hope | St Peter's Church, Church Langton

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

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 2024

Today, we gathered at St Peter’s church and the War Memorial to remember the fallen from our villages from the First World War and to reflect upon the loss of precious lives in all conflicts before and since. The current conflicts in Ukraine and Israel continue relentlessly with no end in sight.

It was a grey and somewhat bleak day, after a spell of almost two weeks with very little sunshine; somehow appropriate for very bleak times in the wider world.

Our incredible flower arranging team transformed the church with a variety of arrangements. Large solemn sentinels by the altar contrasted with tiny posies of poppies which caught the eye brightening hidden corners.

While we sang and prayed; listened to readings, held silence for the Last Post and Reveille and listened to the names of our lost young men, the little poppies captured my thoughts.

Poppies are the epitome of calm after chaos, bringing beauty after unimaginable ugliness.. Tender fragility following brutal cruelty.

The tiny field poppy symbolises hope as it grows from disturbed ground. Its seeds can lie dormant for hundreds of years until the earth turns… but its blood red petals remind us of the horror and sacrifice. And a field of little poppies remind us of the millions who died.

The unbearable transformed but never forgotten.

All that in one tiny wild flower?

Lest we forget…