WORSHIPPERS will be celebrating Christmas at midnight and Easter at midday – and all the seasons in-between.

Chris Richardson from the Friday Fridge team at St Jude's Church, Southsea, tries out a prayer installation

Churchgoers throughout the our diocese will celebrate all the seasons of the Christian year in just one night and one day as part of a ‘24 Hours of Worship’ event next week. The marathon worship session will happen inside Portsmouth Cathedral from 7pm on Friday 29 October until 7pm on Saturday 30 October.

They will worship God in a different style each hour, including traditional hymns and contemporary worship songs, silent reflection and storytelling, drumming workshops and prayer installations. And the new Bishop of Portsmouth, the Rt Rev Christopher Foster, will lead an alternative multi-media Eucharist to celebrate Easter at 12noon on the Saturday (Oct 30).

Among the highlights will be a visit from Terl Bryant, founder of the Psalm Drummers, who will lead a workshop helping worshippers to recite Psalms in time to rhythmic drumming to mark Advent. That happens from 8pm on the Friday (Oct 29).

That will be followed at 10pm by prayer installations from the Friday Fridge team, who normally welcome late-night revellers to St Jude’s Church, Southsea, at that time. Participants can move at their own pace through a series of stations that help them to engage with God.

Christmas will be celebrated at midnight with chants made popular by the Taizé Community in France, led by the Rev Charlie Allen from St Mary’s, Portchester. Then there’s plainsong led by the cathedral choir at 2am to celebrate the season of Epiphany.

Ordinands – who are training to become clergy - will cook pancakes at 4am to mark the start of Lent. There’s a healing service at 6am led by hospital chaplains from the Queen Alexandra Hospital in Portsmouth, and the Rev Roger Calder from St Saviour’s, Stamshaw and St Alban’s, Copnor, will hear confessions at 7am.

There is a traditional Morning Prayer at 8am, and Portsmouth Cathedral Choir will sing a choral passion – Allegri’s Miserere – at 10am. Bishop Christopher will celebrate the multi-media Eucharist to mark Easter at 12noon. The service will use film clips and some original liturgy prepared by Blessed, an alternative worshipping community based at St Thomas the Apostle, Elson, in Gosport.

The team behind the after-school Messy Church group at St Wilfrid’s Church, Cowplain, will share their version of Easter at 3pm. There is a Book of Common Prayer Evensong at 5pm and the event closes with a Pentecost celebration from 6pm-7pm led by a contemporary worship band and a sermon from Diocesan Secretary the Rev Wendy Kennedy.

The event has been organised by the Diocesan Liturgy and Worship Group, which includes clergy and worship leaders from across the diocese.

City centre pioneer minister the Rev Mark Rodel, who is co-ordinating the programme, said: “The spiritual journey that Anglicans embark on every year takes us through these seasons. We thought it would be exciting to see what happens if we did that journey within 24 hours.

“We’re inviting people to come along, perhaps for one thing they are familiar with, and to stay for something they haven’t experienced before. People can stay for two or three hours, or they could rise to the challenge of staying for the entire 24 hours. Hopefully they’ll see there is a flow to the programme, as one thing picks up where the last thing left off.

“We’re also hoping that those involved in leading the worship can learn from each other. We have so many ways of worshipping across our diocese, but we rarely get the chance for leaders to see something completely different to they style they practice.”

For more details, see www.portsmouth.anglican.org/24hw.