Christmas in the churches

Press, Volume CXIII, Issue 33413, 20 December 1973, Page 17

Christmas in the churches

Christmas in Christchurch is likely to be fairly quiet as far as churches are concerned, with inter ■ denominational preparations for the Commonwealth Games probably taking precedence.

The element of novelty has largely been eliminated or overlooked — there seem to be no balloons hanging in churches this year, film strips, or poetry.

Christmas Day is on a Tuesday and this has made the preceding four days a time for employees and families to escape from the city. The exodus is expected to be big enough to reduce church attendances considerably and make extra activities, expense, and effort a waste of time.

A number of parish vacancies have left some churches without definite leadership — and with an inclination to forgo everything except the traditional Christmas Eve and Day service. Even the Union parishes, combining up to three different denominations under one minister, have not attempted to justify the cause of union by adding a dash of something different. They have kept very close to traditional lines.

“The reason,” says a minister of one of the Union parishes, *‘is that we don’t have to go about proving we have combined effectively. The proof is that we’ve stopped even talking about union now. We don’t even think of ourselves in terms of denominations.” SERVICE DROPPED

North-west Christchurch, an area where six denominations usually join in a large joint service have deliberately dropped the service this year. Major I. Kilgour, of Bishopdale, said that ecumenism could be overplayed. “We decided amongst our-

'selves that we had got together quite a bit this year. If you load the calendar too much you can defeat the very thing you’re trying to achieve.”

The inner city combined service of Durham Street Methodist Church, the Methodist Central, and the Salvation Army has also been omitted from the churches’ programme. Not deliberately, but unavoidably — none of the churches could find a mutually suitable date.

| A Christmas cantata by Bach made last Sunday morning at the Oxford Terrace Baptist Church something different. A 14-piece orchestra seconded from the City Orchestra and also comprising student players accompanied three soloists and congregational singing. In the evening Anson Austin, the tenor, sang at the church. Recently he appeared at the Sydney Opera House.

Families took part in a festive season service at Knox Presbyterian Church on Sunday. About 20 families prepared an “offering of worship,” presenting small items including mimes and plays, and a candle-lighting ceremony.

On the preceding Sunday, an ecumenical gathering of about 400 people was held in the church. Five churches representing four denominations attended.

At Hornby, Anglicans, Methodists, the Salvation Army, and Roman Catholics combined, and an adult drama was staged with a Christmas theme.

Throughout Christchurch most Anglican churches will be celebrating their annual service of nine lessons and carols this Sunday. At the Christchurch Cathedral the service will be preceded on Wednesday and Thursday by midday carol recitals by the boy choristers, and on Friday evening by the full choir.

At the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament, a carol

, service and midnight mass at which the Roman Catholic Bishop of Christchurch, ((the Most Rev. B. P. Ashby) will preach will begin at 11 (p.m. on Christmas Eve. On( Christmas Day mass will be! celebrated at 7.30 a.m„ 9 a.m., 10.30 a.m. and 7 p.m. On Christmas morning at Oxford Terrace Baptist Church, the Durham Street Methodist Church and members of St Paul’s Trinity Pacific Presbyterian Church will worship’together. At St.Paul’s this Sunday a service of nine lessons and carols in the Samoan language will follow a service at 1.30 p.m. for Cook Islanders. Members of the four major denominations on Cashmere Hill will unite for carol singing on the grass triangle on Dyers Pass Road on Sunday evening. Last Sunday the 45-voice choir of the Durhan Street Methodist Church presented excerpts from Handel’s “Messiah” after eight weeks of rehearsing, On Christmas Day the Methodist Central Mission will put on a midday dinner at Aldersgate for about 100 elderly people who would otherwise spend the day alone. Tomorrow and Friday will be spent at the Mission packing about 500 Christmas parcels for neeedy persons. At Knox Presbyterian Church on Christmas Eve, a departure from Presbyterian tradition will be made with a midnight communion service, and a period of meditation led by the Rev. N. Brooks, minister of St Albans Methodist Church. APPEAL

Some time during the Christmas week collections will be made for the annual National Council of Churches’ Christmas Appeal. The council has the money

for development projects overseas.

Those in orphanages, homes for the aged, and hospitals, and needy persons inj the community have been remembered in some way by churches.

Many have held church dinners and distributed gifts, and it will be unusual if representatives from all the churches have not sung somewhere in the community by Christmas Day.