Livery Carol Service
3rd December 2024St James Garlickhythe
We all enjoyed a fabulous Company Carol Service at St James' Garlickhythe, as a beautiful way to formally start the Christmas festivities. The congregation included members of the company and their guests and also representatives of many of the charities that our Benevolent Fund supports.
With Sevenoaks School providing the organist and a wonderful large choir, the Wren-designed church provided a lovely venue for the service, with its mixture of hymns, anthems, choral works and readings, all devised by Past Master Mark Gower-Smith in our traditional carol service format. Father Jack, our Honorary Chaplain, gave an uplifting sermon from the very high pulpit which overlooks the whole church, with his wish that we recognise the special "tingle" of Christmas!
In very good humour, we then repaired to the Samuel Pepys pub, just across the road from the St James', where we carried on the festivities in a private room upstairs. With an outside balcony overlooking the Thames and a view of the Globe Theatre directly from the window, it was a perfect spot to enjoy some very good canapes and drinks from the bar, whilst enjoying the usual interesting conversations with members of the company and guests.
In particular, it was a very good opportunity for members of the company to find out more about our charitable work directly with from the charities themselves, which I hope will provoke more thoughts about how we can support them in more ways than just finance!
Our thanks to everybody who contributed to making a great evening to start off Christmas!