Christingle Service

On the second Sunday of Epiphany (14 January), our congregation held its first Christingle service in Mariakirken. The Christingle service has a long history with the Bergen Anglican Church although it had been some time since the last one.

While the Christingle service was familiar to most everyone in the congregation, many of our newcomers were unfamiliar with the service including our priest Kirk!

Christingles are made from an orange decorated with red tape, sweets, and a candle that are given out to the congregation during the service. We had to use small electronic candles because we are not allowed to use real candles in Mariakirken although the electronic candles worked exceptionally well. Thanks to Per Bjørnø who figured out how to engineer the electronic candle onto the orange right before the service!

Each piece of the Christingle holds special symbolism to help people understand the message of the Gospel. The symbolism for each piece was explained during the sermon offered by our lay reader Iris Bjørnø.

You can read more about the history of the Christingle here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christingle

While the service was designed for all ages with a special liturgy and music, it was the children of the church who enjoyed the service the most, especially the candies on the Christingles!