Priory preparations

As Christmas draws closer, so the level of Priory activity gets more intense…

in the Parish Office, the Parish Administrator skillfully coaxes thousands of orders of service through the printer, deftly sorting them into an ever-growing stack of boxes, one per service, ready to transfer across to church…

…where the flower arrangers gathered, receiving detailed instructions. Pedestals, vases, wall decorations, all beautifully created using local foliage, existing silk flowers and cones, employing potatoes (really) and chicken wire to hold everything in place, in a fashion worthy of the Priory’s Silver Eco-Church status.

And two of the custos team (plural custodes..) moved the grand piano from the pew plinth platform (altitude 4”) in the choir ready for use in the nave (level), having temporarily removed the pew rail and manoeuvred purpose-designed ramps into place. ‘I love moving pianos’ said one to the other, in a reprise of the online Priory Advent Calendar.

On Saturday morning the flower arrangers’ tables were repurposed for the Great Christingle Workshop, where all ages gathered to prepare the hundreds of Christingles, ready for the two Christingle services on 23rd and 24th December.

‘What a lovely smell!’ said a Priory visitor to the workers. They looked confused. ‘The oranges’ she hinted. ‘Oh! we can’t smell them any more!’ came the reply. Meanwhile new supplies of raisins arrived, fresh from the supermarket, ready to be poked onto cocktail sticks.

Just over an hour after the volunteers gathered, every orange had been transformed into a Christingle, ready for the special moment when the candles are lit in the darkened church and the light of Christ shines into the darkness.