Happy Christmas

The picture was taken in St Michael's churchyard on Sunday.

Our Crib Services on Christmas Eve are at 4.00 p.m. (St Nicolas') and 6.00 p.m. (St Michael's).

Both churches have a Midnight Communion at 11.30 p.m.

Both churches then have a Family Communion on Christmas morning at 10.30 a.m.

And, as indicated in earlier posts, our First Sunday Thing on Sunday 3rd January at 10.30 a.m. will include our Christingle celebration.

Normal blogging will resume after that.

Happy Christmas! Happy New Year!

Children's Society

We discovered things about this Church of England charity at the last First Sunday Thing in preparation for a Christingle Service to support it at the next First Sunday Thing. The two recent pieces of news about its activities which we included on our service sheet were about its work with children facing their parents' divorces and work highlighting the hidden nature of many trafficked children. These news items and much more are at the Society's website at http://www.childrenssociety.org.uk/.

St Nicolas' multi-tasking

Yesterday one person brought a laptop with a multiple choice quiz about St Nicolas. One of the questions was about his being a Patron Saint. Was it 'of children' (as this blog has said)? Or 'of sailors'? Or 'of pawnbrokers'? The answer was 'all of these'. In St Nicolas', Great Coates his Bishop's staff has an anchor on it, an indication of the Patron Saint of Sailors and appropriate for a parish on the Humber bank. His coat of arms on the Font and on the ceiling has the three balls of the traditional pawnbroker's sign; they represent bags of gold he gave away. And, of course, being both Patron Saint of Children and someone who gave things away, he is a model for a figure with whom he shares a name in some other languages as Santa Claus.