As I was out in Richmond doing some shopping - well, looking at the shops, as I didn't actually find anything I wanted to buy - I( decided to go to look and see if there were any carol services there this evening. I popped into St. John the Divine Church, which is just a couple of minutes walk from the station, and found that all they had on this afternoon was a children's nativity play, with a minute congregation watching - evidently not even all the parents had bothered to attend.
However, I did see a leaflet with details of what was going on at all the other churches in Richmond for the Christmas period, and there was one, St. Matthias the Apostle, which had a carol service at 6.30 p.m.
So, as it was only four o'clock, I got a bus to Twickenham to look at the shops there - they have rather a lot of good charity shops in Twickenham - but unfortunately they didn't have the one thing I was really looking for - a nice, pretty milk jug. I really do need one, as it isn't a good idea to keep things like evaporated or consdensed milk in the tin in the fridge.
By this time, it had started to rain quite heavily, and when I got off the bus on my return to Richmond, I had to shelter in one of the shops for a few minutes, even though I had, as always, a brolly. It's not really cold, just very miserable.
However, the rain eased off, and I set off to find the church, as it didn't seem to be marked on the map in the station. The address given on the leaflet was just Church Road, which is quite a long road - I realised afterwards that what I thought was just a mark on the map must have been the cross for the church.
I arrived in really good time - about three quarters of an hour before it was due to start. So I settled down to read the book I'd brought with me.
St. Matthias looks as if it is quite an old church, with a tall spire which was floodlit and can be seen from quite a distance away.
Inside, the most noticeable thing is the ceiling above the sanctuary - gaily patterned, with dark read being the dominant colour. It's really quite impressive, and you just can't help noticing it. Almost equally noticeable is the ceiling, which is multi-coloured, with blue predominating.
The lighting is also slightly unusual, with rows of spotlights on either side, and they already had an enormous Christmas tree with red lights.
There has obviously been a lot of work done on the interior of the church to provide a kitchen, room for socialising and several little rooms - the original church must have been very long.
The church was packed, with quite a few children, and in addition to the Vicar and a reader, there was a choir consisting of seven women and four men, some of them fairly elderly.
Although it was advertised as "Carols by Candlelight", and there were quite a few candles around, they in fact had nearly all the lights on as well, so no-one had to strain their eyes trying to read the words.
The service was fairly traditional, with lots of readings from Luke's Gospel, read by various members of the congregation, all the usual congregational hymns like "O Little Town of Bethleham", "Of the Father's Love Begotten", "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel", "It came upon the Midnight Clear", "Joy to the World", and finally "O Come all ye Faithful" and a couple of items by the choir only, including one I wasn't really familiar with called "Come let us worship the King", which was rather nice.
Afterwards, there was mulled wine and mince pies at the back of the church - all rather delicious, and I got talking to the young couple with a small boy who had been sitting next to me. Apparently the church always has a large congregation, with a lot of children, and looking at the noticeboard, there did seem to be quite a lot going on.
Altogether it was a lovely service, and the mulled wine and mince pies rounded it rather nicely.
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