Well, last night’s evening service was a delight, if an unexpected one.

Earlier in the day in the face of all the snow and a heating system that had not come on overnight, leaving the church freezing, a decision was taken to postpone the Advent Carol Service until next Sunday evening. However, it was obvious that one or two folk would not get that message and turn up last night anyway. So, what to do with them?

A nifty service of Sung Evensong (Evensnow?) for Advent Sunday was hastily prepared and printed out in the afternoon. How many copies to print, I wondered. I decided to print thirty, just in case. In the end, that’s almost exactly how many turned up – thirty people and a poodle. (The poodle didn’t need a service sheet, or at least shared one for the bits she did need).

Bishop Gregor was with us, which was lovely and he stood with me at the front as I led the service from the portable organ. The heating had managed to warm us a little and “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” was never more heartfully sung.

I gather at least one other local church shut up shop for the evening, and our numbers were swelled by one or two who would otherwise have been going around the corner.

All in all, it was a good though unexpected end to an unexpected day.