08 December 2011

THIS summer, The Times ran a competition to write a new carol, melody and words, and over 700 people entered. The two winners were both professional musicians, but the six runners-up included someone who is not a musician at all. Nicholas Orme, the author of The Star, is a Licensed Lay Minister in the churches of Forest Hill, Horton cum Studley, and Stanton St John.

“I specialise in family services,” says Nicholas. “Each one is different, and I write sketches, dramatisations, and sometimes songs and hymns to put across theology in an understandable and memorable way. I thought up the tune of The Star, wrote words to go with it, and then a kind friend arranged it for choral singing.

“Nearly everything we associate with Christmas – baby, manger, shepherds, wise men – is so Christmassy that it’s difficult to relate to during the rest of the year.

“The star is an exception, because we can see stars almost every night. In my carol I imagine the Christmas star being always inside me, so that I can see it when my eyes are shut. It tells me that Jesus has come, and that nothing in the dark can hurt us ever again.”

If you live in the area, Nicholas’s next family service, Crowns and Crackers, is at Stanton St John church on Sunday 8 January. The service starts at 10, with crown making from 9.45am. Come dressed as one of the three kings or as a queen or princess!