Festive photos and news briefs

Episcopal support for St Iberius 4 day fast

Bishop Michael Burrowes visited St Iberius Annual 4 Day Fast by Canon Arthur Minion and Fr Aodhan Marken, Wexford. There was generous support to St Iberius’ 4Day Fast this year. An amazing €51,600-00 was donated by the close of the Carol Service on Christmas Eve. Excellent support from Wexford and beyond.

Tracey Nicholl – deaconess in St James Presbyterian Church, Ballymoney

Tracey writes, “Providing school uniforms to our community has proven very successful and we are now going to begin the other part of our “Living Hope Community” project. This will involve providing baby & toddler items to those in need. As we begin, we would value your prayers that we do reach those in deepest need.” Pray for the ongoing work in St James in all aspects of church life and their Christian witness in Ballymoney as they look to live out the good news of the gospel. They plan to hold mission events in 2020 which will be another aspect of outreach in their community.

Crib at Canterbury Cathedral

Lavery – an Irish great

Here’s a snow scene from one of the very greats, John Lavery (1856-1941), entitled ‘Winter’. From the depts there’s always art, and beauty.

UK forces attend Christmas worship in Estonia

Cathedral Choir tour – R is for…Ripon

Friends of Cathedral Music went to Yorkshire, to visit Ripon Cathedral. The cathedral can trace its roots back to 672AD, when St Wilfrid, then abbot of the monastery at Ripon build a stone basilica with a crypt in the style of buildings he had seen in Rome. The cathedral above ground has been rebuilt several times but the crypt survives, making Ripon the oldest structure of any English cathedral.

St Wilfrid brought a choir from Canterbury Cathedral when he came to Ripon, and the choir has been making music in the cathedral ever since.

The cathedral choir is made up of boys and girls (aged 8 – 13) and six lay clerks. The boys and girls attend a variety of local schools. The cathedral also has a junior choir for children aged 6 to 9 and a youth choir, Unity Voice, for young people aged 12 to 18.

FCM has been pleased to help Ripon Cathedral with a Small Revenue Grant.

Director of Music, Andrew Bryden said:

The grant has enabled us to renew some of the choir’s robes, thus meaning that choristers have robes that aren’t too big or small, and therefore they don’t spend all the time tripping over them when processing because they are too long, or being unable to breathe when they sing as they are too tight.

[https://fcm.org.uk/news/r-is-for-ripon/]