Young Church at St Mary’s presented the Nativity in song. Christingles had been begun before the service, but were completed all together in church.

There was a hive of industry in the church hall before the Christingle service at St Andrew’s.

The Young Church gave an amazing performance of the Nativity story at St Andrew’s.

Children at the Christingle service at St Anne’s made their own Christingles.

People were busy making Christingles at the Cathedral before the Christmas Eve service.

In the run-up to Christmas the Cathedral choir sang carols in St John’s centre, Perth.

There was a real production line to get Christingles ready for the service on Christmas Eve.

The Cathedral was at its very best on Saturday 14th December, 2019, with so many people from across Scotland coming to celebrate the 25th Anniversary of the Ordination of women to the Priesthood. It was an honour to welcome many of the “first women”, some of the bishops who ordained them, together with the College of Bishops and clergy and people from every diocese, to give thanks for “whole ministry” in the Church.

The first Christmas party of the developing Appletree Community within our diocese was held in early December. The Appletree Community is taking shape as a small intentional community grown around a few individuals with complex and profound support needs, enabling all to flourish.

“We held a service within the party, with a story about the Christmas star coming to Appletree. We gathered around a star and prayed, sang carols, gave thanks to God for each other and all the blessings of our lives. Then our dear friend and retired priest, himself father of a profoundly disabled son, gave us a blessing.”

The support was totally ecumenical: SEC friends, Church of Scotland, Roman Catholic, and people with no religious affiliation.

Last evening 15 of us gathered for a Festive pasta pamper prayer supper in St Anne’s hall.  Last year we used Cloth for the Cradle as a theme for our Advent meditation as we prepared ourselves for the birth of Christ at Christmas.   This year we made Shelter for the Cradle – the word Sukkah (a temporary Jewish shelter) was used as a theme in our Doors Open weekend in September and Roz introduced it last evening by telling us what the word  meant for her.

We had our usual glass of wine and supper followed by the construction of our individual sukkahs.  Each finished shelter contained a battery candle and we finished the evening by a candle lit meditation led by Janice Cameron.