Exmouth and Budleigh Salterton RNLI hosted a service of nine lessons and carols at Holy Trinity Church, Exmouth on a cold, dry evening of 17 December.

Around 200 people attended the service including Cllr. Peter Halse, Chairman of East Devon District Council; Cllr. Sandy Sutton, Mayor of Exmouth and Mr Tony Alexander, Principal of Exmouth Community College. The Exmouth and Budleigh Salterton RNLI guild had organised this event to be a celebration for the south west region, which is held annually.

The format included nine lessons interspersed with carols sung by the congregation and Choir 97, a local community choir. The readers of the lessons included volunteer crew and officers of Exmouth RNLI. The RNLI standard was paraded by flag bearer and volunteer crew member, Roger Jackson and laid on the altar throughout the service.

Reverend James Hutchings welcomed us as the Rector of Littleham cum Exmouth with Lympstone, a position he had acquired only 2 days previously. He addressed the congregation with a message;

‘Most of us are familiar with the RNLI, but we need to appreciate the importance of the role it plays within our sea-faring community.’

During the candlelit service, a collection was taken for the work of the RNLI, the charity that saves lives at sea. A record £432.09 was collected in total. The lifeboat prayer was also included amongst the usual Christmas prayers. The service lasted approximately one hour.