All welcome to our Messy Church Christingle service
During the service, each child makes a Christingle. We will all sit at the table and the candles will be lit to symbolise the light of Christ, bringing hope to people living in darkness.
What is a Christingle?
Christingles are made using oranges, red ribbon and sweets on cocktail sticks.
Each element of a Christingle has a special meaning:
The orange represents the world
The red ribbon (or tape) symbolises the love and blood of Christ spilled for all the world
The sweets represent all of God’s creations
The lit candle represents Jesus’s light in the world, bringing hope to people living in darkness.
History of Christingle
Christingle celebrations have been taking place for over 50 years. The children’s society’s first Christingle service took place at Lincoln Cathedral in 1968, but Christingles themselves go back much further to the Moravian church in Germany.
At a children’s service in Marienborn in 1747, Bishop Johannes de Watteville looked for a simple way to explain the happiness that had come to people through Jesus, and created a symbol — the Christingle — to do this.