{"id":125450,"date":"2023-11-27T22:41:02","date_gmt":"2023-11-28T03:41:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=125450"},"modified":"2023-11-27T22:41:02","modified_gmt":"2023-11-28T03:41:02","slug":"central-moravian-church-to-present-festival-of-carols-dec-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=125450","title":{"rendered":"Central Moravian Church to Present Festival of Carols Dec. 2"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>BETHLEHEM \u2014 Central Moravian Church will present a Festival of Carols on Dec. 2 at 1:30 p.m. in a program featuring choral and instrumental music to welcome the holiday season.<\/p>\n<p>The concert will include an organ prelude, \u201cOf the Father\u2019s Love Begotten,\u201d by Rebecca Lepore, minister of music at Central Moravian Church; the church choir on anthems and choruses by Felix Mendelssohn, G.F. Handel, John Rutter and Dan Forrest; Mainstreet Brass on a new set of Roger Harvey arrangements for Advent; and congregational hymns, including \u201cMorning Star,\u201d a cherished Moravian Christmas tradition.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCentral Moravian Church is happy to open its doors and invite the Lehigh Valley and visitors to Bethlehem to enjoy carols and fellowship as we prepare for the busy Christmas season,\u201d Lepore says. \u201cWe hope this gift to our community will help spread the message of God\u2019s love through music and word.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Admission:\u00a0Free. Doors will open at 1 p.m.<\/p>\n<p>Central Moravian Church, founded in 1742, is Bethlehem\u2019s first congregation and the oldest Moravian Church in North America. Coming from a variety of backgrounds and traditions, the congregation today joins together to experience God\u2019s love in a caring, respectful and inclusive atmosphere. Central Moravian Church emphasizes Christian faith, hope and love.<\/p>\n<p>With a rich, living musical tradition, Central Moravian Church presents a full schedule of concerts annually. Early American Moravians had close connections to their European roots and sought and performed contemporary music being composed in Europe. Haydn\u2019s \u201cThe Creation\u201d was performed for the first time in the United States in the sanctuary of Central Moravian Church in 1811, and the first complete performance of Bach\u2019s Mass in B minor was presented at Central in 1900, thus giving Central Moravian Church status as a National Landmark of Music.<\/p>\n<p>Visit <a href=\"https:\/\/www.centralmoravianchurch.org\/season\/advent-christmas\/\">https:\/\/www.centralmoravianchurch.org\/season\/advent-christmas\/<\/a> for a complete listing of Advent and Christmas activities at Central Moravian Church.<\/p>\n<p>Information provided to TVL by:<br \/>\nBryan Hay<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; BETHLEHEM \u2014 Central Moravian Church will present a Festival of Carols on Dec. 2 at 1:30 p.m. in a program featuring choral and instrumental music to welcome the holiday &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=125450\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Central Moravian Church to Present Festival of Carols Dec. 2<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":125451,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[69,482],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-125450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-in-the-valley","category-press-release-2"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/moravian-christmas.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125450"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=125450"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125450\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/125451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=125450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=125450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=125450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}