Grand Island churches celebrate Christmas

by Alice E. Gerard
Grand Island Dispatch, December 22, 2006

Grand Island churches will celebrate Christmas with carols, candles, messages of hope and joy, and gifts.

Pastor Abram Dueck said that 18-year-old Denise Dominique of Haiti will be given a “gift certificate good for one church” at the Whitehaven Road Baptist Church’s 6:30 p.m. candlelight service on Sunday, Dec. 24. “We hope Denise will light the Christ candle for us,” Dueck said.

The candlelight service at the Whitehaven Road Baptist Church, 1290 Whitehaven Road, will also feature a telling of the Christmas story “by reading scripture and singing carols and lighting candles to remind us of the prophets, the shepherds, angels, and the birth of Christ,” Dueck said.

“Christmas reminds us that a gift that is given also needs to be received. There’s great joy in our Heavenly Father’s heart when we receive the gift of His son,” he said.

At Trinity United Methodist Church, 2100 Whitehaven Road, regular services will be held at 8 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. to celebrate the fourth Sunday of Advent. Three evening services are scheduled. The 5 p.m. service is planned for children. The focus of the 7 p.m. service “is on remembrance of the holy family. It’s a litany of remembrance, also, of people who are no longer with us but whom we remember at this time of year. People can come up and light candles,” said the Rev. Paul Womack. The 11 p.m. service will feature Holy Communion and lessons and carols with the choir.

Womack said, “My thought this Christmas season has to do with the perception that, if God’s world 2000 years ago had not needed a transfusion of grace and love, we would not be celebrating Christmas, and that it is precisely the need today for grace and love that Christian folk need to be about. Christmas gets lost in all the commercialization. We all know that, wish it were not so, even as we go about making it so. I hope this year we can all step back, remind ourselves of the many far from home and those without homes, whose world is uneasy and frightening, and find a way beyond the commercial to offer grace and love and be about the ministry of peace.”

Bible Presbyterian Church, 1650 Love Road, will feature a regular service at 10:45 a.m. on Dec. 24. The theme will be “Living for the King” from Psalm 24.” The church will also feature a traditional candlelight service at 6 p.m.

St. Martin-in-the-Fields Episcopal Church at 2587 Baseline Road will offer services at 8 a.m. and 10 a.m. on Dec. 24 to celebrate the fourth Sunday in Advent. In the evening, the youth choir will sing at the 6:30 p.m. service, and the adult choir will sing at the 8:30 p.m. service.

“The church is decorated, and we sing Christmas carols. It’s like a big, festive Sunday morning to celebrate the birth of Jesus,” said the Rev. Earle King. “We welcome one and all as we celebrate the birth of the son of God.”

St. Martin-in-the-Fields Episcopal Church will also hold a Christmas Day service at 10 a.m. In addition, on Dec. 31, the church’s young people will present a pageant.

St. Stephen’s Roman Catholic Church, 2100 Baseline Road, will celebrate the fourth Sunday of Advent at its 7:30 a.m., 9 a.m., and 11 a.m. masses on Dec. 24. It will offer a variety of Christmas Eve masses. A 4:30 p.m. family and children’s Mass will be celebrated in the new church, while another Mass is celebrated in the old church. Another Mass will be celebrated at 6:30 p.m. The choir will present a concert at 11:30 p.m., followed by midnight Mass.

Christmas Day Masses will be celebrated at 7:30 a.m., 9 a.m., and 11 a.m. On Tuesday, Dec. 26, the church will celebrate the feast day of its patron, St. Stephen, with Masses at 7:30 a.m. and 12:05 p.m.

The Rev. Paul Nogaro said that he wishes “Christmas peace and joy to all.”

St. Timothy Lutheran Church, 1453 Staley Road, will offer Christmas Eve services at 4 p.m. and 11 p.m.

Island Presbyterian Church, 1822 Huth Road, will celebrate the fourth Sunday of Advent at 10:30 a.m., Dec. 24. At 7:30 p.m., Island Presbyterian will hold a candlelight communion service, with lessons and carols. The Rev. Diane Rien Phinney referred to a line in the Christmas carol, “God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen.”

“O Tidings of comfort and joy,” Phinney said. “There is joy because the savior is born. This also brings comfort to people who are having a hard time. God is with us in what we do, whether we are experiencing joy, trouble, or sorrow. One who was born the savior is also Emmanuel, God with us.”