Patronal Festival at St Hilda's

St Hilda of Whitby is the Patron saint of Upper Hutt Anglicans. The reason why is lost in the mists of time. However, we do endeavour each year to honour our link with St Hilda and Whitby in the UK. Our tradition is to share breakfast as the St Hilda's Congregations (9am) and have one Celebratory service (10am) followed by morning tea together. That will happen again this year on Sunday 19th November.

Features of the this year's service are:

• A member/s of St Hilda's, Island Bay and St Mary's, Whitby joining us for worship
• A Celtic-flavoured communion service relevant to all ages
• Both modern and not-so-modern sung worship
• Shared testimonials from some of the congregation and our invited guests
• 'Clypping' the Church*

St Hilda's Sketch

* 'Clypping' is an old English word which means 'embracing' or 'clasping' and during the patronal  service, everyone is encouraged to form a circle round the Church, hold hands and so clyppe or embrace the Church.  As we do this we sing the clypping hymn.  It is a way of showing our thanks to God for our Church and asking God to bless it.  It also reminds us that we are joined together as the community of St Hilda's, Upper Hutt.