St. John's christingle service

[pilsbury]

I thought this might be a nice thing to take my 2.5 year old to tomorrow, though note we are not religious :)

Does anyone know details / been before? I know it's at 4, but how long is it? Can you take babies too? Does it include carols? Is it ok for non religious types?

Thanks!

[Huggers]

it's sweet and when ours were little we always went. very jolly!

here's alink to the different times http://www.stjohnseastdulwich.org/sunday-services

[JulieP]

It is a lovely service to bring children to, your 2.5 year old will love it. Lots of people will bring babies. It certainly doesn't last more than 1 hour (probably shorter than this to cater for the audience - but can't remember exactly) and there will be plenty of carols.

[sphillips]

Everyone is welcome! Entry to the church is via the Goose Green Centre. There is plenty of buggy parking space. An informal service for young children. The church is always very full for this, (packed!) so best to be seated in good time. Starts at 4pm and lasts for around 45 minutes. Carols. Financial collection for the Children?s Society. Hope you enjoy it.

[Mrs TP]

Lovely as ever but Father Patrick not great on crowd control - it was so rammed, never seen them run out of Christingles before. Also yes family service and accepted toddlers noisy and rampaging but really don't let them go near the altar ...

[sphillips]

Record number of people this year.

Over 500. Yes, it was rammed!

St John's Church Council will be reviewing the Christingle Service at its meeting in mid January.

Given the number of people attending Christingle, would it not be better, safer and more comfortable to move to 2 Christingle services on Christmas Eve next year; - one at 3.30pm and another at 4.30pm?

St John's Church Council would appreciate your views.

Stephen (Churchwarden, St John's)

[pilsbury]

Meant to post this yesterday to say thank you for the info - we had such a lovely time at the service and it was so lovely to see the full community in swing :)

[mrs.lotte]

We love the service it always kickstarts our Christmas and reminds us what a gem of a community we have.

Maybe 2 services would work but for me it wasn't the numbers that irked, quite the opposite, but as Mrs TP says - crowd control - I found some of the rampaging a little too indulgent (bordering on the disrespectful). Maybe I'm just an old grump - bah humbug!

[Fragolina]

Two services sound good to me too. Easier when you've got little ones.

[biddls]

My son and I enjoyed what I saw billed as 'an informal service for young children'. I fear mine was one of the 'rampaging' toddlers - unfortunately toddlers have been known to run around and I tend to let that happen at occasions designed specifically for them. I'm not sure who was bothered by it? I think a mum running around the alter after her rampaging toddler would probably have been more disruptive. But it was a lovely service and I think the idea of splitting it into 2 sessions is a good one so more people are guaranteed a seat.

[katgod]

You might also want to consider that St Clements has a lovely service with dressing up on Christmas Eve, which is not so rammed. St Clements is on Barry Road or Friern Road depending on which side you approach from.