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Monsigneur Nick France is Jersey’s Roman Catholic Dean and is based at the French-inspired St. Thomas’s Church which dominates Victoria Street in St. Helier and was built in 1887.
He’s been in the island since 1999 and will soon be 75, at which point he’ll have to retire.
“No, perhaps surprisingly, and contrary to what most people might think,” he starts telling Express, “Christmas isn’t necessarily any busier than any other time of the year for me.
“Yes,” he goes on, “I have more masses to say, and more people come to the various services, but the day to day business of looking after parishioners is still the same.” It’s that day to day caring for his ‘flock’ that takes the most time and is the most demanding, especially as he gets older. “Everyday is full of the unexpected,” he adds.
It’s been a hectic run-up to Christmas already with the church hosting carol services for Hautlieu, Jersey College for Girls, Beaulieu and Victoria College, amongst others.
Pictured: A crib in St Thomas's Church.
As he tells me more about his plans for this Christmas he does admit it is going to be more complicated than some previous years because Christmas falls on a Monday. That makes Christmas Eve the last Sunday of Advent – the four-week lead in during which Christians prepare themselves for the arrival of Jesus. So there’ll be an early morning mass on the Saturday and a vigil at 18:00. On the Sunday he’ll have a 09:15 mass at St .Thomas’s, an 11:30 in St. Mary and St. Peter, and at 18:00 a Christmas mass back at St. Thomas’s and then the Midnight Mass. Two other Christmas masses – at 09:15 and 11:30 – will follow on the Monday. “By lunchtime,” he admits “I’m falling asleep”. In February he will take a week’s break.
What does he think about people only coming to church at Christmas? “I see it as a gesture on their part, and an opportunity for me to welcome them… They feel drawn.” He’d obviously like to see them attend more regularly, but, as he remarks “...it’s not for me to judge. Many people feel they are outsiders. But, it was the shepherds who were the first to welcome Jesus. They were also the outsiders. Jesus came for the outsiders.”
His favourite carol is probably one that not many people will have heard: What Child is This – sung to the tune of Greensleeves. “I like it because it links the birth of Christ with his death and resurrection. Without his rising from the dead his birth means little.”
His message to islanders: “Christmas is for everyone. Because we can say love was born at Christmas in Jesus Christ and he reaches out to everyone and so should we.”
Catholic mass times:
Saturday 23 December
09:30 St. Patrick
11:00 St. Thomas
18:00 St. Patrick
18:00 Sacred Heart
18:00 St. Thomas
Sunday 24 December
09:00 Our Lady, St. Martin
09:00 St. Mary and St. Peter
09:15 St. Thomas
09:30 St. Matthieu
11:00 St. Patrick
11:15 St. Bernadette
16:30 Our Lady, St. Martin
18:00 St. Mary and St. Peter
18:00 St. Matthieu
19:00 St. Patrick
23:30 St. Patrick
23:30 Sacred Heart
23:30 St. Thomas
23:30 St. Mary and St. Peter
Monday 25 December
09:00 Our Lady, St. Martin
09:15 St. Thomas
11:00 St. Bernadette
11:30 St. Thomas
11:30 St. Mary and St. Peter
17:00 St. Mary and St. Peter
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