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Christmas Eve  

For the 11:00 p.m. service on Christmas Eve, The Rev. Dr. G. Malcolm Sinclair is calling his sermon “Miracle of permanence.” “The season comes and goes. The world swings on a pendulum between caring and cursing, but there is something rock solid and abiding in the Christmas message. We need to find it and love it again.”  

For the organ prelude, Dr. Patricia Wright will play Offertoire sur Deux Noëls by Alexandre Guilmant, Away in a Manger by June Nixon, Prelude on "Quem Pastores" by Healey Willan, and Noël sur les Flutes by Louis-Claude Daquin. The organ postlude will be From Heaven on High by Johann Pachelbel. The Metropolitan Choir will sing the French carol Quem Pastores, the Missa Brevis No. 4 by Healey Willan, In the Bleak Midwinter by Harold Darke, Christ Was Born on Christmas Day by David Willcocks, and On Christmas Night by Ralph Vaughan Williams. The hymns are No.60 (O Come, All Ye Faithful), No.67 (Silent Night), one verse of No.48 (Hark! The Herald Angels Sing), and No.59 (Joy to the World).   The final piece in the carillon prelude played by Roy Lee will be Introit for Christmas Eve, setting by Ronald Barnes.  

The Bible readings Isaiah 9:2-7 (The righteous reign of the coming king), Titus 2:11-14 (exhortations for various groups), and Luke 2:1-20 (the birth of Jesus).