Carols for Connection
Christmas is a great opportunity for connection: as a church with our local community, but also within our church community. At Mountainside, we have a number of elderly people, spread across Auckland, who cannot regularly attend worship due to health and mobility issues. Over the past couple of years at Christmas, we have attempted to foster our connection with these treasured members of Mountainside by going out to them and singing Christmas carols together.
We form small groups of people by region of Auckland and spend 2-4 hours visiting and singing with the elderly in that region. This Christmas we had 4 groups of 5-7 people, involving a total of 18 people because some people were involved with more than one group. Notably, 1 young man committed to being part of every group! We made 8 visits (a total of 10 Mountainside elderly) in either their homes or in rest homes. Three of our visits were to rest homes, where we organized with staff that although our member was the “guest of honour”, other residents were also welcome to join in with the singing. This year, across those 3 rest homes, God provided the opportunity to spread Christmas cheer and to tell the Christmas message through song to an additional 49 people: staff and residents. Wherever we went, we were very warmly welcomed, and our elderly members were extremely grateful.
As well as singing carols, we make Christmas cards which are coloured in and signed by Mountainside members the week before the groups go out. The children particularly like to get involved with this and the elderly love to receive cards coloured by the young, and to read the greetings, knowing that they have not been forgotten! Any elderly who decline a visit by a singing group, still receive a Christmas card.
We also aim to take a photo of each elderly person with their singing group. After Christmas, we show these photos at church, reminding all of Mountainside that these special elderly people, some of whom we don’t see at church anymore, are still an imp
ortant part of our church family.
2024 was the third year that we have done this, and it was apparent this year that through the carol singing gr
oups God is deepening all sorts of connections within Mountainside: between Mountainside and our elderly of course, but also between the elderly and the individuals who sing (often similar people because they live in that region), and between the singers themselves (from both the English and Chinese language sections of Mountainside).
As one of our singers remarked this year, it is “such an easy thing for us to do, but brings so much joy”, and through our simple gifts of time during this busy part of the year, God is at work!
Julie Kitchen
Auckland Mountainside
December 2024
