This is our annual Carol Service in the traditional format, focused on well-known, older carols. The image above is part of a working drawing made by Tirzah Garwood in 1938 for a Nativity transparency used at another St Nicholas's Church, at Castle Hedingham in Essex; its joyful simplicity is particularly poignant in view of its date, on the eve of a war in which Garwood lost her husband and became seriously ill herself. The whole drawing is attached.

Unlike most Anglican services, the Service of Nine Lessons and Carols does not have its origins in pre=Reformation Latin liturgy, partly because for most of the history of Christianity in Britain 'carols' belonged firmly in the secular celebrations of the season. The 'nine lessons' do something unique in liturgy in setting out the entire narrative arc from the Fall of Man to the offer of redemption, taking in Old Testament foreshadowing and prophecy of the coming of the Messiah and the story of Jesus's birth. In its familiar form, the 'Nine Lessons' service dates from the aftermath of the Great War, when it was consciously intended as an assertion of faith and a commitment to peace and reconciliation. This is a history worth remembering as we sing the familiar words of traditional carols.

As always. the Carol Service will be followed by refreshments in the hall.

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