Carol Services by Candlelight Began in Old Marston - Oxford Mail Article 1966

 

Candlelight Carollling began at Old Marston (Oxford Mail 19th December 1966)

 

by Anthony Wood

 

In common with worshippers up and down with the country, the congregation of St Nicholas Church, Old Marston, joined last night in the Advent Festival of the Nine Lessons and Carols.

 

But as they sang the traditional Christmas music and listened to the familiar scriptures by the golden glow of candles, I wonder how many of them realised that it was in their lovely 12th century church the first candlelight carol service was held 38 years ago (1928).

 

The idea  was that of Rev. Howard Rose, who was Chaplain to the Oxford Pastorate at the time. In 1927 on Christmas Eve in New York, while visiting friends he had made during the First World War, he happened to attend a service at Calvary Episcopal Church.

 

"The Rector, the Rev. Samuel Shoemaker," he told me last night over the telephone from Lingfield - where he now lives in retirement - "has adopted the custom of bearing a big Yule candle into church in procession on Christmas Eve and presenting it to the person who has done the most for the parish during the year.

 

"But it struck me as I watched on this occasion how symbolic it was of the birth of Christ - the Coming of the Light of the World - so when I got back to England I mentioned it to the vicar of Old Marston, the Rev John Mortimer, whom I used to help during the vacation, and on Christmas Eve, 1928, we held the very first candlelight carol service in St Nicholas Church."

 

The form it took has been refined over te years but basically it is the same today as it was then. A chorister bears the Yule candle into the darkened church, then from its flame the clergy and sidesmen with tapers light other candles until nave and chancel glow with golden light.

 

When he became Vicar of Christ Church, Penge, Mr Rose introduced it there, then at Stanstead, then at Windermere, then at Ditchling. And in that way the service spread by word of mouth and imitation until today it is held in churches all over the world.

 

South India

The Rev. Paul Rimmer, first came across it in 1952 at Windermere when he became Mr. Rose's curate and subsequently introduced it to South India when he went to serve the Church there in 1955.

 

But he didn't have to reintroduce it to Old Marston when he became Vicar in 1959. He says: "After all those years I found it was still being held every year. The symbolism, I'm afraid had been lost. They just put candles round the wall and held the service in a lighted church.

 

"Nonetheless, it hadn't died out and it was a simple matter to restore the Christmas message, to demostrate by the lighting of the candles how Christ brought the light of the Gospel into the world."

 

The service isn't quite as impressive as the one Mr. Rose finally evolved at Ditchling, his last living.

 

There a star remained alight over the crib in the darkened church. Kissing boughs decorated with mistletoe and rosy red apples - a traditional part of the Christmas scene long before Prince Albert introduced the Christmas tree in 1841 - supported the candles.

 

"The're terribly fiddly and take an awful long time to make," says Mr. Rimmer apologetically. And as the worshippers left after the service they looked out over a wall across a field to a farmyard where was enacted a living tableau of the Nativity Scene.

 

Bu such shortcomings didn't bother Mr. Rose when I rang him last night. He was delighted to hear I had enjoyed the service and only sorry he had not been able to arrange something similar in one of the churches around Lingfield.

 

"Unfortunately, I left it too late," he said. "But I shall certainly do something next year. And in 1968 - God willing - I am looking forward to celebrating the 40th anniversary of candlelight service with my ......(missing paragraph).