Christingle and the French

This past week has been very exciting as it marked the begining of a new relationship with the Parish of St. Pancras in Camden Town and the Parish of St. Vincent de Paul in Paris. This church relationship started about 10 years ago when it was announced that Eurostar would build a high-speed rail line from London to Paris and use the St. Pancras Railway Station as it's staging point. On Tuesday, 10 parishoners from St. Vincent de Paul traveled from Paris to London in 2 hours and 4 minutes on this brand new Eurostar line. They were greeted by a group of parishoners from St. Pancras and Father Nicholas extending a welcoming smile and handshake. What an exciting moment!

We packed a full day in with our French guests. I had the privliage of taking them to St. Michael's Primary School during a school assembly. The kids had learned simple French greetings and were very enthusiastic about talking in French. One of the French parishoners was a primary school teacher in Paris and was overjoyed to see all the kids so excited about learning French! The priest from St. Vincent de Paul knew very little English, but communicated very well with the kids in funny facial expressions and with another person translating. We then took the group of visitors to the St. Pancras Hospital where Owen and Father Malcolm explained the hospital chaplaincy ministry that our congregation does. The hospital even allowed our group to enter one of the Psychological wards where we talked with different patients. I think it was a very big eye opener for our parish friends.

The two congreations are remarkably similar. They both equal around 300 worshipers and are very urban parishes. They are both struggling with how to combat homelessness in their local communities and are committed to alchohol and drug prevention ministries. Both parishes are also struggling with the continuing preasure of secularism and dwindling resources. All of these things draw the two churches together in a very intimate way. What an incredible experience it was to listen to the sharing of joy, challenge, and hope these people shared with one another.

The evening ended with a service of thanksgiving that was both in English as well as French. The CEO of Eurostar, Bishop of Edmonton, Mayor of Camden, rail workers, and parishoners all packed Old St. Pancras Church for the event. In a tremendous gesture of unification, the Catholic preist of St. Vincent de Paul even shared the Eucharist (against normal Catholic doctrine) with his fellow Church of England counterparts. All of this touched me, but, perhaps the most remarkable image I will take away from the evening was when the two parishes gathered around their preists on either side of the sanctuary in a blessing. The two priests said prayer intersessions together- each in their respective languages with the bishop blessing them at the end. Finally, after concluding with the Lord's Prayer, the two priests happily shook hands and exchanged gifts. There was then an instant roar of enthusiasim and parishoners from the two sides immediatley came together in a wash of laughter, handshakes, and greetings. It was a night when two cultures that have historically been seperated by geographical, political, and economic barriers came together in a spirit of hope for the future. What an incredible privilage it was to be a part of such an event.

While the French were busy touring the sites of Camden, Father Nicholas was called away to do a Christingle celebration with the kids of St. Mary's Primary School (which is connected with St. Mary's Church, one of the churches in the St. Pancras Parish). Since Owen, who is based at St. Mary's, was tied up with other things Father Nicholas asked me to come along and be "moral support". "You won't have to do a thing", he said. "Just come and watch." I then accompanied him to St. Mary's where I sat down in a pew and waited for the service to start.

For those of you who aren't familar with a Christingle, I can fill you in. A Christingle is a little decoration, stemming from the Moravian tradition, that comprises of an orange, a candle, a red ribbon, and four jelly beans with toothpicks. The candle is placed in the orange which represents Jesus being the light (candle) of the world (orange). Four jelly beans on toothpicks are poked on opposite sides of the orange symbolizing the four seasons and the "fruit of the earth". Finally, the red ribbon is wrapped around the entire orange symbolizing Christ's love for the world. The making of Christingles is always done with children during the season of advent to celebrate and anticipate the coming of Christmas (the birth of Jesus- the light of the world). Many church schools in England still celebrate this tradition and have Christingle festivals.

The Christingle festival at St. Mary's, I could see, was not seen as "old fashioned" at all and was becoming packed with people. Ten minutes before the service began, Nicholas motioned for me to come into the sacristy. He was absolutley beside himself. Communication had broken down between him and the school officials. Nicholas was expecting the School Headmistress to hand him a planned order of worship. Instead, she handed him a sheet of paper with three bullet points:

1. Tell Christmas Story. Factor in carols we have been practicing (a list of about 15 carols) throughout the story as appropiate. Make sure ALL carols are sung.
2. Tell what a Christingle is
3. Blessing

I have never seen Father Nicholas so beside himself- he was even shaking! He tried to sketch out a plan of how he was going to tell the Christmas story with all the carols but just couldn't seem to draw things together. With two minutes left before the service began, I finally decided that I could come up with somthing. We quickly agreed that he would do the begining and end parts and I would be in charge of telling the Christmas story. I quickly scanned the list of carols the teachers wanted to sing, came up with a rough structure in my head, drank a quick glass of water, and said to myself "God help me!" I then headed out infront of 400 people (300 children) and told somthing that resembled the Christmas story. I don't think I have ever been so pumped up on adrenaline in my life.

To my surprise, the service actually went quite well. Afterwards, Father Nicholas turned to me and said, "Well, maybe we should take our act out on the road!" This moment was certainly a time where I learned confidence in myself. I have been thrown into situations that have needed to be solved with "on the fly" solutions before, but never one this huge. One can never be fully prepared in this line of work. You always have to be willing to put yourself out there, even when you don't feel you have it all together. God does, I have learned, appear in unexpected places. Especially in this instances such as this one, I have gained appreciation for him never giving up on me.