Christmas at St. Stephen’s

Christmas Eve will look different in some ways (everyone will be wearing masks, for example), but the stirring readings and sermon, the moving seasonal music, and the beautiful decorations will be back after our pandemic absence.

Christmas services at St. Stephen’s

Christmas 2020 was unlike any experienced at St. Stephen’s before. We were unable to gather in our beloved worship space for the worship services we’ve come to cherish. Instead, we offered a worship video designed to capture many of the things that make Christmas services special, and permitting people to visit the church for brief periods to see the beautiful greenery, listen to instrumental music, and kneel for a few moments of prayer.

We are so grateful to be able to re-gather this Christmas.

While we will offer the services we did pre-pandemic, however, that doesn’t mean everything will be “business as usual” (as if Christmas Eve and Christmas Day can even be thought of as business as usual). A few things will be different. • Everyone must sign up in advance, so that we can keep tabs on the number of people in the church to maintain safe levels. We hope that, since there will be four services on Christmas Eve, you will be able to get a seat for one of them. • Everyone must wear a mask. • We will livestream services so that if you are not able to reserve a spot—or if you are not comfortable being indoors with lots of other people right now—you will still be able to participate.

Information about the Live Nativity and the Youth Christmas Pageant is found on pages 9 and 11.

The schedule for Friday, December 24, Christmas Eve: • Two identical “family services”—one at 3:00 p.m., the other at 5:00 p.m.— with Holy Eucharist: Rite Two, and

members of St. Stephen’s Choir and instrumentalists. While these services are alike, we offer both of them to accommodate the large number of people who attend. • 8:00 p.m., Celtic Christmas with choir and instrumentalists • 11:00 p.m., Traditional Christ Mass (Holy Eucharist: Rite One) with St.

Stephen’s Choir and instrumentalists

All Christmas Eve services take place in the main church, and a half-hour of special music precedes each service (2:30 p.m., 4:30 p.m., 7:30 p.m. and 10:30 p.m.). There will be no overflow seating for services this year.

The Christmas Day service will be held at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, December 25, as usual. Sanctuary, the Compline choir, will sing. Continued on next page