The beautiful 12th century church of St Nicholas, Bishop’s Sutton, which earlier this year celebrated the completion of its new roof, is now turning its attention to St Nicholas’ Day, which falls at the beginning of December.
Revd Amber Beresford, Vicar of the Bishop’s Sutton and Ropley and West Tisted Benefice, said, “Many communities round the world celebrate the festival of this wonderful Saint, the spirit of whom inspires our stockings to be filled with gifts every Christmas Eve! Yes! That’s right, the same St Nicholas of Myra is Santa Claus/Old St Nick, and at St Nicholas Church we are commemorating his festival with a choral patronal evensong on Sunday 7th December at 5.00pm.”
This special event is the happy result of a Patronal Festival Grant from the Choral Evensong Trust. These grants have been made possible through the generosity of many patrons, including HM The King, to support parish churches in celebrating their patronal festival through a service of choral evensong as a central feature of the festival, followed by a reception.
For the congregation of St Nicholas, this has been a wonderful gift and honour, and has enabled them to invite a guest choir, Index Cantorum, directed by Mark Williams, and organist Alison Benton to take part. There will be bellringing before the candlelit Service and wine and mince pies in the church afterwards. The church will be open from 4.15pm, warm and ready to welcome everyone who would like to learn about and join in the celebration of St Nicholas.
Enquiries about the Patronal Service on 7th December can be made through the church office at admin@ropleybenefice.church.
