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Week of Prayer for Christian Unity 2019

“Ecumenism is not something optional,” said Pope Francis this week. Today Friday 18 January, the first day of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, Westminster Cathedral choir is singing vespers at St Paul’s Cathedral. On the following Tuesday 22 January St Paul’s choir will be at Westminster Cathedral to sing evensong. Both services begin […]

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THREE KINGS ARRIVING THIS WEEKEND WITH CAKE

Three Kings biscuits by www.biscuiteers.com  This Saturday night 5 January the figures of the Three Kings will be seen arriving in towns and villages all over Spain. The street processions are big family occasions. Another feature of today is enjoying cutting the Twelfth Night cake. In Spain it is a cake ring called Rosca de […]

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Boxing Day is St STephen’s Day

The Isle of Man has issued a £2 coin depicting the Boxing Day custom of hunting the wren. This is no longer a cruel tradition involving killing a bird but an opportunity for community dancing, dressing up and ‘penny for the wren’ charity collections. The revived custom is also observed in Dublin’s Sandymount Green where […]

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CHristmas Eve

The service of Nine Lessons and Carols this afternoon at King’s College Cambridge has an extra resonance. It is the last time that the choir will be conducted by Stephen Cleobury who has been responsible for the music over the last 37 years. He was appointed Director of Music in 1982. It is also the […]

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O SapientIa: setTing out

Today is a turning point in Advent as we look towards Christ’s first coming. By tradition it is said that today Mary and Joseph are setting out on their 90 mile journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem by foot and donkey. This is about the same distance as the Pilgrims’ Way from Southwark Cathedral to Canterbury […]

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GAUtete SUNDAY

The focus as we light the third Advent candle is on John the Baptist who tells of the coming of Christ. This Sunday’s Gospel reading speaks of ‘a feeling of expectancy’. We are on the cusp of looking expectantly ahead to Christmas On Monday there is the start of the O Antiphon countdown to Christmas […]

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St Lucy’s Day

“Buns are expressive of religious devotion quite as much as anything else,”  says Melanie McDonagh writing about St Lucy’s Day in The Tablet. Today is St Lucy’s Day, an Advent stepping stone, and in Sweden most people will be enjoying a least one saffron bread roll called a Lussikatter. Parents of young children will have […]

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Holy House at Loreto

At The Church of Our Lady of Loretto & St Michael in Musselburgh today the Sunday congregation sang the parish’s own Loreto hymn. Monday 10 December is Our Lady of Loreto which marks the translation in 1294 of the Holy House from Nazareth to Loreto in Italy.  Lovely imagery depicts the Virgin Mary’s house being […]

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Immaculate Conception

In Paris lights in a window on 8 December often indicated that the occupant was from Lyon. This evening’s mega La Fête des Lumières  light show in Lyon has grown out of the local tradition of placing candles in windows on the Immaculate Conception. The Immaculate Conception doctrine was first developed in Anglo-Saxon England and celebrated […]

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St Nicholas Day in Italy, Spain and Turkey

In 1885 Father Christmas made his first appearance in a British department store. This was Beales in Bournemouth and his annual arrival during the 20th century was much like the appearance in procession of St Nicholas in the main square of Nancy in Lorraine last Saturday. The French town was crowded with families seeing St […]

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