‘The Christ story matters’

IT is around 4pm on Christmas Eve and my local church is bursting at the seams.

Car parks nearby are full (top tip: if you’re coming to the service, get there early).

The sky is darkening and there is a palpable air of excitement as hundreds of worshippers – many of them children – gather for the annual Christingle service at the Abbey Church of Dunfermline. Preparations for the service will have started some weeks before, when the minister appeals for volunteers – to construct the Christingles and to steward the service (and a later watchnight service).

My teenage daughter and I have regularly been part of the volunteer group which gathers in the church hall on Christmas Eve morning.

The task in hand is to construct and bag around 200 Christingles which are given to every family attending worship at the 4pm service later in the day. They are used to illuminate the church when the lights are dimmed and can be used to light up homes in the days of celebration which follow.

For those who have never encountered a Christingle, it is an orange, decorated with a red ribbon, a candle, cocktail sticks and sweets and fruit.

The aroma of fresh oranges fills the church hall as the team prepares the orange, foil, candles, ribbon and sweets which make up the Christingle. Small fingers are welcomed for the sweets and fruit in particular and every year records are broken in the time taken to construct each Christingle. The reward for the hard work of the volunteer team is a welcome cuppa and a mince pie or homemade cheese scone, baked by the minister, the Rev Dr MaryAnn Rennie.

“For those who have never encountered a Christingle, it is an orange, decorated with a red ribbon, a candle, cocktail sticks and sweets and fruit.

The Christingle service has, in some places like Dunfermline Abbey, become an established part of Advent celebrations, drawing in many visitors, as do the other special services of the season.

But where did Christingle services originate?

The early roots of the Christingle can be found within the Moravian Church in Germany, where Bishop Johannes de Watteville is said to have created the tradition in 1747.

However, the practice did not appear in the UK until 1968 when John Pensom is credited with organising the first Christingle service at Lincoln Cathedral to raise money for the charity, the Children’s Society.

The different components of the Christingle itself are all symbolic: the orange represents Christ and the world; the candles represent Christ, the Light of the world; the red ribbon symbolises the blood of Christ; four cocktail sticks represent the four seasons and directions of the world and sweets, nuts and fruit used to decorate the Christingles symbolise the fruits of the earth and its abundant blessings.

Dr Rennie initially set up Christingle preparation and services in a previous charge in Edinburgh, finding it worked particularly well for families, amid the excitement of Christmas Eve.

“The 4pm time of the Christingle Service was planned to fit in with our family time, and it seemed to suit the families living around the church as well. By 3.30pm mine were beginning to get fed up/excitable (pick your child) and so taking them back down to the church brought a sense of calm. By lunchtime dad had come home, and so they sat in church with him. The dimmed lights, the singing of familiar songs, the storytelling, the lighting of candles were all hinting at something special to celebrate but also settling children into waiting, knowing that a promise would be fulfilled.”

The Kirk Session at Dunfermline Abbey were, she said, happy to replicate the service, knowing that it had worked and was popular in other places.

She explains: “It is our busiest service every year, and not just for Christmas. Before the Covid-19 pandemic, there were around 400 people attending. Since then, it has been quieter, although last year we were back up to over 300 people in attendance.”

But it is not just engagement with young people that is behind the premise for the service.

“I think as a Christian community we should be looking for moments that matter to people and urge them to find spaces like churches to mark those moments.

“More importantly it is because the Christ story matters because in Jesus’s birth it makes room for everyone. All are drawn by a star of wonder to look in the innocence of new birth and discover that their story is entwined into how that child will show God to the world.

“But for a smaller reason, we also do it because not everyone can come at 11.30pm at night (for a watchnight service) because of age - old or young.”

Whilst it is the busiest service of the year, does it have a missional impact on future worship?

“I’d love to say that 400 people come rushing back to church on the first Sunday of the new year because they have had a fabulous time. That wouldn’t be true. But I think the impact is that we do see people return for other events and services because they know they are welcome and belong.

“Some return for baptism and blessings, others for marriages, others know that in bereavement there are friendly faces who can support and help.”

Dr Rennie adds: “Research I was doing last Christmas provided statistics that clearly show that people come to celebrate Christmas with family and friends. They like the dimmed light and story-telling. Many of those who come have been before and come knowing what to expect.”

The congregation has embraced the service as part of the Advent preparations, she explains.

“A very small proportion of the congregation appear at the service, although all the stewards are congregation members. The Christingle making in the morning is carried out by between 12 and 20 congregation members each year. It tends to be them that reappear in the afternoon to support the service happening. But Christingle is very definitely a moment when we really are a church that welcomes as people from across Dunfermline, Crossford, Rosyth and further afield come to share in Christ’s story retold in a candlelit moment.

“My hope this year is not to be trying to tell the story with a post-Covid husky voice as was the experience in 2023!”