September 2009

New Look Christmas Carol Service

David McConnell looks at an updated carol service

For very many people, including those who do not go to church regularly, carols are an essential part of the 'Christmas experience'. A service of readings and music will be included in the programme of most churches. The liturgy usually will be based on the service of nine lessons and carols drawn up by Bishop Edward Benson of Truro in 1880 and first used (I have been told) in Ireland in North Strand Church, Dublin on Christmas Eve, 1914.

The annual broadcasts from King's College Cambridge and St Patrick's Cathedral Dublin have served to give this service a standing that seldom has been questioned. However, time and liturgy have moved on and many will be grateful for something from their church services more stimulating than the same old tedious service, trotted out year by year in an almost perfunctory manner. For many years I have yearned for some input within the service to explain or comment on readings that, gabbled and poorly read as they often are, do little more than produce a warm sentimental glow in those who listen — if indeed the slightest attention is paid to the allegorical biblical extracts!

So, it is encouraging to learn that the RSCM has produced a restructured carol service that moves away from the nine lesson/carol sandwich and provides an opportunity to reflect on each of the readings. This carefully crafted order has four sections: the Gathering, the Word of God, the Prayers, and the Dismissal. At the centre of the service is the Blessing of the Crib, which provides plenty of opportunity for drama and movement.

As with so many modern liturgies, this service is in outline form and requires some customisation for a particular place, following careful study and discussion by clergy and musicians. The provision of a detailed liturgy sheet for each person in the assembly is probably essential and certainly, to avoid confusion, the points in the service where people should sit and stand will need to be indicated.

This outline order is worth looking at and I hope some may decide to give it a chance, bearing in mind that liturgical experience is cumulative and that it is only by returning to a new order on a number of occasions that worshippers will begin to appropriate it to their own personal worship life.

RSCM affiliates will already have the service in Sunday by Sunday, Issue 49 and it is available to download from www.rscm.com/carolbook for use in service books.

David McConnell is organist of Zion Church and the Church of the Three Patrons, Rathgar; and is a member of the Diocesan Church Music Committee.

davidmcconnell@eircom.net

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