the community together”. They also said that they would encourage those who have never attended St Michael’s events to come along in order to “meet new friends”.
The real message of Christmas, of a common sense of humanity and togetherness, was enjoyed by churchgoers and non-churchgoers alike at this heart-warming event.
Further local events with a Christmas theme in the coming days include a Christmas Concert with the Westerly Showband in the Old School Rooms at 7pm on Saturday (15th December) and a candlelit Carol Service in St Michael’s Church at 6:30pm on Sunday (16th December). More details of these events can be found in our What’s On guide.
More photos on PicasaWeb (The Journal).
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Related link: Faith and Religion in Stoke Gifford (The Journal)
St Michael’s Church reports that the ‘Carols on the Green’ event raised £1,409.68 for Caring for Christmas and the Julian Trust.”
Such a shame we don’t get to know when this is taking place, (I know people will say if we went to church regularly we would) we would have liked to have attended but have only just found out about it! Also it seems to take very early in december, is there a reason for that?
Sharon, I can’t speak for the church but I would always recommend keeping an eye on the What’s On page on this website! If you use Twitter, we send daily event reminders on our feed: @TheSGJournal.