The annual SVD Marsfield Community Carols by Candlelight headed outdoors this year to give a new twist to the multicultural celebration which featured choirs and performers from a broad range of ethnic communities.

The multicultural flavour of the evening was topped off when everyone came together to sing Silent Night, with verses in different languages as well as in English. And there was even a visit from Santa for the kids.

Fr Mikhael Loke SVD, incoming Rector of the SVD Marsfield Community, welcomed the crowd and acknowledged the traditional custodians of the land, before the Bible and Breakfast Group from the St Arnold Janssen Chapel opened the evening with a lively rendition of Mary’s Boy Child.

This was followed by carols and performances from choirs including the St Anthony’s Marsfield choir, St Kevin’s Eastwood, the Vietnamese community, Chinese community, Indonesian community, Slavic community, Filipino community, and also the combined SVD/SSpS choir.

The Carols evening was hosted by Frances and Fr Elmer, who entertained the crowd with Christmas jokes, like: “Why did Santa have three gardens? So that he can ho, ho, ho!!!”

Fr Elmer also explained the meaning of the gifts sung about in the Christmas Carol, ‘We Three Kings’.

“We Three Kings tells us of the gifts given to the baby Jesus by the Magi – gold frankincense and myrrh,” he said.

“Gold is a symbol of royalty and was to signify that Jesus is King. Frankincense was used for Temple worship and signified that Jesus is Holy. And Myrrh is used in death and pointed to the way that Jesus would die. It’s a very, very beautiful story and it was sung very beautifully tonight.”

As always, the evening included fundraising and raffles for those in need, and it concluded with a magnificent multicultural shared meal. Christmas cakes on sale also raised funds for Cana Communities to assist their work with homeless people.