Festival of Lessons & Carols

Sunday, December 3, 2023 – 3PM – Grace United Methodist, Spencer, IA

The Festival of Lessons and Carols will be presented on December 3 at 3 p.m at Grace United Methodist Church in Spencer. The presentation is a Spencer tradition dating back to 1977. The service is sponsored by the Spencer Messiah Board with the generous support of the Daybreaker Kiwanis and St. Lukes Homes and Services.

Festival of Lessons and Carols: An English tradition is a Spencer Tradition

The Spencer Messiah Board welcomes everyone to join them for this year’s Festival of Lessons and Carols on Sunday, December 3 at 3 p.m at Grace United Methodist Church in Spencer. The board is made up of area churches and presents the Messiah in Spencer every 3 years. The next Messiah Concert will be held in 2025. The Festival of Lessons and Carols is presented in the non-Messiah years for the benefit of the community by area singers.
Rehearsals will begin on November 5th for the festival and area singers are welcome to join thepractices of the community choir that rehearses on Sundays at 7:00 p.m. at Grace United Methodist Church. Rehearsals will continue on Nov. 12 and 19.

The Festival, which has been held in Spencer since 1977, is adapted from an English tradition of “Nine Lessons and Carols” usually presented on Christmas Eve. The format begins with the reading of scripture following the Christmas story and the prophecies related to it. The first lesson is from Isaiah, chapter 9, where the prophet tells “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light.” This year, the choir will sing “Come, Light of Hope” after the reading which is a setting of “O Come, O Come Emmanuel” and also incorporates the spiritual, “Wayfaring Stranger.”.
The choir will take up John Ness Beck’s “Every Valley” to accompany the second reading from the bible. The composition uses the words from Isaiah’s well-known 40th chapter, verses 4 and 5 where the prophet declares that when Christ comes, “Every valley shall be exalted and every
mountain made low. The third lesson comes from Luke, chapter 1 where the angel Gabriel visits Mary. The choir will offer an arrangement of ”Ave Maria” by Russell Robinson which features the music of Bach’s
popular “Prelude in C Major” under the traditional melody by Charles Gounod. Allison Oyler, one of our festival choir directors, will solo on this piece.
To learn more about the Festival of Lessons and Carols, visit their Facebook page at “Spencer Messiah.”