While Government restrictions mean people cannot enter the building throughout the week at the present time, St John’s, based in the centre of Hartford, have seen the rules as a window of opportunity.
Local schoolchildren have combined with members of the congregation to come up with a way of sharing the Christmas story through nativity scenes and pictures – all illuminated through the windows of the church.

Meanwhile, a special advent calendar is utilising the 24 windows along the side of the neighbouring church centre building where you can check out the daily reveal.
Teresa Nixon, children’s outreach worker at the church, explains: “St John’s has always been passionate about being relevant and accessible to the children in our community and Christmas is a great opportunity to get our local schools involved with our Christmas celebrations.
“We asked each local school and preschool to come up with some artwork that reflected the theme of light within the true Christmas story.
“The wonderful pieces that have been created range from preschool stars and baby Jesus’, to stained glass effect candles, a Christmas tree with messages of hope, and larger scale pieces of artwork celebrating Jesus’ birth as bringing light into our dark world.
“In addition members of our church have created nine scenes retelling the Nativity story.
“These beautifully depict how our need for Jesus came about as well as having the traditional scenes of angels, shepherds, wise men and of course, the stable itself.”
All the artwork and nativity scenes are visible by walking around the outside of the church with everyone welcome to view them at any time, although they look particularly special when lit up after dark.

The windows over at Greenbank Station House are also illuminated with wonderful Advent displays.
Christ Church, which meets in the building, is inviting everyone to join them at their Christmas services.
A Nativity service will be held on Sunday, December 13 at 10.30am.
With capacity limited for Covid-19 safety reasons, it will be repeated on December 20.
Advance booking is required, although the services will also be live-streamed.
The traditional Carol service will be on Sunday, December 20 at 7.30pm.
It will be online only this year, but everyone will be able to sing along at home as they remember the story and message of Christmas.
The Christmas Eve Christingle service will be at 4pm.
About The Author
Harrison Okafor
editor
Judith is a believer, a lover of Christ and a Gospel freak person. A passionate gospel blogger and press writer. I work with GospelHitsNaija.net Media, no 1 Gospel music platform.
