December 1st Toy Service and Advent Carol service
The church would like to say thank you to everyone who bought toys for the Salvation Army to distribute to those in need. I think we all like an excuse to buy toys, especially when we know they are going to good homes!
It was St John’s Church’ s turn to host this areas Churches Together in Britain and Ireland, an initiative where different Christian denominations meet regularly working for unity, peace, and social justice. This made the Advent Carol service very special. Represented were of course Saint John’s plus ministers, readers, singers and / or members of the congregations of Saint Theresa’s RC Church, Kimble Free Church, Princes Risborough Methodist Church, St. Mary’s Princes Risborough, St. Dunstan’s Monks Risborough, and Princes Risborough Baptist Church.
Everyone stayed to chat with mulled wine and home-made mince pies after the service. As in many other walks of life it is heart-warming to celebrate our similarities, and interesting to talk about our differences
December 14th Festive Afternoon Tea, at the church.
We were entertained royally by the Baking Powder Folk Band and the Early Birds Saxaphone Quartet, whilst enjoying the anticipatory atmosphere in the church, with the huge beautifully decorated Christmas tree holding its usual place in the Social Chapel, acting as signpost towards all our Christmas worship. We are lucky to have Canon Tony, who plays so many musical instruments and is always willing to enhance the event, or indeed the services by playing alongside Cher, Ian and Ken, or by bringing the many groups and bands he plays in to entertain us.
19th December St John’s Choir Outreach Visit
This year the choir visited Fremantle Court, singing carols for the staff and the residents, some of whom still have their homes in Lacey Green or Loosley Row. They were made very welcome and felt very appreciated. ( Except for one lady who kept shouting out “How many more are you going to sing?”) Well you can’t please them all!
22nd December Nine Lessons and Carols
The service was made particularly special by so many friends, old and new joining the choir for this service. We had men and women from Lacey Green, Loosley Row, Speen, Princes Risborough, Naphill, Longwick, Hazlemere and even Munich and Porto as we were joined by Tom Mole and Ines Costa. As a result the music was glorious.
A note from Billy Stott, who, having been a regular choir member in his youth, returns to us as often as he can.
What a joy it was to be back singing at a St John’s at Christmas!
This Christmas I was once again kindly allowed to re-join the choir to sing at as many Christmas services as I was able. We had lots of laughs in the Monday evening rehearsals in the weeks leading up to the start of the Advent and Christmas period and it was great to be part of a choir again. I’m not a regular member of a choir anymore and for me it was a joy to be singing with lots of familiar faces, and also some new ones. I think I counted 19 in the choir for the Lessons and Carols service, which I think may be a record for recent years. We had a good balance between female and male voices, almost equal numbers of each which is very unusual these days! I obviously wasn’t part of the congregation, so am not sure how it sounded in the rest of the church, but in the choir stalls it sounded and felt not too bad at all. Cher was, as always, wonderful at leading us (more like coralling us sometimes, which was needed) and she and Rosemary selected fantastic music for us to sing, while Gavin beautifully accompanied us on the organ and swelled the bass ranks with his voice. Thank you to Cher, Gavin, Rosemary and all of the marvellous singers I was blessed to join.
17th February. Cake and Coffee Morning
This was held, for the first time, at The Sports and Social Club, Lacey Green, which turned out to be a lovely warm and welcoming venue. The sun shone for us, proving that it does indeed shine on the righteous! As a result we had an enthusiastic group of children collecting designated items from the playground for the pop up scavenger hunt and happily crafting whilst the adults could enjoy a wide range of cakes. Donations were very generous and will go towards flowers for our 200th anniversary events