CHRISTMAS FAMILY SERVICE 2005
Welcome to worship. This morning we would like to challenge you, if you are able, to leave your seat during worship and journey with one or more of the characters in the Christmas story. Worship will not be confined to this chapel, but use much more of the building.
If you don’t go on a journey you should hear what is happening in the chapel – but won’t necessarily see everything that is going on. It is quite deliberate that not everyone will see everything first hand. Just as at that first Christmas the different characters in the story saw the story unfold from different points of view. We hope this will offer some new insights into the story.
There are 4 journeys you may wish to follow, which will start at different points in the service. They are:
Please think about which of these journeys you associate with this morning? The pain of Mary? The doubt of Joseph. The trusting faith of the shepherds? The reasoned logic of the wise man? Feel free to join none, some or all of the journeys.
As we journey we will be exploring the Christmas story in different ways – familiar readings from scripture, meditations by characters and at times a more modern re-writing of the story. But we are not trying to act it out. We invite you to journey in a symbolic way – to try and find something new and different that speaks to you.
All of the journeys – apart from that of the wise me (which goes upstairs) are entirely downstairs. Each finishes back in the chapel.
The remainder of this booklet sets takes you through the order of service – including words to all the carols and showing when you should go where to start out on a journey. Please take it with you if you as you travel through the Christmas story.