Category: Advent 2020

Mary Mazur-Park together with our Choir were invited to assist the Choir of St Eustacius Tavistock with their online Carol Service. Those of us who went to the recording had a lovely time, and we hope you enjoy the service as well.

The Otters Class at Lifton Primary School sing Torches by John Joubert.

One of the things that never changes is the need for the Vicar to spend extended periods of time in church buildings, whether this is planning and  preparing for worship, praying the daily offices,  taking services, including weddings and funerals, or attending meetings.

At this time of the year it can be very cold indeed, and one is thankful for thick hiking socks, an old fashioned woollen cassock and a very heavy confessional cloak!

The other thing to be thankful for is heating! I spent the whole day in one of our churches this week, starting with a funeral and finishing with a small but joyful wedding. I am so grateful for the little stove that kept the bitterness of the cold at bay.

The name of the stove is very poignant to me as it features in the first lines of one of the most evocative poems at this time of year, which links all the unnecessariness of Christmas with the essential truths of the season.

Just because it is well known, does not mean that we should not continue to share and enjoy it.

I have never used a Tortoise stove before, but now I have, the poem is even more powerful.

Christmas:  John Betjeman

The bells of waiting Advent ring,
The Tortoise stove is lit again
And lamp-oil light across the night
Has caught the streaks of winter rain
In many a stained-glass window sheen
From Crimson Lake to Hookers Green.

The holly in the windy hedge
And round the Manor House the yew
Will soon be stripped to deck the ledge,
The altar, font and arch and pew,
So that the villagers can say
‘The church looks nice’ on Christmas Day.

Provincial Public Houses blaze,
Corporation tramcars clang,
On lighted tenements I gaze,
Where paper decorations hang,
And bunting in the red Town Hall
Says ‘Merry Christmas to you all’.

And London shops on Christmas Eve
Are strung with silver bells and flowers
As hurrying clerks the City leave
To pigeon-haunted classic towers,
And marbled clouds go scudding by
The many-steepled London sky.

And girls in slacks remember Dad,
And oafish louts remember Mum,
And sleepless children’s hearts are glad.
And Christmas-morning bells say ‘Come!’
Even to shining ones who dwell
Safe in the Dorchester Hotel.

And is it true,
This most tremendous tale of all,
Seen in a stained-glass window’s hue,
A Baby in an ox’s stall ?
The Maker of the stars and sea
Become a Child on earth for me ?

And is it true ? For if it is,
No loving fingers tying strings
Around those tissued fripperies,
The sweet and silly Christmas things,
Bath salts and inexpensive scent
And hideous tie so kindly meant,

No love that in a family dwells,
No carolling in frosty air,
Nor all the steeple-shaking bells
Can with this single Truth compare –
That God was man in Palestine
And lives today in Bread and Wine.

Did you know that Hymns and tunes are named separately?

Every Hymn tune has its own name. The same goes for Christmas Carols.

Here is a list of Ten well known Christmas Carols and a list of ten tunes.

Can you match them up, either by knowledge, or guesswork?

O come all ye faithful In the bleak midwinter It came upon a midnight clear Away in a Manger Christians awake salute the happy morn Hark the Herald angels sing Once in royal O Little Town of Bethlehem While shepherds watched See amid the winter’s snow

Winchester Old Noel Adeste Fideles Mendelssohn Humility Forest Green Cranham Yorkshire Irby Cradle song

More singing from Lifton Primary School

The Berceuse from the Dolly Suite by Gabrielle Fauré.

A Berceuse is a lullaby, and this lovely Piano duet is well known to people of a certain age who heard it regularly on the Radio…..so “Are you sitting Comfortably?….. Then I’ll begin.

Today has been quite a day, not one for travelling!

Let us all keep safe and dry!

From Genesis 9

Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, ‘As for me, I am establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you, and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the domestic animals, and every animal of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark. I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.’ God said, ‘This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: I have set my bow in the clouds, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.’ God said to Noah, ‘This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.’

The Hedgehog Class at Lifton Primary School have been learning Joy’s Seven: A traditional Carol.

In this video, Kamila, gives the second contribution from our Foundation Course Members: a short talk about the most famous of our Advent Hymns: O Come, O Come Emmanuel, together with a performance remotely put together by our friends at Bethany Lutheran Church in Dallas.

With the announcement that London has moved into Tier 3, there is yet more nervousness and worry.

Many people’s plans have been thwarted and there is a great deal of disappointment.

Sometimes we just need the reassurance of God’s redeeming and protecting hand.

Isaiah 35

The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad,
   the desert shall rejoice and blossom;
like the crocus it shall blossom abundantly,
   and rejoice with joy and singing.
The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it,
   the majesty of Carmel and Sharon.
They shall see the glory of the Lord,
   the majesty of our God.

Strengthen the weak hands,
   and make firm the feeble knees.
Say to those who are of a fearful heart,
   ‘Be strong, do not fear!
Here is your God.
   He will come with vengeance,
with terrible recompense.
   He will come and save you.’

Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened,
   and the ears of the deaf unstopped;
then the lame shall leap like a deer,
   and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy.
For waters shall break forth in the wilderness,
   and streams in the desert;
the burning sand shall become a pool,
   and the thirsty ground springs of water;
the haunt of jackals shall become a swamp,
   the grass shall become reeds and rushes.

A highway shall be there,
   and it shall be called the Holy Way;
the unclean shall not travel on it,
   but it shall be for God’s people;
   no traveller, not even fools, shall go astray.
No lion shall be there,
   nor shall any ravenous beast come up on it;
they shall not be found there,
   but the redeemed shall walk there.
And the ransomed of the Lord shall return,
   and come to Zion with singing;
everlasting joy shall be upon their heads;
   they shall obtain joy and gladness,
   and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.