| | | Hope4Penicuik Christmas Carols - 11 December |
Audience sing a Christmas Carol
Fabulous
evening at the Hope4Penicuik carol event in the town hall this evening.
Joan an Neil Cape led the evening supported by Penicuik Silver Band,
Penicuik Puppets, Graham, Sam, and Sophie McDonald. Rev Ian Cathcart
presented the Christmas story.
Outside the wind was blowing, the
showers heavy, and the mercury dropping, but inside Penicuik town hall
there was a warm welcome for families and all visitors for the annual
Carol event staged by Hope4Penicuik.
 Joan
and Neil Cape led the proceedings with Joan providing the 'links'
between each activity, and Neil on the AV systems. We started with the
Penicuik Puppets presenting, 'Always look on the bright side of Life',
from the Monty Python film 'Life of Brian'. The Grumpy Old Man puppet
with the cloth cap eventually got into the swing and soon had us all
singing along. The Penicuik Silver Band played the musical
accompaniment.
Joan had a chat with the old Granny puppet about
what she thought Christmas was all about, and having eventually got to
'something to do with the birth of Jesus'. With everyone now smiling we
started the Christmas Carols with 'Hark the Herald Angels Sing', the
Silver Band leading the singing, followed by more Angels
joining the puppets for 'Angels from the Realms of Glory'.
Mo
Hayes read the story of how Mary and Joseph had to travel from their
home in Nazareth to Bethlehem for the Census as decreed by Caesar
Augustus.
Back
to the Christmas Carols and we continued with 'Away in a Manger',
whilst looking at drawings created by primary school children from
across Penicuik.
 We
heard about the shepherds tending their sheep, being terrified at
receiving a visit from an angel of the Lord. The angel told them not to
be afraid, and gave them the good news. We then sang 'It was on a
starry night' followed by 'Sing for the baby at Bethlehem', both
accompanied by Graham McDonald on piano, daughter Sophie on
clarinet, and son Sam on guitar.
Joan then introduced a
video of the Wise Men receiving the call to travel to Bethlehem. Though
dressed in typically biblical robes, our wise man displayed some
very modern twists, such as arriving at the stable and finding it
terribly smelly. either the shed  needed
cleaning or the baby needed a nappy change, noting that perhaps baby
wipes would have been a good gift! When they realised who the new
born child was, they knelt down before him, though our wise man did
comment that what they knelt on was none to fresh! This brought some
smiles to the audience.
We collected our thoughts and
joined in singing 'The First Nowell', with suitably attired puppets,
now getting into Christmas with their bright red Santa hats,
helping us along.
 The
illustrations during the evening were gathered from drawings created by
the children from the Penicuik schools and churches.
Joan
showed us a selection of the best drawings and presented prizes to
their artists, some individually and others to groups of children.
A huge round of applause followed showing the audience appreciation, and talent, of our very young children in Penicuik.
Time
for a couple of carols, this time 'O Little town of Bethlehem' and 'See
him lying on a bed of straw' with musical accompaniment by the McDonald
trio, but this time with Sam on the Cajon, a type of drum originating from Peru.
We
watched a video of 'The Christmas Poem' a faithful and
fresh retelling of the 'greatest story ever told', from the bible
Society, setting Jesus' birth in the context of God's plan to "turn
what is sad into glad again".
The Rev Ian Cathcart then took
the poem as his theme for the story of Christmas. He told us of his
encounter in the precinct, dressed as Santa Claus, with a distraught
mother, loaded with messages and trying to keep two children from
fighting each other . Asked to say something to the children, one bing
bad the other good, left him wondering. Being truthful, we are all
'bad' at some time in our lives, and the real message of Christmas is
that Jesus came into our world to forgive our sins and teach us
the way of living together in harmony. Yes, Santa Claus and presents
are wonderful, but we should not lose sight of the real meaning of Christmas. He finished with a prayer for all mankind at Christmas, especially those in dire need.
We
finished the evening with 'Show me the way to Shine for Jesus' sung to
the tune 'Amarillo' by Tony Christie, with music from the Graham
and Sam McDonald, Sophie having joined the puppeteers, and that old
faithful Christmas Carol 'O come all ye faithful', with the Silver Band
playing a rousing tune to lift our spirits high.
Well done to the Hope4Penicuik team for a great event, and to all those who contributed to the performance.
Thanks to all who supported the event and have a happy Christmas.
For all the Christmas events click HERE | |
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Rev Ian Cathcart tells us the real meaning of Christmas
