Last night we all went to our 9PM Christmas Eve
Service. It is the service filled with music and choirs and soloists. Different
services are focused on young families or on longer sermons. But, this one is
my favorite.
For as long as long timers can recall, the Bible
selections and the carols are the same, in identical order. As a friend told us
‘If they changed songs or Bible verses at the 9PM service, I think the stained
glass would crack or the church bell would melt.’ So, you know what you are getting
when you go.
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Christmas at Fielding Road, 1954
I’ll give you
bits of it here on the Cousins Blog, interspersed with pictures of Taylor
Christmas’ from long ago also—some from sixty years ago.
Taylor Christmas, 1958
The Christmas Eve Service begins with a rollicking
rendition of ‘On This Day the Earth Shall Ring’ and the organist hits those bass
notes in style as we sing out:
‘On this day earth shall ring
with the
song children sing
to the
Lord, Christ our King,
born on
earth to save us;
him the
Father gave us. ‘
Bodies sway in time as loudly we give back:
‘Id-e-o-o-o,
id-e-o-o-o, id-e-o,
gloria
in excelsis Deo!’
Grandma Taylor--1960
After listening to Isaiah 9:2, 6-7, we join in song again
with ‘Hark the Herald Angels Sing’. I sing the harmony as my daughter and
mother-in-law sing beside me with the lyrical alto part.
Then, Luke 1:26-35 and a soloist for ‘O Holy Night’.
Matthew 1:18-25 and we stand and sing ‘What Child is This’
with our voices rising in volume when we get to ‘This, this is Christ the King’.
‘What
child is this who, laid to rest
On
Mary’s lap is sleeping?
Whom
angels greet with anthems sweet,
While
shepherds watch are keeping?
This,
this is Christ the King,
Whom
shepherds guard and angels sing,
Haste,
Haste, to bring Him laud,
The
Babe, the Son of Mary.’
Christmas 1951
Next
the choir gives us a wonderful sing out of John Rutter’s ‘Shepherd’s Pipe Carol’.
Our
meditation is ‘Unto Us a Saviour is Born’ and my mind jumps to Peanuts’ Linus
reciting those words with the backdrop of a very scrawny, small Christmas tree.
Our
church goes completely dark and only the sounds of many people moving with
coats and paper programs and coughs fill the room. A woman behind whispers to
her daughter ‘It is so dark in here.’ And, I know she does not often come to a Christmas
Eve service. Her daughter confidently whispers back ‘Just wait.’
Christmas 1954
One
by one, the glow of small flames get passed from person to person as our
candles are lit and lifted high. We sing out ‘Silent Night’:
‘Silent
Night, holy night, all is calm, all is bright,
Round
yon virgin mother and child, holy infant, so tender and mild,
Sleep
in heavenly peace; sleep in heavenly peace.’
The
church goers end with a loud and almost rowdy ‘Joy to the World! The Lord is
Come’. We know Christmas is near.
Singing Carols, 1960
As
we gather up our smoking candles and coats and gloves, we turn to talk to
friends we know, some we see only this once a year. A night of singing, music--organ
and guitar and piano and violin—and lessons from the Bible on Christ’s birth.
As we step out into the misty, wet night, it truly does
feel like:
‘And heaven and nature sing,
And heaven and nature sing,
And heaven, and heaven, and nature sing.’
And heaven and nature sing,
And heaven, and heaven, and nature sing.’
Merry Christmas to All!
Christmas 1953
