Category: Advent Calendar 2020

Making a Christingle:

You need: an orange (or tangerine), enough red ribbon to wrap around the orange, small sweets or raisins on cocktail sticks, a small candle to stick into the top of your orange.

• The orange represents the world
• The red ribbon (or tape) symbolises the love and blood of Christ
• The sweets and dried fruit represent all of God’s creations
• The lit candle represents Jesus’s light in the world, bringing hope to people living in darkness.

We are celebrating with our annual Christingle Service tomorrow evening, 16th December, at 6pm. This year we’re meeting online via Zoom, so contact Helen if you would like the details to join.

This post,  is part of our online “Advent calendar”, taking us through to Christmas. You can see all the posts here.

The colour associated with Advent is purple, reminiscent of royalty as befits the coming of a King.

Its second meaning is suffering, and also prayer, penitence and sacrifice. In this the purple colour of Advent foreshadows Jesus’ death on the cross.

• 

• 

At the start of Advent, the purple fall is put up on the pulpit. I think it is possibly my favourite, as it is so typical of my Mother’s embroidery style, and the one which she had free range as to the design.

The silver kid was cut in her favourite calligraphy style and the embellishments with silver, gold and purple beads with gold & silver couched threads. This fine swirly detail is not often seen by everyone, so I’ve added a close up. I always enjoy seeing this appear each year.

This post from Fiona is part of our online “Advent calendar”, taking us through to Christmas. You can see all the posts here.

And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. ³¹ And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. ³² He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, ³³ and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”

Luke 1:30-33

The Archangel Gabriel practiced his lines diligently on a small rural bus on the way home from nursery, announcing that a Child will be born.

The rumour of his mother’s hypothesised condition was spread all round the countryside, but on the day he performed beautifully!

This post from Helen is part of our online “Advent calendar”, taking us through to Christmas. You can see all the posts here.

Have I a favourite carol? Well, there is a plethora of well-loved ones, but I have a soft spot for “Three Kings from Persian lands afar”, set by Peter Cornelius. It is a unison item and can be sung as such by any choir, but often it is done as a solo for baritone with organ. Stewart Macrae’s rendering of it were memorable, and since his departure (he is still in St Mary’s Haddington) it has been entrusted to me. So I guess I’m biased!

This post, by Ainslie, is part of our online “Advent calendar”, taking us through to Christmas. You can see all the posts here.

Glasgow Women‘s Aid have been supporting women, children and young people who are experiencing Domestic Abuse for over 35 years.

For the last few years we have collected gifts for women and children in need on behalf of GWA as part of our annual Christmas Gift Service.

The Gift Service can’t happen this year, but you can still help Glasgow Women’s Aid to give the vital gift of support to those experiencing higher levels of domestic abuse during the festive period, and especially with ongoing COVID-19 concerns and restrictions. Please support their Lockdown Christmas Appeal.

I have been back and forth to South Africa on business many times in the past five years. In travelling all over the country, from the wild Indian ocean on the Cape to the endless veldt in the Free State, I’ve grown to love the landscape and its people, many of whom have a deep and very personal faith.

There is also a strong choral tradition in South Africa, particularly in the townships, where sung close harmonies are incredibly distinctive. So, this Christmas, I think of my friends and colleagues in that beautiful, troubled country, and pray for their health and peace as we journey into 2021. And I’d like to share this traditional Christmas carol from Soweto.

This post from Julie is part of our online “Advent calendar”, taking us through to Christmas. You can see all the posts here.

This post, chosen by Irene, is part of our online “Advent calendar”, taking us through to Christmas. You can see all the posts here.

This is a moonlit shot of the fishing village in the north east where we have had a family cottage for 40 years.

This photo reminds me of happy family Christmas times – Outside – the cold, the frost, the waves, the wind; Inside – the fire, the warmth, fun and games!

This post, by Eileen, is part of our online “Advent calendar”, taking us through to Christmas. You can see all the posts here.

I have a memory, from Christmas 1949 or 1950, of Mrs Mouland Begbie, standing in front of Belhaven Sunday School, teaching us to sing “Wind through the olive trees”.

This post from Hazel is part of our online “Advent calendar”, taking us through to Christmas. You can see all the posts here.

Workshop of Sandro Botticelli The Virgin and Child with Saint John the Baptist probably about 1482-98
This image is licensed for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons agreement

¹ In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² He was with God in the beginning. ³ Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. ⁴ In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. ⁵ The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

⁶ There was a man sent from God whose name was John. ⁷ He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. ⁸ He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.

⁹ The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. ¹⁰ He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. ¹¹ He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. ¹² Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— ¹³ children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.

¹⁴ The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

John 1:1-14

This post is part of our online “Advent calendar”, taking us through to Christmas. You can see all the posts here.