Category Archives: Worship

Worship for New Year 2025

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We look forward to the next of the church winter seasons, called Epiphany, which follows Christmas. A little background to the seasons and festivals follows below the worship pattern.

Services at St Peter’s Church Langton, St Andrew’s Tur Langton and St Leonard’s, Thorpe Langton

JANUARY AND FEBRUARY SERVICES

JANUARY
5th No Service
12th 10.30am Church Langton Holy Communion, Martin Hathaway
12th 4.30pm Tur Langton Family Service Jonathan Dowman
19th 10.30am Tur Langton All Age Worship Maxine Johnson
26th 10.30am Church Langton Holy Communion, Martin Hathaway

FEBRUARY
2nd 6.00pm Thorpe Langton Holy Communion, Candlemas Martin Hathaway
9th 4.30pm Tur Langton Family Service, Jonathan Dowman
9th 10.30am Church Langton Holy Communion, Martin Hathaway
16th 10.30am Tur Langton Holy Communion, Martin Hathaway
23rd 10.30am Church Langton Holy Communion, Martin Hathaway

Download Service Grid

We hope you can join us for these services but also wish our friends and followers here who live further away, a very peaceful, prosperous and healthy 2025.

The Church Winter Seasons and Festivals

Background INFORMATION

Christmas follows Advent and is the season that begins on December 25th. 

Twelfth Days The 12 days between Christmas Day and January 5th, also known as Epiphany Eve. Shakespeare’s play, ‘Twelfth Night Or What You Will’ celebrates this special evening and last day of Christmas. Shakespeare wrote the play as a Twelfth Night entertainment around 1601–1602.

Epiphany The feast of Epiphany is celebrated on January 6th, and is also known as “Three Kings’ Day”. Many countries, including Spain, Italy and Mexico, celebrate the giving of Christmas gifts on King’s Day, (El Día de los Reyes) in recognition of the time when the Wise Men traveled from the East and brought gifts of Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh.

Woolly Nativity of St Peter's Church, shows the knitted figures of the Christmas story against a painted backdrop with the animals in the stable and views beyond to Bethlehem and the Star of the East
Woolly Nativity of St Peter’s Church

Our Nativity scene in St Peter’s see us bring the Wise Men inside the stable on that day. Until then, they are outside, traveling and following the Star.

The season of Epiphany continues with the Sundays of Epiphany, and ends with the Feast of the Presentation (Candlemas) on 2nd February.

Candlemas is traditionally the 40th day of (and the conclusion of) the Christmas/Epiphany season. Candlemas is celebrated on 2 February to commemorate the purification of the Virgin Mary (after childbirth, according to Jewish law) and the presentation of Christ in the Temple. Candles are traditionally blessed at this festival, hence the name.

After these seasons, the church changes to Ordinary Time, until the season of Lent.

Thank you 🙏

Worship for December 2024

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Services for Advent and Christmas

Next weekend sees the first Sunday of Advent when Christians anticipate and remember the birth of Jesus. Advent is a time of quiet contemplation and prayer for four weeks before the festival of Christmas itself. It has its own hymns and carols such as O Come Emanuel, which reflect this beautiful time. Christmas, at the end of December is the most joyous season as we all know and love, with feast and song as the news of Jesus’s birth brings hope and light!

This December, we are delighted to offer worship and activities to reflect both Advent and Christmas in all our villages in the Langtons and Welham Benefices.

Simple list of services for Langton and Shangton and Welham Benefices for Advent and Christmas 2024 - Black text on white background
Advent and Christmas Services for Langton and Shangton and Welham Benefices for December 2024

We have produced a Christmas card with all the details. The card will be delivered to the parishioners of St Peter’s Church this weekend, but for friends further afield, there is a PDF to download below, with all the services listed, along with a Christmas message from our Lay Incumbent, Maxine Johnson.

We are delighted that this year’s card features a remarkable photograph of the church by Melissa Johnston, taken earlier this year with an unprecedented appearance in the night sky of the Aurora Borealis. Thank you Melissa for allowing us to use your lovely image.

Photograph of St Peter's church at night with the colours of the Aurora Borealis in the sky above. The building looks orange with the subtle greens and pinks in the sky behind
St Peter’s Church Aurora Sky by Melissa Johnston
Christmas message for Langton and Shangton and Welham Benefices for Advent and Christmas 2024 - Black text on white background
Christmas message 2024
View and download Christmas Card

We hope you can join us for some of the services but also wish our friends and followers here who live further away, a very peaceful Advent season and a joyful Christmas when it comes. Thank you 🙏

Remembrance Sunday and Armistice Day

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Remembrance Sunday and Armistice Day are as important this year as ever, as we remember everyone who has sacrificed so much in continued difficult times. War rages in Ukraine and Gaza. Now, as ever, we must continue to pray for peace.

Remembrance Sunday Service for the Langton Villages

Remembrance Service: Sunday 10th November, 10.30am,
St Peter’s Church, Church Langton

The service will take place in St Peter’s Church in Church Langton, starting at 10.30am and lasts for about an hour. The service will be lead by Rev Martin Hathaway and Lay Incubment, Maxine Johnson, with contributions from our church members from Tur and Thorpe Langton.

The collection taken at the service in St Peter’s will support Royal British Legion’s Poppy Appeal.

Act of Remembrance and Two-Minute Silence: 11am

The Act of Remembrance and two-minute silence at 11am take place inside the church as part of the Remembrance Service, when the names of our local war dead are read and the wreaths for the Langton villages are blessed.

Laying of wreaths at the War Memorial: 11:45 – 12noon

After the service in church, the congregation will process from the church to the village green where where the wreath for Church Langton will be laid on the War Memorial.

The wreaths from our sister villages will be returned and laid at their village memorials separately.

We hope you can join us for the service in St Peter’s and the laying of the wreath at the village green.

Evensong at Tur Langton

The Sunday Evensong service at Tur Langton will have the theme of Remembrance. Join Rev Jonathan at St Andrews, Tur Langton Sunday, 10th November at 4.30pm.

“When you go home, tell them of us and say
For your tomorrow, we gave our today.”

— John Maxwell Edmonds
St Peter's Church porch, Remembrance flowers
St Peter’s Church porch, Remembrance flowers