The Christmas carol concert remains an important part of the festive celebrations. But sadly many people who are housebound miss out on this joyous Christmas service. This no longer has to be the case as a charity is planning to relay two Christmas carol concerts direct into peoples’ homes via the telephone.
Community Network, the telephone conference charity that links up isolated people using the telephone, connected over 200 housebound people into these concerts this year:
2nd December 6:30pm St Peter’s Church, Eaton Square
21st December 6:30pm St. Martin in the Fields, Trafalgar Square
7th December 7:30pm Llandaff Cathedral, Llandaff, Cardiff.
Community Network sent a programme and order of service to those taking part. The participant is phoned prior to the service and then they can join in the carol concert through Community Network’s telephone conferencing system.
“The idea is to include people who are housebound through old age, illness, disability or caring responsibilities whose circumstances prevent them from attending Christmas carol concerts,” said Julian Beckedahl, Head of Social Enterprise at Community Network.
“Unlike radio or television broadcasts the minister taking the service refers directly to those listening on the telephone, making them feel part of the congregation,” continued Mr. Beckedahl. “We always get excellent feedback from the people who take part and know of one lady who invites her friends round, puts the concert on speaker phone and they all sing along.”
