On Christmas Eve the choir sang the traditional service of nine lessons and carols at St Mary Magdalene.

The choir items included ‘Adam lay YBounden’ by Boris Ord, a jolly alternative version of ‘The Holly and the Ivy’ by June Nixon, Darke’s well known setting of ‘In the Bleak Midwinter’ in which the soloists were Amber Newton (soprano) and Bernard Pink (tenor), the ‘Huron Carol’, a traditional North American carol arranged by Eleanor Daley, the Rutter arrangement of the Cornish ‘Sans Day carol’ and William Mathias’ exciting ‘Nowell, Nowell’.

The soloists in ‘We Three Kings’ were Bill Robinson, Andy Dunning and Bernard Pink.

The readers of the lessons were Mike Warne, Rob Tremain, Don Sharpe, Karen Ponsford, Kate Hancock, Daphne Lindsell, Sharron Wormald and Rev Helen Davies who also conducted the service.

Later in the evening the choir sang the service of Midnight Mass which included the anthem ‘O Magnum Mysterium’ by Tomas Luis de Victoria, setting to music the tradition that the animals in the stable bowed down to the infant Jesus. The service was taken by Rev Mary Williamson.

The following morning the choir sang two anthems. ‘What child is this’ by Thomas Hewitt Jones, with Amber Newton singing the solo part, and the Mathias and at the end of the service wished the congregation “A Merry Christmas” in the popular arrangement by Arthur Warrell. The service was led by Don Sharpe.

The choir will be singing again on Sunday, January 2, at the usual time of 5.30pm for an Epiphany carol service. The music will include Peter Warlock’s beautiful ‘Bethlehem Down’ and the ‘Coventry Carol’ arranged by Shaw as well as reprising the Victoria and the Hewitt Jones.