Popular ‘donkey’ Christmas service returns to Holy Trinity

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

A decades-long popular Christmas Eve family service returns to Holy Trinity Anglican Church this weekend.

Covid has put paid to the service in recent years but on Sunday it will be back, complete with a real donkey.

The service is mostly a Christmas play with a narrator guiding the actors.

Mary, Joseph, and the baby are already cast and will have a bit of a practice, but most of the actors will be those who turn up on the night.

“We have a narrator who guides them all through the play, keeping it light, and fun, and easy for the actors.  This year the narrator also plays the angel Gabriel,” said the Reverend Bronwyn Marchant.

Tanya Hawthorne will be providing her family pet donkey,  Holly who is appropriately a Jerusalem donkey. The breed is known for its distinctive cross markings and was said to have carried the Jesus into Jerusalem.The donkey was seen as a humble way to enter the city, rather than a horse which would been a symbol of war.

“Holly is very calm and very well behaved.The kids love it!” said Rev Marchant.

Christmas carols will be sung, and dress-up clothes will be available for those wanting to join the play. People are welcome to come dressed as an angel or a shepherd.

■ The Donkey Service, the Story of Christmas, at Holy Trinity Church cnr Palmerston Road and Derby Street.   For more information ph. 06 867 6449.