A Christmas carol service during the summer? That’s exactly what Monks Chapel, a United Reformed Church in Corsham, held at the beginning of July.
More than 70 people attended the church’s annual summer carol service, described by the Revd Gary Gotham as an “eccentric, yet joyous event”.
“It started in 2010 when heavy snowfall prevented the winter carol service from going ahead,” explained Gary, Minister of the chapel.
Church members decided they would then hold and record another summer carol service in case the same happened the following winter.
The event proved so popular it stayed.
“It’s odd but it’s brilliant and people seem to appreciate it,” continued Gary.
The service comprises the traditional nine lessons and carols, but also includes poetry and incorporates humour. As it’s summer, people can then enjoy the warm weather with their mince pies afterwards.
“We don’t take ourselves too seriously,” adds Gary, who is also known to have told the Christmas story using chocolates.
Unorthodoxy lies at the heart of the chapel which was built by the Quakers in 1662 in response to the Five Mile Act which forced English Churches to follow fixed forms of service and stick to the revised English Prayer Book.
Benjamin Flowers, son of a Castle Combe vicar, refused to comply with the Act and was subsequently forced out of his home in Cardiff. He then made Corsham a centre for independent worship and preaching.
The church was made with the specific outward design of a house to make it less conspicuous to parliamentarians, and the height of its tall pulpit was “to give the preacher a chance to spot any troublemakers making their way to the chapel across the open countryside” explains Gary.
There may even have been a secret escape tunnel through the door under the pulpit.
Image: Monks Chapel/Swindon Advertiser.