IT WAS a glorious way to kick off Christmas morning with a large crowd of 300 at Newcastle's Christ Church Cathedral for its Festal Mass on December 25.
The Very Reverend Katherine Bowyer, Dean of Newcastle presided the 9am service accompanied by preacher Father Gary Atherton.
They were accompanied by the Cathedral's orchestral choir who sang carols, echoing throughout the church and it was a pleasing and joyful sound to those passing by outside.
Monday's service marked the last of five Christmas services by the church and Reverend Bowyer said it was a wonderful way to be with family, celebrate the birth of Jesus and reflect.
"This year has been a really tough time for our community with affordability, and it's been a tough time worldwide when we think about conflicts and disasters that have been happening," she said.
"We're thankful to not be in COVID times, but one of the things that happened during COVID was we looked out for each other a lot more and I think there was a lot more love around."
Reverend Bowyer's Christmas message was 'We remember God is love, love is with us and love changes everything'.
"My sermon is around love changes everything and if we are people who just love, then we see a change in the world, because then we're concerned about how everyone's going to live well, and affordability and peace and all those things," she said.
She was pleased with the turnout, and acknowledged that people are enjoying hearing things that speak to the heart and coming together with family.
The Christ Church Cathedral held a Christmas Eve family service and a nine lessons and carols service on December 24.
Reverend Bowyer said over the course of the cathedral's five masses they had over 2000 people in attendance, which was their highest attendance record post COVID.
"We had around 1900 across our three services on Christmas Eve," she said.
"We had around 800 at the family service and about 600 at the carols service and then about 500 at our midnight mass," she said.
She wished everyone a safe, happy and Merry Christmas.
