Bethlehem Carols Unpacked: Creative Ideas for Christmas Carol Services
No. of pages 224
Published: 2008
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"Bethlehem Carols Unpacked: Creative Ideas for Christmas Carol Services" by Lucy Moore offers a rich resource for planning engaging and memorable Christmas carol services. The book provides a variety of creative ideas, including themes for services, interactive elements, and suggestions for integrating scripture and reflection into the festivities. Moore emphasizes the significance of each carol, helping to deepen the congregational experience. With practical advice and imaginative approaches, this guide inspires leaders to create vibrant celebrations that resonate with the true spirit of Christmas, fostering a sense of community and joy through music and worship. [Generated by language model - please report any problems].
There are 224 pages in this book. This book was published in 2008 by BRF (The Bible Reading Fellowship) .
Martyn Payne is BRF's Messy Church researcher. His role is to visit Messy Churches up and down the UK, listening to the stories of how Messy Church is developing, networking good practice and bringing encouragement. He has a background in Bible storytelling and leading all-age worship and is passionate about the blessing that comes when generations explore faith together. Martyn, who is a qualified teacher, has worked with BRF for over twelve years contributing to training and resources and leading Barnabas RE days; prior to this he worked with the Church Mission Society as its national children's work coordinator. His books include A-cross the World (2004), Footsteps to the Feast (2007), Where in the World? (2012), The Big Story (2011), Creative Ways to tell a Bible Story (2013) and The Barnabas Family Bible (2014). Lucy Moore is a professional actor and storyteller. She works for BRF as part of the Barnabas Ministry team. A published writer, performer and creative arts director with a background in teaching languages, she makes use of lively original poetry, mime, storytelling, and a variety of drama workshop activities. Her work with BRF includes sharing the Bible with children through Barnabas RE Days. Lucy is author of The Gospels Unplugged, The Lord's Prayer Unplugged, Topsy Turvy Christmas, Messy Church Messy Church 2 and All-Age Worship all published by BRF. She and her husband, Paul, have two children, Arthur and Judith. They worship at St Wilfrid's, Cowplain in Hampshire, where Paul is the minister.
From Church Music Quarterly - December 2008 What price good organist/clergy relationships? The answer is simple - it is the cost of this book. Give your clergy this book as a present and he/she will be your friend for life. Putting a new slant on the Christmas story is a perennial problem for clergy and musicians alike, especially when preparing Christmas liturgy for small children and indeed for young people in general. As the subtitle suggests, eleven of the best known carols are 'unpacked', in terms of the story behind the carol, the biblical story of the carol and the meaning of the carol. Biblical links and quotations are also provided. What makes this book so useful is the subsequent 100 or so pages where the authors give creative ideas for using and illustrating the carols by means of poetry, drama and indeed all the human senses. Some of these dramas are quite short and would be suitable for use during a carol service to highlight a particular carol. Others are longer and would make the basis for an all-age talk/ sermon or as an alternative to the traditional nativity story. Many of the dramas use props, mostly home-made or simple to find though a bag of fresh hay might be difficult to find in urban areas in December. There are often sound, visual and other sensory effects together with movement and actions ideal for the young. The imagery used is mainly contemporary with pizza, mobile phones and television all making an appearance. Not being directly based on the nativity story, 'Good King Wenceslas' is a carol sometimes hard to fit into a traditional carol service. Here the authors give useful ways of incorporating this tale of love and generosity into almost any Christmas service. The book is co-authored by BibleLands, purveyor of the well-known Bethlehem Carol Sheet. This is a (150 year old) charity who support a variety of projects in the Middle East and one of the chapters in the book suggests ways in which you might support or raise the profile of their work through the use of carols. I have already given a copy to my vicar, not to curry favour you understand as our relationship is good, but because this is the sort of imaginative use of traditional material that those of us who plan all-age worship so desperately need. Reviewed by John Henderson