Find the Spirit of the Season at Grace Episcopal Church’s
Service of Lesson and Carols
Offering from Annual Event to Benefit FIT-NH
(Manchester, NH) – On Sunday, December 15, at 4:30 PM, Grace Episcopal Church will offer its annual service of Lessons and Carols. This exquisite event recounts the miraculous story of Christmas through Old and New Testament readings, prayers, carols, choir anthems and organ music. The event will be held in the historic sanctuary located at 106 Lowell Street in Manchester.
This year, in respect for the savior’s humble and austere beginnings, the freewill offering collected at the service will be donated to Families in Transition-New Horizons. “As we celebrate the beautiful miracle of Christ’s birth, we are also called to remember that we are all God’s children,” says Grace Church Rector the Rev. Marjorie Gerbracht. “We are obliged to share the warmth of the season’s spirit to our brothers and sisters in need.”
The service of Lessons and Carols is modeled after a celebration first offered by the King’s College Choir at England’s Cambridge University in 1918 and still broadcast annually on the BBC. The Grace Episcopal Church Lessons & Carols features seven lessons and familiar Christmas Carols such as “Once in royal David’s city”, ‘Away in a manger”, “We three Kings” and “The first Nowell”. The acclaimed Grace Church Choir, with Director Mark Cleveland, will lead the congregation in song. Grace Church Organist Kenneth Grinnell will feature the complete “Variations on a Noël” by Marcel Dupré on the church’s custom built pipe organ.
The service of Lessons and Carols is free and open to all. Guests are also invited to stay afterwards for a festive reception held in the Great Hall.
Come find the spirit of the season and let that spirit—and the music—move you!