Mayfield Church and Village News

Destination: Bethlehem! Location: Mayfield

Stephen Dunn

How a Village Experienced the Christmas Story

The distance from Mayfield to Bethlehem is exactly 2,349.64 miles (or 3,781.37 km for the metric minded) as the proverbial exhausted crow flies; or if you are driving – across Europe, Turkey and the middle east, its slightly more at just 3,179.16 mi (5,116.36 km).

However, in current almost lockdown conditions neither route is possible nor desirable. Therefore, its all the more amazing that this year Bethlehem came to Mayfield on the weekend before Christmas, the 19th and 20th Dec. and landed up in the churchyard and Church Lane a mere 0.6 miles from the village centre (outside the old school to be precise.) That made Bethlehem a lot more accessible and that’s why well over 100 families came to this Bethlehem from Mayfield and the surrounding area, (as far afield as Uttoxeter – that’s a full 10 miles but still a lot shorter than the trip to the Middle East!)

They came to see the Christmas story laid out for them from the angel Gabriel visiting Mary with the news of her future child, to a hillside in Bethlehem complete with shepherd and sheep, a visit to the home of the three wise men

before finally coming to the stable (set up in the church porch) to meet Mary and Joseph and a certain baby boy surrounded by hay bales, livestock (well two beautiful chickens) and that all important star above.

And even before the journey to Bethlehem started they could also meet a certain Mr S Claus who had come in especially from the North Pole to set up shop in the vicarage garage and hand out presents and chocolate to all the children who came by on their way to meet that other very important person at this time of year.

And to complete it all on the Sunday afternoon there was a gift of a Christingle kit for every child and for everyone of all ages a lovely outdoor crib service with carols around the crib at 4.30 held by torchlight as the sun set and Christmas carols were sung from a congregation of well over 70 or more souls socially distancing in the churchyard around the church door.

At a time of stress and concern the crib service was a most pleasurable seasonal delight and Destination Bethlehem entranced participants both young and old in telling the Christmas story in an involving and compelling way.

Thanks, must go to all who organised, produced and took part in this wonderful event and in particular to Martin our priest who conducted the service and Anne and Ian McFarlane as chief organisers. Anne has a whole group of people who she would like to thank – over to Anne;

“Destination Bethlehem really was a church & community effort and once the idea took off it soon became something far bigger than I could handle. There were so many involved that I am sure to miss some names off the list and I apologise for that because every contribution was gratefully received.

However, I will name a few – firstly friends & neighbours including Kate Glover for her advice & supply of props and who together with the girls made loads of sparkly shakers, Paul Burnel for spending hours fashioning the amazing Angel Gabriel. The fabulous Santa’s Grotto was the creation of Annette Jennings, who stepped up to volunteer and did a fantastic job along with the help of family and friends. Martin and Pippa provided endless support and the technical expertise for the sound systems along with Charles Wimbush with the electrics and lighting, not forgetting Josh, making a welcome appearance from the Vicarage with cups of tea.

Thank you to Arnie Rainbow and Denise aka Santa & his elf, to Jean Kennedy the present wrapper, to Phil & Maggie Cook who played the role of Mary & Joseph and to Janet Knox who provided props for the wise men including sourcing frankincense & myrrh. Joyce’s sister Jean Tayler made us the beautiful Bethlehem star and Penny helped sewing costumes. Bales of hay were provided by Caroline & Graham Prince and Gill Brewer made the Christingles.

Other than that there were a crew of helpers who set up gazebos and tidied and cleaned afterwards to whom I am very grateful as we made a bit of a mess. So a huge thank you goes to all these people and I am sure many others who made this event possible for so many of us to enjoy. It certainly added a great deal of Christmas cheer to a quiet corner of Mayfield especially in this difficult year (thank you to the church neighbours too for their Christmas lights which added to the scene and putting up with any inconvenience caused)”.

Now follow the full story in pictures below

Signs appeared across Church Mayfield including in the churchyard pointing the way and letting people know Bethlehem had come to Mayfield

Special child height signs at the vicarage gave a clue as to who was around the corner.

Welcome Santa and his elf helper to Mayfield (any similarity to Arnie and Denise is purely coincidental, so no disrespectful chit chat as Santa would say)! Santa gave every child a gift and some chocolate – well what else would Santa do?
Next stop the church rooms where the angel Gabriel visits Mary with some exciting news so exciting that Mary looks a bit in shock and spills her drink (looks like tea but did they have tea back then?). Moving on ……
Onward to the church, which looks so like a hill outside Bethlehem that a shepherd and his flock have taken up residence. Mr Shepherd had a fire going just outside shot so he was warm and toasty as the winter chill started. Time to move on ….
….to the house of the three wise men, who have just popped out to see a new star that has appeared in the sky. The smell of frankincense is in the air and they will soon be back to gather the presents on the table to take them to….
A stable in Bethlehem that does bear a passing resemblance to the church porch. Here amongst the hay and livestock were a somewhat chilly Joseph and Mary with the baby Jesus in his manger and a star above the door for a perfect Christmas.
And as people left Bethlehem to go back to Mayfield children found a make your own Christingle kit ready and waiting for them to remember it all by.
A highlight of it all was an outdoor crib service with carols, complete with special bean shakers for children to pick up to accompany the carol singing. A large congregation enjoyed the service and carol singing from a churchyard in Mayfield …or is that Bethlehem?
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