It may surprise you to read about my visit to our local church, since this is the blog of the pagan housewife. There are people in our communities who identify as pagan Christians, however, since paganism was simply an ancient form of worship before Christianity came to the UK all those centuries ago.

Indeed, Christianity and paganism mingled and wove together many of the popular festivals that we are familiar with today, and now we are fortunate in that we can openly celebrate those that feel right to the individual.

#JoytotheWorld Christingle Church Service

So it was that last weekend I accompanied my elder daughter and our young neighbour to our local CofE church, St Michael and All Angels church in Middlewich. I love the congregation in this church, and indeed, many of them are my friends from the school yard and various parent/child groups that I have attended in recent years. It became a regular habit for a while to visit the church café for soup and a sandwich every Tuesday after our weekly visit to the library’s Rhymetime session. I find the clergy and churchgoers very warm, welcoming and friendly in our town, and they always make me feel better when I visit.

We attended the annual Christingle service at the weekend. This is a children’s celebration, where we put a candle into an orange and embellish the fruit with sweets stuck on cocktail sticks. My impression is that this represents our way to opening our hearts, lighting up the world, and sharing the fruits of our love and understanding to fellow humans and animals. When we had decorated the fruit, lit our candles, and formed a semi-circle inside the church, I certainly felt the power and energy that flowed from each one of us in that sacred building. It filled me, it made me feel happy, it even made me feel emotional, such was the intensity of magic that was created during that Christingle service. #JoytotheWorld!

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