Advent is the Church’s New Year and, leading up to Christmas, it’s a wonderful season at St Michael & All Angels. Do join us – for our carols, concerts, Advent Calendar in aid of our Christmas Charity Appeal – and services!
Read Fr Kevin’s seasonal message in our Advent and Christmas Newsletter delivered to homes throughout the parish.
Our Advent season began with the Advent Carol Service at 6.30pm on Advent Sunday, November 30th, a contemplative service of scripture, music and poetry, led by the Vicar Fr Kevin Morris. The Service Booklet is an aid to further reflection during the Advent season. Read it here: Advent Carol Service 2025
The Christmas season begins with the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols at 6.30pm on Sunday December 14th. This candlelit service in traditional format mixes the much loved readings that tell the Christmas story with favourite carols and some fine music from the St Michael’s choir. All this is rounded off by mince pies and mulled wine.
St Michael’s Advent Calendar & Christmas Charity Appeal – open today’s door here
For over 20 years, our Advent Calendar has acted as as the focus for our Christmas Charity Appeal, ‘opening doors for people in need’.
The money raised by the Appeal goes to our 2025 charities and you can donate to them online – click here. You can see the Calendar in the Church during the Advent season, and you can open a new door each day throughout December here online. In alternate years, the pictures are created by members of our Young St Michaels groups.
This year it’s the turn of local artists to create the 24 pictures and these will be auctioned in aid of our Christmas charities on our 32 Auctions site here. The auction will start when all the doors have been opened on December 24th and will close at 12 Noon on Sunday January 11th 2026. See how to bid here.
The collections from our Nine Lessons & Carols service and Children’s Crib Service will also go to the charities – and there will be carol singing at Turnham Green tube station on Wednesday December 10th from 5.30 to 7.30pm.
– Our Christmas Appeal this year is in aid of The Upper Room, Crosslight Chiswick and The McCabe Educational Trust.
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Christmas is a very special time at St Michael’s…
…writes Cathie James: The rich greens and reds of its interior and its atmospheric lights, reflected against gleaming brass and darkened windows echo the traditional seasonal images.
The bustle of Christmas preparation is there, as everywhere – and the church is usually packed out for its services on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, particularly the Children’s Crib Service (below).
But there are still also quiet places where it’s possible to take time out from self-focused pursuits to reflect on the true message of Christmas; to remember those who need our help and support and those for whom Christmas can be sad or lonely, particularly in these difficult economic times. The church is open for private prayer.
Our Advent season begins with the Advent Carol Service at 6.30pm on Advent Sunday, November 30th, a contemplative service of scripture, music and poetry, led by the Vicar Fr Kevin Morris.
Christmas season begins with the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols at 6.30pm on Sunday December 14th. This candlelit service in traditional format mixes the much loved readings that tell the Christmas story with favourite carols and some fine music from the St Michael’s choir. All this is rounded off by mince pies and mulled wine.
As Christmas approaches our first visitors usually come to the St Michael’s Crib (see below), which is displayed in front of the High Altar until the Three Kings arrive on Epiphany Sunday. Christ’s Crib is the central focus of the Children’s Crib Service that is held at 4pm on Christmas Eve. For many people in Chiswick, this is the real start of Christmas! We often have a congregation of more than 600 – including youngsters (many dressed magnificently as angels, shepherds or kings), parents, visitors and friends – as we tell the Nativity story.
For the “grown ups”, Christmas Eve continues with Midnight Mass, richly celebrated with words, music and ”bells and smells” in the full Anglo Catholic tradition. It starts at 11.30pm as usual, preceded by Carol singing in the church porch from 10.30pm.
Our Christmas services conclude on Christmas Day morning at 10am with a Family Service — a chance to sing out again all those familiar tunes that are so much an essential part of the festivities—and with fun packed ‘panto’ instead of a sermon!
Christmas is a time when we look forward to welcoming many new faces to St Michael’s. We warmly invite as many of you as we can accommodate to join our celebrations – online if not in person – and we hope you’ll find at St Michael’s something special to enrich your Christmas. And with your help and generosity we can also “make a real difference” to those on whose behalf we make our annual Christmas Appeal.
The Christmas Crib
St Michael’s Christmas Crib (figures above) is created in the High Altar at the Service of Nine Lessons and Carols when the carved figures are brought to the altar. See pictures of the 2018 Nine Lessons & Carols service here.
It is then displayed from Christmas Eve until after the Three Kings arrive on Epiphany Sunday in January. Everyone is welcome to visit it before and after services. Children, in particular, love the large beautifully carved wooden figures and the excitement of “following the stars” through the church to find where the baby Jesus was born.
The Crib was created by Oliver West in 2005, the year he stepped down as the church architect and organist at St Michael’s. The backdrop was painted by his artist daughter, Mary West.
The hand-carved figures were commissioned from Jim Staines in 1999. There are now 12 figures, which are placed in the stable at the relevant times during the Christmas season:-
Mary and Joseph, two shepherds and three wise men (all completed in 1999); the ox, ass and baby Jesus in the crib (completed in 2001); the innkeeper, completed in 2003; and the latest figure, a sheep, completed in 2012.
All are carved out of cedar wood, except the figure of the baby which is carved from lime. Before carving, the wood has to be planed and glued to create a suitable medium for carving. The legs and ears of the animals are carved separately and attached with glue and dowels. Afterwards, the figures are sanded, with paper and wire wool, before colouring with a combination of stain, powder colour and wax. Each branch of the crib has been hand-carved and pinned into place.
Jim Staines died in March 2023 and in the church we have shared some words from his daughter’s eulogy from the funeral service: Remembering Jim Staines . He had been carving in wood and stone since he was 16 and sold his first piece – as statue of St Francis of Assisi – when he was 20. He trained at the Royal College of Art. His wife Pam, a sculptor, coloured the crib figures.