CHRISTINGLE

      On December 4th, 2014, Rosa and Lucía from BS22 attended a Christingle Service at Saint George´s Anglican Church in Malaga. The service was led by the Chaplain Revd. Mary Ellen Dolan, and the Assistant Curate, the Revd. Doreen Cage.
     But, what is a Christingle?

   Christingle means ‘Christ’s Light’ and it is a symbol of the Christian faith. Lots of churches hold Christingle services around Christmas time. The custom of giving out lighted candles in these services began in Germany in 1747 but it wasn't introduced to the Anglican Church in England until 1968.

Christingles are made up of different parts, each one being there to remind us of something.

• The orange represents the world.
• The candle reminds Christians of Jesus who they believe to be the light of the world.
• The red ribbon goes all round the 'world' and being the colour of blood, reminds Christians that Jesus died.
• The four cocktail sticks could have either of two meanings; the four seasons or the four corners of the world.
• The sweets (or sometimes dried fruit) remind Christians of God's gifts to the world including kindness and love.
• The foil is only there to catch waxy drips from the candle.

           We prayed, sang carols and enjoyed ourselves a lot! 

         And after the service had ended, we looked for Gerald Brenan´s grave ....until we found it!
         It was a lovely way to say hello to Christmas !

          GERALD BRENAN (1894-1987)

He was born in Malta into a well-off Anglo-Irish family, while his father was serving there in the British Army. He was educated at Radley, a boarding school in England, which he hated due to the bullying he endured. His autographical works make it clear that he did not enjoy a good relationship with his father.

At the age of 18, and to spite his father who wanted him to train for an army career at the Royal Military College, he set off with an older friend, the occasional photographer and eccentric, John Hope-Johnston, to walk to China. Between August 1912 and January 1913 they walked 1,560 miles, reaching Bosnia before lack of money made them turn back. Brenan spent the next ten months in Germany, learning the language, surprisingly in preparation for joining the Indian Police Service, but this plan was interrupted by the outbreak of the First World War.in August 1914. He immediately joined the British Army and served in France throughout the war. After being demobbed in 1918, Hope-Johnstone introduced Brenan to the Bloomsbury Group.

 In 1919 he moved to Spain, and from 1920 on he rented a house in the small village of Yegen, in the Alpujarras  district of the province of Granada. He spent his time catching up on the education which he felt he had missed by not attending university, and in writing. An important factor in his moving to Spain was his calculation that his small income would go further there. Despite the remoteness of his new home, contacts with the Bloomsbury Group continued, particularly with his best friend Ralph Partridge and his first wife Dora Carrington, with whom Brenan had an affair. In the late 1920s he formed a relationship with his maid, Juliana Martin Pelegrina, which in 1931 resulted in the birth of a daughter, Miranda Helen.

In Dorset in 1930 he met the American poet and novelist Gamel Woolse 1895–1968); they married in Rome in 1931. During the Spanish Civil war and for many years afterwards they lived in Aldborne in Wiltshire. Brenan was permitted to return to Spain in 1953 despite holding views which were critical of Franco´s  regime. He spent most of the remainder of his life . In 1984 Brenan was moved in controversial circumstances to a nursing home in Pinner, but he returned to Spain after the authorities there made special arrangements to provide him with the nursing care on which he depended. At the time of his death, his body was donated to the Medicine Faculty of Málaga for medical research and later cremated; his ashes are buried in the English Cementery.

          

   To know more, have  a look at the Church Website: www.stgeorgemalaga.org