The Carol Service
It was a cold and murky afternoon on the 15th December brightened only by the bright red blazers and hats and caps as Hallfield pupils walked to St George’s Church to start the Christmas celebrations in grand style with some beautiful singing, familiar well-loved readings from the Bible and an interesting Christmas Alphabet ending in ‘z’ for the zeal, that burned in the heart of Christ.
The service started with the choir, holding lit candle flames ,and singing ‘Rise Up Shepherd ‘ from the balcony above the congregation before Nadia Ismail sang, very clearly and beautifully, the traditional first verse of ‘Once in Royal David’s City’ as the choir processed into church. Christmas had begun!
The choir sang ‘A Maiden Most Gentle’ by Andrew Carter and the beautiful John Rutter carol ‘Born in a Stable’. The quality of the singing was excellent and it was certainly put to the test in their final piece ‘Rejoice Today with One Accord’ by David Willcocks that moved at such a pace the singers hardly had time to draw breath!
The Readers also were to be congratulated for the clear way they brought the Christmas story to life for all the congregation and their leading of the prayers.
It was lovely to welcome back the Rev. Tamsin Merchant, Senior Chaplain to the University of Gloucester, who conducted the service and spoke of Christmas being about following – the shepherds following the angels’ instructions to go to Bethlehem to find the baby, the wise men following the star to the stable and how we too should follow the baby, who was born to fix a broken world and spread light and joy.
The congregation were in good voice too and filled the huge space of St George’s with the traditional carols and one or two that the more mature amongst us may not have recognised!
All in all it was a feast of words and music that always marks the start of the festive season. Thank you to all the children and staff who helped to make it so.