Christmas this year is different.  We can’t gather with our friends and families as we usually do.  We can’t sing our favourite carols in church.  We shouldn’t turn up to services without pre-booking our places, and some of us can’t even venture into church at all because of shielding and particular vulnerability to health issues.  We feel more in need of comfort than able to radiate joy.  So how can we sing to the Lord a new song for Christmas 2020? How can we observe God’s greatest gift of love in sending Jesus to live among us?

Part of our response was to put together a service of Comfort and Joy, which we published on 13^th December (on YouTube https://youtu.be/xDrzl-wzhPw and https://www.facebook.com/stmaryschurchbanbury/) as a way of sharing our Christmas message with all who have access to smartphone, tablet or computer.  The service involved adults and children from across the community, and it became a wonderful means of keeping in touch with our Windows children who normally meet in church with Frances and Kieron, but in recent months have been meeting via Zoom.  The Windows group was responsible for assembling the crib in a socially-distanced way, and each family arrived in church 5 minutes apart in order to play their part in carrying up the crib figures.

Another key contribution made by children was the fabulous singing of Away in a Manger by pupils at our own church primary school.  I know from their head teacher that the pupils had spent many weeks practising their carol, and this certainly showed in their marvellous performances, some of which included actions to the words.  What a joy it was to see their enthusiasm for singing, and many congratulations to their teachers who had to start singing a Christmas carol rather earlier in the term than might have been their preference!

Musicians were in evidence aplenty with St Mary’s Festival Singers, who had to record in a socially-distanced arrangement, spaced all the way around the galleries in church.  Perhaps the limited number of opportunities to sing together since Choral Evensong on 1^st March added an extra zest to their voices, with soaring descants and full-throated harmony.  Certainly Kieron, our Director of Music, led the way with his customary enthusiasm and expertise, and Stephen’s organ voluntary rounded off the service with a glorious setting of ‘in dulci jubilo’ by J S Bach.  In contrast, the Bourne family sang a contemplative setting of The angel Gabriel from heaven came, as Revd Serena reverently lit the Advent wreath, which was then followed by striking views of our church’s beautiful stained glass.

All our readers gave thoughtful renditions of their texts, from youngest (another member of Windows) to oldest, and it was particularly special that my mother was able to contribute a Bible reading from her care home in Scotland.   Readers included long-standing members of our regular congregation as well as a frontline worker from the Horton hospital, and photographs from our town hospital, including the chapel, seemed particularly poignant in this year of the pandemic.  Our clergy offered prayers and blessings, and the only thing missing was a congregation!  On the other hand, by sharing our service online we were able to bring Comfort and Joy to a large number of worshippers further afield.  Barely 24 hours after the service was posted online, it had been viewed extensively across the British Isles, and shared to North America and Norway.

This service was a true community effort, relying heavily on the unstinting collaboration of people who did not necessarily appear in person, but contributed a vital part behind the scenes.  All the contributors were serving Christ in the community, and we fulfilled our wish is to bring tidings of comfort and joy this Christmas time.

Sarah Bourne, Chaplain for the Arts – 16^th December 2020              sarahbourne@banburystmary.org.uk