Thomas Wells | Buy at photos.djournal.com
Actors run their lines during dress rehearsal at First Baptist Church, Tupelo. “Shepherds and Kings” takes place inside Mattiello’s Italian restaurant, where Susanne (Mallory Emison), is a young waitress struggling with cancer. The musical tackles the conflicted emotions and expectations of the Christmas season. Seated are Greg and Edie Washington. John Milstead, standing, plays the proprietor, Mr. Mattiello.
By David Pannell
Daily Journal
TUPELO – ‘Tis the season for scratchy angel wings and manger malfunctions, eleventh-hour alterations and opening night jitters. After months of herding children, building sets, sewing costumes, and rehearsing music, it’s almost showtime for Christmas programs at churches all over north Mississippi.
Christmas pageants run the gamut, from simple, homespun plays with kids in cinched-up bath robes gathered ‘round a borrowed babydoll Jesus, to elaborately orchestrated productions with lights and make-up, flying angels and exotic animals.
Whether your tastes are formal and liturgical, or casual and contemporary, you’re sure to find something festive and uplifting among the offerings this Christmas season. The events below form a Christmas sampler of just a few of the many options available.
• Hope Church is pulling out all the stops with “The Tupelo Christmas Concert.” Jon Ginn, Worship Pastor, explained: “It’s an eclectic, high-energy, fast-paced, two-hour concert. Our choir has joined with the Mt. Pleasant Missionary Baptist Church choir to perform traditional choral arrangements as well as gospel-choir-style music. There’s a drumline called “The Indoor Experience,” a gospel quartet called “Four Plus One,” and our youth band, “Hope Rising,” which is phenomenal,” Ginn said. The show is arranged in six 15-minute acts. It’s a one-night-only show, today from 6 to 8 p.m. Audience members are encouraged to bring along an extra winter coat to donate as part of the church’s annual coat drive.
• West Jackson Street Baptist Church is staging a musical, “Christmas In Tupelo,” which tells the story of Jesus from birth to resurrection, featuring choir and orchestra. Performances will be today and Sunday at 6 p.m.
• First Baptist Church in Tupelo will offer a dinner theater experience called “Shepherds and Kings – A Dramatic Musical for Christmas,” today and Sunday at 6 p.m. The action takes place in a quaint Italian restaurant, and revolves around the interaction between a young waitress battling cancer and an elderly lady who has lost her husband. Randy Wood, Worship Leader at First Baptist, said, “We associate Christmas with happy times and being together with family. But for many people, it’s just the opposite.” The musical tackles these conflicting emotions in a powerful, emotion-filled way. Seating is limited and tickets are $7.
• The Chancel Choir and Orchestra of First United Methodist Church, Tupelo, wIll present “The Mystery of the Incarnation” on Sunday at 8:45 a.m. and 11 a.m. in the church sanctuary. The Live Nativity (5 p.m.) and the Singing Christmas Tree (6 p.m. will be presented on the church lawn Dec. 18 and 19 as part of the church’s year-long Sesquicentennial Celebration. Seventy singers will perform hymns and popular Christmas favorites while the tree morphs through a series of color changes. The Nativity will include five scenes, beginning with the Annunciation and ending with the wise men seeing the Star in the East. Attendees should bring blankets and chairs for seating.
Lauren Wood | Buy at photos.djournal.com
Outside First United Methodist Church in Tupelo, people put together a platform in the shape of a Christmas tree that will come alive with singers Dec. 18 and 19 during the annual Singing Christmas Tree.
• All Saints’ Episcopal Church will present “Advent Lessons and Carols” at 5:30 p.m. Sunday. Organist-Choir Director Jessica Nelson said, “It’s one of my favorite services of the year. It’s a very traditional way to celebrate Christmas. The Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols takes its hearers from the Fall of Adam to the Annunciation. It’s the arc of salvation presented through storytelling and music,” Nelson said.
• Calvary Baptist Church will present “A Night of Christmas Worship” on Sunday at 6 pm. “We’re using every musical group in our church, across all age groups – Sanctuary Choir and Orchestra, Senior Adult Choir, Student Ensemble, Preschool and Children’s Choirs, and the Sanctuary Bells,” said Doug Spires, Minister of Music at Calvary Baptist. “I’m really excited, because we’re also doing some cross-generational things as well.”
• On Christmas Eve, Saint James Catholic Church in Tupelo will celebrate a 4:30 p.m. children’s Mass with performances by both children’s and youth choirs, as well as a performance by the adult choir at 11:30 p.m., just prior to the midnight Mass. Adult Choir Director Lailah Valentine said, “It’s such a special service. It’s late, and the stillness of the night is peaceful and reverent, but it’s big and joyful at the same time. I’m a convert and this is one of those services that I came to before I was a Catholic, and I was just in awe. Some people come just for the carols, but you really need to stay for the Mass to get the full experience,” Valentine said.