On Advent Sunday 1 December the annual Christingle service will be held at 4 pm at St Mary’s church.
Always an inspiring and atmospheric event, this year it has the extra dimension of linking  Advent to a pilgrimage as it will also be the starting point for the Wivenhoe Posada.

As explained in our e-Newsletter for December (subscribe here if you don’t already!), the Posada is of South American origin and the tradition involved the re-enactment, by two young people and a donkey, of Mary and Joseph’s journey to Bethlemhem. Posada meaning ‘lodging place’, they would each day ask for shelter for the night and tell their hosts of the imminent birth of the Christ Child. Nowadays the pair are more usually represented by statuettes that are passed from house to house.

The Wivenhoe Posada is a first. It will be facilitated by the three local schools. Participating families will pass the knitted Posada figures from one to another until on Christmas Eve during the Crib service they hopefully will be returned to St Mary’s.
The three sets of figures were knitted by Margaret Bigwood, one set for each school.
We look forward to seeing photos of their progress appear on the church’s Facebook page!