Uttoxeter St Mary the Virgin

Caring Community Carols 2025

St Mary’s Church in Uttoxeter was one of just fifteen locations around the country chosen to host a royal carol service earlier this month. The services, supported by The Royal Foundation, complement The Princess of Wales’s ‘Together at Christmas’ service at Westminster Abbey, celebrating love, empathy and community spirit.

Staffordshire’s 260 invited guests from across the county celebrated the chosen theme: kindness, surrounded by columns of Christmas trees and six independent choirs who came together specially for the evening. Guests included local heroes, from all walks of life, who give their time to events, organisations and communities – everyone from charity founders, to first aiders to sports club volunteers.

One person that attended the special Staffordshire service was Sarah Day from Werrington, near Stoke-on-Trent. Sarah has been raising awareness of sepsis with the support of charity Sepsis Research FEAT after the loss of her son Dylan aged 12 in 2018. Sarah said, “After a feeling no one should go through, I can now talk openly about grief and I’m proud to have created an online space to help others. By telling Dylan’s story, in hospitals, in the community training, on first aid courses and on social media we have helped save many lives.”

Another welcomed guest was Rachael Olley of Stafford, whose son Connor was diagnosed with leukaemia aged just five. After 3 ½ years of treatment Connor received a clean bill of health and is now 27 years old. After her experience Rachel joined the charity Childhood Cancer Parents Alliance.

The Westminster Abbey service will be shown on ITV on Christmas Eve and will honour individuals and organisations across the UK that have demonstrated love, kindness, and empathy in their communities and the local events reflected the same theme with stories of amazing compassion and caring showing the spirit of togetherness hoping that it resonates throughout the holiday season.

Organised by the Lord Lieutenant’s team as royal representative in the county, carols were led by fifty singers from five local choirs with Bishop Matthew giving the blessing and Archdeacon Megan bringing a reflection on empathy:

“Empathy is not merely the ability to feel for someone else. Empathy is the capacity to feel with another, to put yourself in their shoes and know what they are feeling; empathy means you can understand and share the feelings of others because you have been there yourself.

“In our first bible reading the prophet Isaiah foretells Jesus coming into the world he speaks of it in terms of God’s response as the people find themselves walking darkness, living in deep darkness. The nation is under political threat, the power of their enemies is growing, the people feel powerless and are afraid, they’ve lost their identity as a community, they’re wondering whether even God is against them or has simply abandoned them.

“Of all the responses that God could make, what does he do? He steps down into the dark hole with them. He chose to come as a vulnerable baby, to walk alongside them, to share their life, to journey with them towards a way out.

“It is not just individuals who need the transformation that can come from empathy. One of the key findings of the recent government report by Dame Sarah Khan on Social Cohesion and Resilience, was an alarming rise in polarisation within our society… Our communities as a whole are in desperate need of empathy so they can be places full of joy and hope for everyone.”

The Community Carol Services are supported by The Co-Operative Group – which provided hot and cold drinks and festive treats – and Hobbycraft, which gifted craft sets to all children that attended the services, as well as Christmas decorations.

Uttoxeter St Mary the Virgin

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