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All
Saints Church
Datchworth
December 23rd 2003
Tuesday at 7:30pm
With members of the Hertfordshire Chorus
A Christmas Act of Worship for 2003
Opening sentences, collect and welcome
Congregation: Lo! He comes with clouds
1
Lo! he comes with clouds descending,
Once for favoured sinners slain;
Thousand, thousand saints attending
Swell the triumph of his train.
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!
God appears on earth to reign.
2
Every eye shall now behold him
Robed in dreadful majesty;
Those who set at nought and sold him
Pierced and nailed him to the tree
Deeply wailing (3 times)
Shall the true Messiah see.
3
Those dear tokens of his passion
Still his dazzling body bears,
Cause of endless exultation
To his ransomed worshippers:
With what rapture (3 times)
Gaze we on those glorious scars!
4
Yea amen let all adore thee,
High on thine eternal throne;
Saviour take the power and glory:
Claim the kingdom for thine own:
0 come quickly! 0 come quickly!
0 come quickly!
Alleluia! Come, Lord, come!
The choir sing: A great and mighty wonder – M Praetorius
Reading: Isaiah 9
Congregation: In the bleak midwinter
1
In the bleak mid-winter
Frosty wind made moan,
Earth stood hard as iron,
Water like a stone;
Snow had fallen snow on snow,
Snow on snow,
In the bleak mid-winter,
Long ago.
2
Our God heaven cannot hold him
nor earth sustain;
Heaven and earth shall flee away
when he comes to reign;
In the bleak mid-winter
a stable-place sufficed_
the Lord God Almighty
Jesus Christ.
3
Angels and Archangels
may have gathered there,
cherubim and seraphim thronged the air_
but only his mother
in her maiden bliss
worshipped the Beloved
with a kiss.
4
What can I give him,
poor as I am
If I were a shepherd
I would bring a lamb;
If I were a wise man
I would do my part;
yes what I can give him_
give my heart.
The choir sing: Stille nacht – Franz Grűber
Reading: Advent
1955 – John Betjeman
Congregation: 0 little town of Bethlehem
1
0 little town of Bethlehem,
how still we see thee lie!
Above thy deep and dreamless sleep
the silent stars go by:
yet in the dark streets shineth
the everlasting Light;
the hopes and fears of all the years
are met in thee to-night.
2
0 morning stars, together_
Proclaim the holy birth
and praises sing to God the King
and peace to men on earth;
For Christ is born of Mary
and gathered all above,
while mortals sleep, the angels keep,
their watch of wondering love.
3
How silently, how silently
the wondrous gift is given!
So God imparts to human hearts
the blessings of his heaven.
No ear may hear his coming;
but in this world of sin,
where meek souls will receive him still
the dear Christ enters in.
4
0 holy Child of Bethlehem,
descend to us, we pray
cast out our sin and enter in:
be born in us to-day.
We hear the Christmas angels_
the great glad tidings tell:
0 come to us, abide with us,
our lord Emmanuel.
The choir sing: Infant Holy – Traditional Polish Carol
Reading: Ballad of the breadman – Charles Causley
The choir sing: Once in Royal David's City - verses 1 & 2
– then the Congregation
3
And through all his wondrous childhood
He would honour and obey,
Love and watch the lowly Maiden,
In whose gentle arms he lay:
Christian children all must be
Mild, obedient, good as he.
5
And our eyes at last shall see him,
through his own redeeming love,
for that child so dear and gentle,
is our Lord in heaven above;
and he leads his children on
to the place where he is gone.
6
Not in that poor lowly stable,
with the oxen standing by,
we shall see him ; but in heaven,
set at God's right hand on high;
where like stars his children crowned
all in white shall wait around.
Reading: The Son of God has come – Paul Betts
The choir sing: The Coventry Carol – 15th Century Carol
Reading: St Luke 2 v 1-7
Congregation: While shepherds watched
1
While Shepherds watched their flocks by night
All seated on the ground
The angel of the Lord came down
And glory shone around
2
"Fear not," said he for mighty dread
Had seized their troubled mind;
"Glad tidings of great joy I bring
To you and all man-kind"
3
To you in David's town this day
Is born of David's line
The Saviour who is Christ the Lord
And this shall be the sign:
4
The heavenly babe you there shall find
To human view displayed,
All meanly wrapped in swathing bands,
And in a manger laid
5
Thus spake the Seraph; and forthwith
Appeared a shining throng
Of angels praising God who thus
Addressed their joyful song:
6
"All glory be to God on high,
And on the earth be peace;
Goodwill henceforth from heaven to men
Begin and never cease."
Reading: St Luke 2 v 8-17
The choir sing: Mary’s Boy Child – Traditional West Indian Carol
Prayers
Congregation: 0 come all ye faithful
1
0 come all ye faithful,
Joyful and triumphant,
0 come ye, 0 come ye to Bethlehem,
Come and behold Him
Born the King of angels;
0 come, let us adore Him
0 come, let as adore Him
0 come, let us adore Him
Christ the Lord
2
God of God,
Light of light
Lo, he abhors not the virgin's womb;
Very God,
Begotten not created;
0 come, let us adore Him
0 come, let as adore Him
0 come, let us adore Him
Christ the Lord
3
See how the shepherds
Summoned to his cradle,
Leaving their flocks,
draw nigh with lowly fear
We too will thither
Bend our joyful footstep:
0 come, let us adore Him
0 come, let as adore Him
0 come, let us adore Him
Christ the Lord
4
Sing choirs of angels,
Sing in exultation
Sing, all ye citizens
of heaven above,
Glory to God,
in the highest;
0 come, let us adore Him
0 come, let as adore Him
0 come, let us adore Him
Christ the Lord
All: The Grace
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