We will have our annual Christmas Pageant during the 10:00 AM worship service again this year, followed by a brief Third Sunday of Advent service where the children and pageant families will light the candle of Joy.

Some churches have highly organized and polished pageants that they do by formula year after year.  They have their charms, but so do pageants at the happy-chaos and improvised-creativity end of the spectrum, which is where we will likely be!  We have talented child actors who have been mastering the nuances of their parts for weeks, but we will also be picking up some walk-on cast members at the last minute—like certain wise men (and women) who are even now following their star and will arrive at Bethlehem just in time for the dress rehearsal.

Annemieke McLane has written a beautiful, fun, moving, thoughtful and hopeful pageant that combines tradition and new perspectives, entitled Little Star.  It looks for the source of light in the darkness through the lens of astronomers searching the stars. Annemieke has selected two gorgeous choral pieces and the congregation will sing Christmas carols and Advent hymns that feature stars.

It is the Sunday of Joy, and that is what this service is all about—the joy of children, creativity, Annemieke’s piano, the choir, new takes on old stories, beloved carols, a shake-the-chandelier spiritual, candles, greens, Randy Coffin’s Advent angels, laughter, delicious foods, loving neighbors and more.  The whole town is welcome to join us, as are wise visitors from afar.