News—A cosy celebration with the CCIS Family

By the Rev Egmedio Equila, BRMC Filipino Ministry Pastor; Chung Chee Kit, BRMC Mandarin Ministry Chairperson; Bernice Lim, BRMC Creative Arts Ministry Chairperson; and Yvonne Foo, Coordinator, TeamBRMC @ CCIS / Photos courtesy of TeamBRMC @ CCIS

Our Filipino tambourine dancers filmed at Wesley Park outside the BRMC Sanctuary

Home for Christmas

A cosy celebration with the CCIS Family

In 2006, the Rev Oh Beng Khee, one of the founders of Celebrate Christmas in Singapore (CCIS), invited Mrs Irene Tan GP, then Barker Road Methodist Church (BRMC) Lay Leader and Chairperson of Creative Arts Ministry (CAM), to partner CCIS in their Christmas outreach at Orchard Road. Believing in CCIS’ vision and mission, Irene promptly coordinated a team of dancers to perform at CCIS that year.

In the 13 years since then, CAM has coordinated a TeamBRMC to participate in almost every CCIS. (We took a break in 2009 for our evangelistic Christmas concert, and in 2011 for BRMC’s 55th anniversary concert and Global Day of Prayer.) We have witnessed several prodigal sons and daughters from the audience telling us they were touched by our performances and wanted to return to God and the Church. Some church friends had also thanked us for bringing love, joy, peace and hope to their pre-believer family members who watched our CCIS performances at designated stages along Orchard Road.

Through the years, CAM has collaborated with our Filipino, Glowing Years and Mandarin Ministries, as well as Sunday School youths and young adults, to present TeamBRMC’s Christmas offerings in songs, skits and dances. Our CAM dancers also supported Canadian singer Sheila Ann Smith when she sang at CCIS at the Wisma Atria stage.

Our ministry leaders have shared the heartfelt enthusiasm of their members who looked forward to participating in CCIS performances every year. The many weeks of practices helped to bring their members closer together, build joyous community and renew their commitment to God.

The CAM dancers used the powerful tools of flags in their proclamation dance

Our Filipino Liturgical dancers Our Filipino Choir Chung Chee Kit’s Nativity painting

This year, we were pleasantly surprised to be invited by Kelvin Tan, CCIS Programmes Chair, to participate in CCIS’ first virtual Christmas performance. Themed “Home for Christmas”, it was to be streamed on social media on 21 Dec 2020. While mindful we would face some challenges in our first virtual performance due to COVID-19 restrictions, our leaders in CAM, Filipino and Mandarin Ministries gave their thumbs-up for their teams’ participation.

We had to adopt new ways of performing this year. For example, we had to split our choir members and dancers into groups with a maximum of five members. Practices were held in homes, squash courts and parks. We used to perform on our preferred stages along Orchard Road; this time, we filmed videos of our performances at our homes or at the BRMC/ACS campus. We also ensured that our filming and audio recording were in compliant with IMDA guidelines. Even though the days on which we filmed were super hot, we thank God that captured on video were the joyful faces of our dancers, instead of their profuse sweating!

We give special thanks to our dedicated Filipino Choir Director, Faith Loscos, who spent much time on her Sundays off to train her choir members in four separate groups. We also thank all who assisted us in audio recording and video filming: BRMC AV staff Hillary, church members Yew Meng, Eden, Yvonne, Siang Ngee, John, Koon Siong, Moneena, our Filipino pastors, Ps Jun and Ps Hannah, and our friends, Victor and Peter. Fellow Methodists Kelvin Tan, CCIS Programmes Chairperson, and Victor Ng, CCIS Logistics Chairperson, provided invaluable help and guidance.

Performances included a testimony skit and song by our Mandarin Ministry team and artwork of the Nativity scene by Chung Chee Kit; our talented Filipino Choir’s rendition of an original Tagalog song, “Maligayang Pasko” (Merry Christmas) by Arnel de Pano; an upbeat dance by our Filipino Tambourine dancers, “Hope Was Born This Night” by Sidewalk Prophets; and another dance, this time by our graceful Filipino Liturgical dancers, “The Christmas Hope”. The Creative Arts Ministry (CAM) dancers joyfully proclaimed the good news of the newborn King, Jesus, in “Hark The Herald Angels Sing”. Two CAM ladies, Suyin and Michelle, danced powerfully yet gracefully to the song “Messiah”, and asked the audience to consider inviting a very special guest—Jesus Christ, our Messiah—to their Christmas meal.

CCIS 2020 was a new way for us to serve the Lord. As Chee Kit shared, “We were reminded that, where the heart is willing, God will find a way to bring forth His message, pandemic or not.”

Watch “A Christmas Performance”, organised by CCIS, at

https://youtu.be/eU02kob7qXU

Celebrate Christmas in Singapore (CCIS) is a registered charity and Associate Member of the National Council of Churches, Singapore. It was birthed in 2004 when a handful of Christian pastors and leaders wanted to bring the message of the peace, hope and joy of Christmas back into an otherwise heavily commercialised festive occasion. Believing that many may have lost sight of the true meaning of Christmas, this annual event, that became a hallmark at Orchard Road at Christmas time, aims to rally the Christian community in Singapore to reach out and bless the community with the message of love.