It may have taken longer than usual, but last week I finally found my festive spirit. I shouldn't have worried, because there's always one event which never fails to lift my spirits and that's the very special BBC Radio Leicester carol service, held each year on Sunday afternoon in mid December.
But this year on that day, I went to not one but two carol services.
The first was in the tiny 12th century church in my village. This was a break from tradition ...instead of nine lessons and carols, Willie's band played and the wonderful Emmanu'-EL Apostolic Gospel Academy came to sing for us, their voices soaring up to the rafters, and we all joined in clapping, singing and smiling.
No matter what our age is.
I left the church feeling buoyed up, and then it was onto another , much grander church in Leicester, the Church of St James the Greater for the annual BBC Carol Service. Tickets for this service are snapped up within a few days....all 650 of them.
It's a wonderful occasion. My friends and colleagues and I perform poems, prose and bible readings accompanied by the excellent choir, the New Parks handbell ringers and the Enderby Brass Band play with aplomb. Just not all at the same time you understand.
And the audience join in .....
And in those two services I found the Christmas spirit I thought I'd lost this year, came flooding back. Love, goodwill ,and the age old stories of the true meaning of Christmas had worked their magic once again.
Happy Christmas!
But this year on that day, I went to not one but two carol services.
The first was in the tiny 12th century church in my village. This was a break from tradition ...instead of nine lessons and carols, Willie's band played and the wonderful Emmanu'-EL Apostolic Gospel Academy came to sing for us, their voices soaring up to the rafters, and we all joined in clapping, singing and smiling.
No matter what our age is.
I left the church feeling buoyed up, and then it was onto another , much grander church in Leicester, the Church of St James the Greater for the annual BBC Carol Service. Tickets for this service are snapped up within a few days....all 650 of them.
It's a wonderful occasion. My friends and colleagues and I perform poems, prose and bible readings accompanied by the excellent choir, the New Parks handbell ringers and the Enderby Brass Band play with aplomb. Just not all at the same time you understand.
And the audience join in .....
And in those two services I found the Christmas spirit I thought I'd lost this year, came flooding back. Love, goodwill ,and the age old stories of the true meaning of Christmas had worked their magic once again.
Happy Christmas!
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