Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
Oh come all ye faithful
Security was stepped up for the traditional Christmas Eve carol singing in the city centre in the wake of the recent Berlin terrorist atrocity.
But fears the threat would keep people away from the popular charity fundraiser proved unfounded.
An estimated 4,500 supporters turned out, raising a record amount for the Lord Mayor of Canterbury’s Christmas Gift Fund.
Police, however, were not taking chances and the entrances to Rose Square were blocked with vans and fire engines.
The aim was to prevent any intrusion by a rogue vehicle, as happened at the Christmas market in Germany recently when an Isis terrorist hijacked a truck and drove it into crowds killing 12 and injuring 49.
Armed police, who have been patrolling the Cathedral Precincts in recent months, are also thought to have been nearby.
Chairman of the gift fund, Sheila Cragg said: “I was a bit worried it might keep people away but clearly Canterbury folk were not going to be deterred.
“In the light of what happened in Berlin, our committee had been in discussions with police recently because the Archbishop was attending, making it a quite high profile event.
“But actually I think people were reassured by the presence of the emergency vehicles.”
The huge crowd donated £5,550 to the charity which was a record collection.
It helps pay for hundreds festive food and goody parcels to be distributed to the needy across the city and surrounding villages.
Lord Mayor Cllr George Metcalfe welcomed the singers from an open-topped bus in Rose Square and introduced the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby.
His message was that it may be not be possible to change all that is wrong in the world, but providing individual acts of kindness around you makes a difference.
Conducted by Grenville Hancox, the huge crowd sang accompanied by the Canterbury Salvation Army Band, led by Martin Neeve.
The choir from St. Stephen’s Church walked with the Archbishop from the Precincts to the open top bus, before leading the singing from the Whitefriars balcony.
Their 10-year-old chorister, Milton Boland was warmly applauded by the carollers for his solo singing of the first verse of Once in Royal David’s City.
Mrs Cragg said she was delighted by the huge turnout of support.
She said: “We were well aware that last year’s collection had been a record and hardly dared to hope to come even close, but we should have realised that local people never lets us down and we are very grateful for the incredible support.
“We need to raise about £15,000 every year to distribute around 500 parcels as well as toy vouchers to some younger children living in our community.”
She added: “The charity, founded in 1952, always strives to make the Christmas season happier for some people for whom it can be a difficult time.
Part of our task is to buy the parcels and make arrangements for deliveries, with the unfailing help of our volunteer supporters and my hard-working team.”