Sunday 21^st December saw the second performance of what is now becoming an annual Christmas event, ‘Thrice Welcome Christmas’. A well-attended audience of parishioners and visitors were treated to an evening of music, songs, readings and poetry. The five readers presented poems by, among others, Boris Pasternak, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Rudyard Kipling, William Carlos Williams, E. Hilton Young and Thomas Hardy and ended appropriately with a reading from St John, Chapter One. The St James’ Special Christmas Choir conducted by Father Bryan Wells, entertained us with a well-chosen mix of carols and sacred music including ‘Gabriel’s Message’, ‘Once In Royal David’s City’, ‘The First Noel’, ‘The Polish Carol’, ‘The Angel Carol’, ‘Silent Night’, ‘Lully Lullay’, ‘Ding Dong Merrily On High’ and ‘Oh Come All Ye Faithful’. ‘Oh, Little One Sweet’ was sung by the Wells’ Family. The evening ended with a social gathering over mince pies and mulled wine in the church hall.

It was, as many parishioners remarked ‘A wonderful way to begin the Christmas Season’.