{"id":6205,"date":"2011-12-15T06:31:29","date_gmt":"2011-12-15T14:31:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sierramadrenews.net\/?p=6205"},"modified":"2011-12-15T07:38:26","modified_gmt":"2011-12-15T15:38:26","slug":"christmas-concert-and-candlelight-walk-this-sunday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.sierramadrenews.net\/?p=6205","title":{"rendered":"Christmas Concert and Candlelight Walk This Sunday"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><em>\u00a0<\/em><\/div>\n<div id=\"attachment_6208\" style=\"width: 215px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.sierramadrenews.net\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/crechelive.jpg\"><em><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-6208\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-6208\" title=\"crechelive\" src=\"http:\/\/www.sierramadrenews.net\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/crechelive-205x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"205\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.sierramadrenews.net\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/crechelive-205x300.jpg 205w, http:\/\/www.sierramadrenews.net\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/crechelive-102x150.jpg 102w, http:\/\/www.sierramadrenews.net\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/crechelive.jpg 494w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 205px) 100vw, 205px\" \/><\/em><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-6208\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Circa 1988. Polaroid from the Ruth Alexander Collection. Courtesy of the Sierra Madre Historical Archives. Click to enlarge<\/p><\/div>\n<p><em>Posted 12\/15\/11 &#8211;<\/em> Busy day this Sunday.\u00a0 United Methodist Church has a <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.sierramadrenews.net\/?p=6137\" target=\"_blank\">Chorale Performance<\/a><\/strong> scheduled at 4pm (click link for details and cost info).\u00a0 Then at 5pm, Sierra Madre Congregational Church has a Christmas Concert scheduled (170 W. Sierra Madre Blvd.).\u00a0 Then at 7pm, the 40th Candlelight Walk will be held, beginning at St. Rita&#8217;s and proceeding down Baldwin Ave. to Kersting Court.\u00a0 There, the baby Jesus will be placed in the creche with the <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.sierramadrenews.net\/?p=5853\" target=\"_blank\">newly restored creche figures<\/a><\/strong>, and caroling will take place along with reading of scripture.\u00a0\u00a0 This year will also feature live jazz.\u00a0 For more information, you can contact Congregational Church, 355-3566<\/p>\n<p><strong>History of the Candlelight Walk<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The first Candlelight Procession was in 1971.\u00a0 In 1970, Pastor Bob Vander Zaag of Bethany Church had held a holiday concert in Kersting Court, with the church choir on risers singing hymns and carols for the people shopping in the local shops.\u00a0 In a conversation shortly thereafter with Rev. Richard Anderson of Congregational Church, Vander Zaag suggested that as nice as the concert had been, it might be even better if local pastors gathered their parishioners in a procession through town.\u00a0 Starting at St. Rita\u2019s and walking down to Kersting Court was suggested, and agreed upon, and Fr. Gara\u2019s parishioners were added to the mix.<\/p>\n<p>Interestingly, there\u2019s some back history that makes the evening even more special.\u00a0 Back in about 1918 or so, some members of Congregational Church had split with the Church, forming Bethany Church and for many years, things weren\u2019t always real friendly between the two churches.\u00a0 Shortly after Rev. Anderson\u2019s arrival at Congregational Church, the two churches had a mass of reconciliation, and over time, Pastor Vander Zaag and Rev. Anderson became very good friends.\u00a0 The Candlelight Procession, which was started shortly after the mass of reconciliation, is undoubtedly one of the factors that, in the Christmas tradition of old friends coming together after a long separation, helped the two churches to set aside their differences and work together with their common goal of serving Christ.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0 Posted 12\/15\/11 &#8211; Busy day this Sunday.\u00a0 United Methodist Church has a Chorale Performance scheduled at 4pm (click link for details and cost info).\u00a0 Then at 5pm, Sierra Madre Congregational Church has a Christmas&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[117,4],"tags":[138],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sierramadrenews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6205"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sierramadrenews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sierramadrenews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sierramadrenews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sierramadrenews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6205"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.sierramadrenews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6205\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sierramadrenews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sierramadrenews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sierramadrenews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}