Source: (consider it)
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Thread: Christingle Service - does it have a future?
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Boogie
Boogie on down!
# 13538
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Posted
I am just back from a lovely Christingle service at our (Methodist) Church. The candles were all on the communion table - and each child was given a 'Christingle kit' to take home so that they could make their own.
One of the highlights was a children's choir who all sang beautifully.
-------------------- Garden. Room. Walk
Posts: 13030 | From: Boogie Wonderland | Registered: Mar 2008
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Avila
Shipmate
# 15541
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Posted
Small rural chapel, held at the end of a weekend Tree Festival. We ran out of seats with some faces new to church.
For the pst few years we have done self assembly Christingles during the service - keeps people engaged and saves all the prep beforehand or tensions about how many to make.
We don't have the physical space to light them but we give out glow sticks for the lights down bit at the end of the service, and they can light them at home later.
It is a chapel that has a very informal tradition and this service fits in with that. It is the only Christingle service I take as what is appropriate is different for each congregation and context.
-------------------- http://aweebleswonderings.blogspot.com/
Posts: 1305 | From: west midlands | Registered: Mar 2010
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Anselmina
Ship's barmaid
# 3032
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Posted
quote: Originally posted by Hairy Biker: I hated it, but the children loved it - especially toasting the sweets over the candle. I can't describe how relieved I was when they left that school and I didn't have to listen to that ghastly description of what all the bits of the orange represented, as though it was some ancient tradition shrouded in mystery. In reality it's just a modern invention made up to look like some meaningful ritual.
Rather sad that the 'children loved it' but it remained meaningless to you. Do you think it's possible to find value in something that children enjoy even though we grown-ups would rather be doing our own naturally more 'meaningful' stuff instead?
If I hated Christingle as you do, I'd be glad, too, that there were no more opportunities to suffer it. But I think I would also feel sorry for the children missing out on what had obviously given them pleasure.
By the way, if you read the link I gave above as to the origins of Christingle you'll find they go back a few hundred years. Of course, I'm sure then it wouldn't've looked much like it does now. But I'd take a bet that the better proportion of all church worship doesn't much look now like it did 'then'.
-------------------- Irish dogs needing homes! http://www.dogactionwelfaregroup.ie/ Greyhounds and Lurchers are shipped over to England for rehoming too!
Posts: 10002 | From: Scotland the Brave | Registered: Jul 2002
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St Everild
Shipmate
# 3626
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Posted
We are having a DIY Christingle on Christmas Eve...I thought I had been innoovative and we were doing something new!
So, all ye who have been this way before, have you any tips or hints for DIY Christingles?
Posts: 1782 | From: Bethnei | Registered: Dec 2002
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Avila
Shipmate
# 15541
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Posted
quote: Originally posted by St Everild: We are having a DIY Christingle on Christmas Eve...I thought I had been innoovative and we were doing something new!
So, all ye who have been this way before, have you any tips or hints for DIY Christingles?
1.Precut crosses in the top of oranges for pushing candles in. 2. have plenty of sweets and raisins as not all will make it to top of the cocktail sticks! 3. We use red tape rather than ribbon 4. have as many sets of stuff as suits your layout and size so that things can be passed around efficently 5. Enjoy, go with the flow and don't worry about dropped raisins, cocktail sticks etc - there is a time to tidy up and a time not to stress about it!
ETA: There is nothing new under the sun, and all the best ideas are thought of lots of times by different people! [ 16. December 2012, 18:54: Message edited by: Avila ]
-------------------- http://aweebleswonderings.blogspot.com/
Posts: 1305 | From: west midlands | Registered: Mar 2010
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Hairy Biker
Shipmate
# 12086
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Posted
quote: Originally posted by Anselmina: Rather sad that the 'children loved it' but it remained meaningless to you. Do you think it's possible to find value in something that children enjoy even though we grown-ups would rather be doing our own naturally more 'meaningful' stuff instead?
If I hated Christingle as you do, I'd be glad, too, that there were no more opportunities to suffer it. But I think I would also feel sorry for the children missing out on what had obviously given them pleasure.
The children loved it because they got to play with lighted candles and toast little jelly sweets in a flame. They get the same pleasure from toasting marshmallows on a barbeque; and they probably learn more about the love of God in doing so than they do from an orange with a bit of red ribbon round it.
Posts: 683 | From: This Sceptred Isle | Registered: Nov 2006
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Gill H
Shipmate
# 68
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Posted
We do self-assembly during the service. Carols and readings are interspersed with explanations of what each stage means.
Our normal church layout is cafe-style anyway, so it's easy to put the stuff on each table.
It's not aimed specifically at children in our church, more an all-age thing. We do seem to get more people than normal, as we did at the carol service yesterday , but that is probably because at this time of year more regulars will be willing to invite people, and more guests willing to accept.
Then again, we meet at 4.30 pm in a building with big windows right on the high street, so we often get people randomly wandering in (not much to do round here after tge supermarket closes!)
-------------------- *sigh* We can’t all be Alan Cresswell.
- Lyda Rose
Posts: 9313 | From: London | Registered: May 2001
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Karl: Liberal Backslider
Shipmate
# 76
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Posted
quote: Originally posted by Hairy Biker: quote: Originally posted by Anselmina: Rather sad that the 'children loved it' but it remained meaningless to you. Do you think it's possible to find value in something that children enjoy even though we grown-ups would rather be doing our own naturally more 'meaningful' stuff instead?
If I hated Christingle as you do, I'd be glad, too, that there were no more opportunities to suffer it. But I think I would also feel sorry for the children missing out on what had obviously given them pleasure.
The children loved it because they got to play with lighted candles and toast little jelly sweets in a flame. They get the same pleasure from toasting marshmallows on a barbeque; and they probably learn more about the love of God in doing so than they do from an orange with a bit of red ribbon round it.
Misery guts. It's their annual reward for sitting through the usual tedious Sunday morning ritual borefest.
-------------------- Might as well ask the bloody cat.
Posts: 17938 | From: Chesterfield | Registered: May 2001
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Anselmina
Ship's barmaid
# 3032
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Posted
quote: Originally posted by Hairy Biker: quote: Originally posted by Anselmina: Rather sad that the 'children loved it' but it remained meaningless to you. Do you think it's possible to find value in something that children enjoy even though we grown-ups would rather be doing our own naturally more 'meaningful' stuff instead?
If I hated Christingle as you do, I'd be glad, too, that there were no more opportunities to suffer it. But I think I would also feel sorry for the children missing out on what had obviously given them pleasure.
The children loved it because they got to play with lighted candles and toast little jelly sweets in a flame. They get the same pleasure from toasting marshmallows on a barbeque; and they probably learn more about the love of God in doing so than they do from an orange with a bit of red ribbon round it.
And?
When some people go to church they love it because they get to see how many candles are lit up in the sanctuary this morning, what colour the fipperies on Father's frocks are; or how slick the power-point hymnal is running; how high they can raise their hands, how offensively radical the sermon gets, or how many tongues they can speak; or how many dark, nasty critical thoughts they can think about their neighbour while shaking hands with them during the Peace!
At least a kid innocently enjoying itself (albeit at some risk of setting the place alight) is more likely to bring a smile to God's face than a lot of the usual crapulous self-absorbed half-hearted bosh that's on offer in a lot of 'proper' worship.
And if they're learning more about the love of God by toasting their sweeties on the Christingle (and where is their supervision, may I ask?) then they're probably doing better than the average 'bah, pooh, humbug' Scrooges surrounding them.
-------------------- Irish dogs needing homes! http://www.dogactionwelfaregroup.ie/ Greyhounds and Lurchers are shipped over to England for rehoming too!
Posts: 10002 | From: Scotland the Brave | Registered: Jul 2002
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sebby
Shipmate
# 15147
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Posted
quote: Originally posted by leo: I wish it would die out - it's tacky.
However, while the Children's Society promotes it, it will probably last.
The pavement down the hill from one of our churches is always awash with discarded oranges afterwards. We tried to abolish the 'service' but the old people in the congregation liked it and wanted back. So is it for the kids or for nostalgic grown ups who haven't quite grown up?
Oh yes, I agree. Perhaps that is the meaning of Ken's 'blipsy', a combination of tacky and temporary intrusion from a slightly different culture? (That might be said of Benediction in the CofE also, but unusually I don't want to be naughty today).
And the Children's Society is particularly good at self promotion.
-------------------- sebhyatt
Posts: 1340 | From: yorks | Registered: Sep 2009
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Anselmina
Ship's barmaid
# 3032
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Posted
quote: Originally posted by sebby: And the Children's Society is particularly good at self promotion.
Isn't that a good thing?
-------------------- Irish dogs needing homes! http://www.dogactionwelfaregroup.ie/ Greyhounds and Lurchers are shipped over to England for rehoming too!
Posts: 10002 | From: Scotland the Brave | Registered: Jul 2002
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venbede
Shipmate
# 16669
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Posted
This is all at odds with the season of goodwill to my mind.
I've never been to a Christingle in my life, but I'm not the proposed constituency. As an Anglo Catholic I'm perfectly happy with outrageous camp in church, provided their is some serious dogmatic rationale, and you can't get more serious than the dogma of the Incarnation. A Christingle service would seem to meet both criteria.
Maybe hairy biker went to a particularly wet and unfocussed service - it has been known.
-------------------- Man was made for joy and woe; And when this we rightly know, Thro' the world we safely go.
Posts: 3201 | From: An historic market town nestling in the folds of Surrey's rolling North Downs, | Registered: Sep 2011
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