The Mission to Seafarers launches Christmas Carol Service and Reception 6 December 2016
Maritime welfare charity The Mission to Seafarers has announced that it will be holding its annual Christmas Carol Service and Reception – entitled The Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols in association with Ince & Co – at 6pm on Tuesday 6 December 2016.
The Service will be held at the home church of the Mission at St Michael Paternoster Royal, College Hill, in the City of London and it will be followed by a special 160thAnniversary Champagne Buffet Reception at the elegant guild house of Skinners’ Hall close by at Dowgate Hill. Our main sponsor is worldwide business and finance lawyers Ince & Co with BP Global and Harris Pye Engineering as event sponsors.
The Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols is a traditional Christmas Service, where nine short readings from the Bible are woven around a selection of nine of the nation’s favourite Christmas carols. The service is structured around the main theme, which is the development of the loving purposes of God, and includes prayers of thanksgiving for the lives of all those who live and work at sea. The main focus of the post-service Reception this year will be the finale of the year-long celebrations of the 160th anniversary of the charity, which was formally launched in London in 1856.
Special VIP guests are selected to read at the Festival and they are carefully chosen from the leading lights of the maritime world, loyal supporters and friends. This year the first Reader to be confirmed is The Most Revd Fredrick James Hiltz, the 13th Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada. Born in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, the Archbishop has lived most of his life by the Atlantic Ocean.
Archbishop Frederick said: “It is a deep honour to be invited as a guest Reader to The Mission to Seafarers’ Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols, to celebrate the 160thanniversary of the global charity’s dedicated care of seafarers from all over the world. Canada remains a major seafaring nation, and we are deeply proud of our Canadian Missions to Seafarers which form an integral part of the global Mission to Seafarers’ family network. With Mission to Seafarers’ stations located in the ports of St John’s Newfoundland, Vancouver, Toronto, Oshawa, Hamilton, Halifax, Thunder Bay, Windsor, Lasalle, Sarnia and Saint John, our teams are dedicated to providing help and hope in times of need. I do hope to meet with you in December at this beautiful evening of celebration and reflection.”
Tickets for the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols and the Reception will cost £30 each and there will be a retiring collection for the vital work of The Mission to Seafarers. To find out more and to buy tickets, please contact [email protected].
