A Christmas Carol

Rachel*'s birthday cake featuring a huge pile of manure, as one of her jobs is stacking it

Over the last four weeks the season of Advent has been scrupulously observed at Pilsdon. Inside the church appeared a holly-wreathed podium bearing five large candles, four of them red and arranged in a square with one white candle placed prominently in the centre. Back on 29th November, the first Sunday in Advent, young Carl* lit the first red candle at the evening service with a long taper and raised a smile from the congregation by accidentally blowing it out again as he blew out the taper. A second attempt was more successful. In each subsequent service throughout that week (there are three a day in the church) that candle was lit for the duration.

The following Sunday marked the beginning of the second week of Advent and so two candles began to be lit for each service. You can guess what happened on the Sundays of 13th and 20th December. In fact on 20th December not only were the four red candles lit, but also all the other candles in the large double-ringed chandeliers suspended above our heads along the length of the church.

A meal of beef brisket and roasted vegetables being prepared

That was the night of our carol service and the Broadoak choir filled the front space while the congregation, swollen far beyond normal numbers by visitors from the local area, were packed in on wooden chairs and on the straw bales at the sides. I was accompanying the choir on the electric piano, and four other members of the community had joined the choir for this occasion – we had spent the last five or six Wednesday evenings with them in their rehearsals. There were a mix of well-known carols that everyone sang, interspersed with choir-only set-pieces which sounded superb in the echoing chamber of the church. Afterwards everyone trouped up to the manor house for a supper of soup, sandwiches, stollen and mince pies. I made a valiant attempt at eating the whole of a nut-free Stollen loaf baked especially for me but ended up having to share it. Bah humbug.

The theme of Advent is all about expectation. Waiting and preparing for the moment of Christmas. Which apparently was not originally about having time off work, or tacky songs, or meeting up with family members, or buying gifts, or bringing pine trees indoors, or fat men in red and white suits, or multi-coloured flashing lights, or gorging on chocolate. Who knew?

I missed the lighting of the fifth candle as I travelled up to Lancaster to be with my folks over Christmas. But being at Pilsdon during the build-up to it has, as always, been a welcome escape from the grinding commercialism of the modern Christmas season that of course now starts way back in November. That’s not to say there were no Christmas decorations, lights or trees but these were not put in place until 19th December (much to the chagrin of a few who just love all that tinselly stuff.) Pilsdon Community opens its doors to anyone who wants to join them from Christmas Eve till the 29th, much as it does every weekend throughout the year, so I’m told the place is packed full of people at the moment. Offering hospitality and love to all – I’d say that’s more in the spirit of Christmas than the Boxing Day sales.

Lancaster's river Lune is high but not overflowing unlike in recent weeks

*names changed