Ceremony of Candles: A Cantata for Advent and Christmas
Sunday, December 16, 2007 at 11 a.m.

This special worship service will be a cantata featuring scripture readings and familiar carols of the season for choir and congregation, including "O Little Town of Bethlehem," "Jesu," "Joy of Man’s Desiring" and "Silent Night, Holy Night."

Ceremony of Candles will be presented by the Chancel Choir, children’s choir, pipe organ and instruments of Central Christian Church.

The worship service begins with a procession of the choir into the sanctuary in a Procession of Lights, as the choir sings the Gustav Holst carol, “In the Bleak Midwinter.”

The composer of the cantata, Joseph Martin, writes:

The Light of the world had come and the people who had walked in darkness began to see the glory of the Lord revealed in the shining eyes of a child named Jesus.  Soon his Light would pour from a Bethlehem cave and disperse the shadows of illness, hatred and sin. It would burn in the hearts of faithful followers and reflect in the lives of all those who looked upon his brilliant countenance. Even the darkness of death would surrender as Christ Light burst from a sealed tombe in a thousand beams of radiant life bathing the world in glorious grace. With carols of faith burning in our souls, we sing the ancient star songs, we share the everlasting story, and with blazing joy we declare to the darkness once again, "Let there be Light."