{"id":146269,"date":"2025-11-20T21:44:45","date_gmt":"2025-11-21T02:44:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=146269"},"modified":"2025-11-20T21:44:45","modified_gmt":"2025-11-21T02:44:45","slug":"central-moravian-church-to-present-advent-and-christmas-concert-dec-6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=146269","title":{"rendered":"Central Moravian Church to Present Advent and Christmas Concert Dec. 6"},"content":{"rendered":"

Central Moravian Church to Present Advent and Christmas Concert Dec. 6<\/strong><\/p>\n

BETHLEHEM \u2014 Central Moravian Church will present its annual Advent and Christmas Concert on Dec. 6 at 1:30 p.m. in a program featuring choral and instrumental music to welcome the holiday season. The concert is free, and doors will open at 1 p.m.<\/p>\n

\u201cCentral Moravian Church is happy to share this festive and reflective concert with our Lehigh Valley neighbors and visitors to Bethlehem,\u201d says Becky Lepore, minister of music at Central Moravian Church. \u201cIt\u2019s a time to relax and enjoy carols and fellowship as we prepare for the busy Christmas season.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe hope this gift to our community will help spread the message of God\u2019s love through music and word as we gather in this historic church, which is listed with worldwide Moravian Church Settlements as a World Heritage site,\u201d she adds.<\/p>\n

The concert will include \u201cDance of the Sugar Plum Fairy\u201d and \u201cSkater\u2019s Waltz\u201d performed by Lepore on Central Moravian\u2019s M\u00f6ller Opus 8650 organ, with its four manuals, 109 ranks and 3,057 pipes<\/p>\n

Central Moravian\u2019s choir will perform \u201cMorning Star in Darkest Night\u201d by Georg Friedrich von Hellstr\u00f6m (1825\u20131912), a Dutch Moravian composer, organist and violist. For 40 years, he served the Moravian congregation in Christiansfeld, Denmark, also part of the Moravian Church Settlements listed as a World Heritage site.<\/p>\n

The choir will also perform \u201cFestival Nowell\u201d by American composer Dan Forrest (b. 1978) and \u201cThere Shall a Star\u201d by Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847), part of his unfinished oratorio Christus, Op. 97. It has been performed at almost every Christmas Eve Vigil at Central Moravian Church since 1891.<\/p>\n

Mainstreet Brass, ensemble in residence at Central Moravian, will perform two sets of carols, and the audience will be invited to join in singing hymns of the season, including the final verse of \u201cJesus Call Thou Me,\u201d sung on Christmas Eve in 1741, when Count Ludwig von Zinzendorf named this new community, Bethlehem, and \u201cMorning Star,\u201d a cherished Moravian hymn by Francis Florentine Hagen (1815-1907), a Moravian bishop and composer born in Winston-Salem, N.C.<\/p>\n

The concert will conclude with an organ and brass arrangement of Samuel Scheidt\u2019s (1587-1654) \u201cIn dulci jubilo.\u201d<\/p>\n

About Central Moravian Church <\/strong><\/p>\n

Founded in 1742, Central Moravian Church 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

Central Moravian Church is situated in the newly inscribed UNESCO World Heritage site, recognizing the Moravian Church Settlements of Gracehill (Northern Ireland), Christiansfeld (Denmark), and Herrnhut (Germany), as well as Bethlehem.<\/p>\n

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

Visit https:\/\/www.centralmoravianchurch.org\/season\/advent-christmas\/<\/a> for a complete listing of Advent and Christmas activities at Central Moravian Church.<\/p>\n

Information provided to TVL by:
\nBryan Hay<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Central Moravian Church to Present Advent and Christmas Concert Dec. 6 BETHLEHEM \u2014 Central Moravian Church will present its annual Advent and Christmas Concert on Dec. 6 at 1:30 p.m. … Continue reading Central Moravian Church to Present Advent and Christmas Concert Dec. 6<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":146270,"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],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-146269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-in-the-valley"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Central-Moravian-Church-advent.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146269"}],"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=146269"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146269\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/146270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=146269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=146269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=146269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}