Hereford Cathedral
Sunday 15th December, 6pm
Thank you for celebrating your loved ones with us this Christmas.
Please consider making a donation to our Light up a Life appeal this Christmas.
Every penny we receive goes directly to supporting us provide the essential care we deliver free of charge for patients, families and carers at any time they might need it.
Ways to donate:
Online Donations:
Scan the QR code using your smart phone to make a donation quickly and easily.
Alternatively, type the URL into your web browser: st-michaels-hospice.org.uk/donate
“Thank you for helping us to care for our patients”
Scan the QR code to donate
Cash Donations: Please place your donation in a donation envelope and hand it to a member of staff.
Cheque Donations: You can donate to us via cheque. Please make cheques payable to: St Michael’s Hospice and post to: St Michael’s Hospice, Bartestree, Hereford HR1 4HA
Please consider Gift Aid with your donations.
“We are so glad you have joined us to remember together”
Thank you for joining us this year.
Here this evening, we are remembering family, friends and colleagues and reflecting on the times we spent together.
Our Light up a Life service gives you the chance to celebrate their lives – by lighting a candle and coming together with people from all over the county who all share a common reason for being here.
For those of you who made an online dedication to your loved ones before 5pm on 28th November, you will be able to view their names on the Wall of Remembrance which can be found outside Hereford Cathedral until early January. We hope you enjoy the service and find it comforting and joyful.
Brass Band
Welcome
Ledbury Community Brass Band play as you arrive
Rev Peter Spence, St Michael’s Hospice Spiritual Care Team Lead
Choir Everglow, Coldplay performed by Vocalise Choir
Reading For Loneliness
read by Matt Fellows St Michael’s Hospice, CEO
When the light lessens, causing colours to lose their courage, and your eyes fix on the empty distance that can open on either side of the surest line to make all that is familiar and near seem suddenly foreign,
When the music of talk breaks apart into noise and you hear your heart louden while the voices around you slow down to leaden echoes turning silence into something stony and cold, when the old ghosts come back to feed on everywhere you felt sure, do not strengthen their hunger by choosing fear;
rather, decide to call on your heart that it may grow clear and free to welcome home your emptiness that it may cleanse you like the clearest air you could ever breathe.
Allow your loneliness time to dissolve the shell of dross that had closed around you; choose in this severe silence to hear the one true voice your rushed life fears; cradle yourself like a child learning to trust what emerges, so that gradually you may come to know that deep in that black hole you will find the blue flower that holds the mystical light which will illuminate in you the glimmer of springtime.
John O’Donohue
Brass Band
Mary’s Boy Child Hairston arranged Smith performed by Ledbury Community Brass Band
Reading Their Light Will Find You
read by Joanna Steward, IPU Ward Sister
We are all full of light.
Light that no-one can actually see, but we feel it.
We go through life radiating this light, and shining it on those we love.
And when someone we love leaves, it’s true, our world really does fall dark.
Because that light source we couldn’t see, but we felt, has gone.
And it takes a while, it takes time for them to settle somewhere else. But I promise you, that light, it shines on us again. From somewhere very different. And we can’t see it but oh, we feel it.
Hold on through that dark period my love, their light will find you.
And when it does, it will never go dark again.
Donna Ashworth
Choir There’s A River Traditional performed by Vocalise Choir
Brass Band Away in a Mangerarranged Leslie Condon performed by Ledbury Community Brass Band
Offering & Carol
Once in Royal David’s City accompanied by Ledbury Community Brass Band
Once in royal David’s city Stood a lowly cattle shed, Where a mother laid her baby In a manger for his bed: Mary was that mother mild, Jesus Christ her little child.
He came down to earth from heaven, Who is God and Lord of all, And his shelter was a stable, And his cradle was a stall: With the poor and mean and lowly, Lived on earth our Saviour holy.
And our eyes at last shall see him, Through his own redeeming love, For that child so dear and gentle Is our Lord in heaven above: And he leads his children on To the place where he is gone.
Not in that poor lowly stable, With the oxen standing by, We shall see him, but in heaven, Set at God’s right hand on high: When like stars his children crowned All in white shall wait around.
Books of Remembrance brought forward
Prayer
Led by Dean of Hereford the Revd Canon Sarah Brown
Almighty God of all, we give thanks for all whom we remember today, and from whom we are separated by death or circumstance. May these candles, and the lights on the trees around Herefordshire, shine brightly in the darkness to remind us of your light shining within and around both us and those we remember; that light which came into the world to bring peace and reconciliation between ourselves and you, our God in heaven.
We ask your comfort for the grieving, and your peace for the sorrowing. May the light of your love fill our hearts this Christmas and always, through Jesus, the light of the world.
Amen.
Candles lit
Congregation’s candles are lit from the central aisle
Prayers We Will Remember Them
Led by Peter Spence, Spiritual Care Team
Leader: In the blowing of the wind and in the chill of winter
All: We will remember them.
Leader: In the opening of the buds and in the rebirth of spring
All: We will remember them.
Leader: In the blueness of the sky and in the warmth of summer
All: We will remember them.
Leader: In the rustling of leaves and the beauty of autumn
All: We will remember them.
Leader: At the beginning of the year and when it ends
All: We will remember them.
Leader: So long as we live, they too shall live,
All: For they are in our hearts and we will remember them.
Reading John 1:1-14, The Bible adapted and read by Peter Spence
Choir Winter Tori Amos performed by Vocalise Choir
Final Carol Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
Hark! The herald angels sing, “Glory to the newborn King! Peace on earth and mercy mild, God and sinners reconciled.”
Joyful, all ye nations rise, Join the triumph of the skies, With the angelic host proclaim: “Christ is born in Bethlehem.”
Hark! The herald-angels sing glory to the new-born King.
Christ by highest heaven adored, Christ the everlasting Lord!
Late in time behold Him come, Offspring of a Virgin’s womb. Veiled in flesh the Godhead see, Hail the incarnate Deity, Pleased as man with man to dwell, Jesus, our Emmanuel.
Hail the heaven-born Prince of Peace! Hail the Son of Righteousness!
Light and life to all He brings, Risen with healing in His wings. Mild He lays His glory by, Born that man no more may die, Born to raise the sons of earth, Born to give them second birth.
Charles Wesley
Thanks & Blessing
by Rev Peter Spence
May the blessing of light be upon us, Light to guide us without, and light to warm us within. And on every path our feet may tread, May we find a friendly face and a kind word along the way.
May peace, that gently stills the soul with trust, Lifts our hearts with hope, And fills the world with love, Be ours this night and evermore.
And may the blessings of God—Creator of all, Source of Light, and our Cloak of Grace—be with us, Surrounding and strengthening us, now and forever.
Amen.
Thank You
Thank you for joining us in this beautiful gathering to remember those we hold dear. With special thanks to Ledbury Community Brass Band, Vocalise Choir, CJP Broadcast Service Solution Ltd, Hereford Cathedral and all of the staff and volunteers who have helped to organise this event.
We invite you to come and view the Books of Remembrance.
Help & Support:
If this service has brought up anything you would like to discuss, please reach out to Bev Ramsden or Peter Spence from our Spiritual Care team, a member of the Hospice staff, or contact us by phone or email. We are here to support you.
Telephone: 01432 851000
Email: spiritualcare@smhospicehereford.org
We offer a range of supportive services, all free of charge. Please get in touch to learn more about the bereavement support available to you.
Please remember that if you are living with a terminal illness, or caring for someone who is, we are here to help. Just call our advice line on 01432 852080. The line is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Other ways to remember someone
Our beautiful Celebration Tree at St Michael’s Hospice offers a meaningful and lasting way to honour someone special in your life.
By dedicating a gold, silver or bronze leaf on the tree, you can create a unique tribute that will be displayed within our Hospice for you to visit. Each leaf is individually engraved, allowing you to remember a loved one, celebrate a milestone, or show gratitude in a way that supports the compassionate care we provide at St Michael’s.
Not only does your dedication create a personal legacy, but it also directly helps fund vital services for others in need. Celebrate a life, honour a memory, and be part of a legacy of care and community.
To find out more, scan the QR code or visit: bit.ly/SMH_CelebrationTree
Alternatively, speak to any member of the St Michael’s team to find out more about the Celebration Tree.
Scan the QR code to find out more!
Join our Bereavement Choir
Our New Days bereavement choir meets every few weeks, usually on Mondays at St Michael’s.
The best bit? There’s absolutely no requirement to be able to sing or read music! Just a desire to come and sing and try something new. This exciting project is a collaboration between St Michael’s Hospice and Encore Enterprises led by Jo Lowry, Singing for Wellbeing Leader and aims use the power of music and singing to bring together anyone bereaved in Herefordshire.
Scan the QR code to find out more!
To find out more, scan the QR code or visit: bit.ly/SMH_NewDaysChoir
Thank you for celebrating your loved ones with us this Christmas
Thank You
Thanks to the Dean, staff and organist at the Cathedral, Ledbury Community Brass Band, Vocalise Choir and the volunteers who helped organise this event, all of whom have generously given their time and skills for this service.
If you’d like to make a dedication to someone you miss, please scan the QR code with your smart phone.
Please also consider making a donation in support of St Michael’s Hospice this Christmas.
Our thanks go to CJP Broadcast Service Solutions Ltd for live-streaming this event.
