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News: <i>A Bold New Love: A Christmas Eve with Middle Collegiate Church</i> to be Broadcast Dec. 24 on CBS

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  • December 4, 2018

  • 3 mins to read

“A BOLD NEW LOVE:

 A CHRISTMAS EVE WITH MIDDLE COLLEGIATE CHURCH,”

IN NEW YORK, NEW YORK

TO BE BROADCAST SUNDAY, DEC. 24

AT 11:35 PM – 12:35 AM, ET/PT ON THE CBS TELEVISION NETWORK

 

A BOLD NEW LOVE: A CHRISTMAS EVE WITH MIDDLE COLLEGIATE CHURCH, a holiday special, will be broadcast Sunday, Dec. 24 (11:35 PM-12:35 AM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.

The Middle Collegiate Church choir.

This Christmas Eve celebration features gospel and classical music, four choirs, two dance companies, and a spoken word artist. Emmy-nominated Tituss Burgess (“Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt”) will conduct the Art & Soul Chorus singing two gospel songs he composed: “Grateful” and “You’re My Joy.” This Christmas Eve worship also features music from “Sister Act 2”: “Joyful Joyful,” in which the church’s 50-member gospel choir is joined by dancers from Dendy/Donovan Projects, Rod Rogers Dance Company, and the children of Middle Collegiate Church. Nationally recognized speaker and public theologian the Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis, the senior minister of Middle Collegiate Church, offers a powerful sermon. The worship celebration concludes with a candlelight ceremony to the holiday classic “Silent Night.”

Middle Collegiate Church is a 1,200-member, multiracial congregation in Manhattan’s East Village. The Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis is the first woman and the first African-American to serve as senior minister in the Collegiate Churches of New York’s nearly 400-year history. The Middle Collegiate Church was founded in 1628 by Dutch immigrants, and is now co-affiliated with the United Church of Christ and Reformed Church in America.

“At the center of the Christmas story is hope…hope which comes to us in the form of a vulnerable, poor baby. A child, not a king, changes the world. God appears to us as a marginalized, Afro-Semitic, Palestinian child. A child who grows up to teach us to welcome the stranger. How would our world be different if we loved our neighbors as ourselves?” asks the Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis, senior minister of Middle Collegiate Church.

In our country that is deeply divided around race and religion, Middle Collegiate Church is a rare place where blacks, whites, Hispanics, and Asian Americans worship together. Also Christian, Jewish, atheist, and Buddhist worshippers are drawn to the congregation because of its legendary music and commitment to the poor, the LGBTQIA+ community, and addressing race relations in our nation. On Christmas Eve, this congregation gives us a picture of unity and hope.

This Christmas Eve special is a production of the Middle Collegiate Church, directed by Broadway and television director Charles Randolph-Wright (“Motown: The Musical” and “Greenleaf”) and produced by award-winning producer Michael Hanna. Elizabeth Kineke and John P. Blessington are the executive producers for CBS.

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Source: ©2018 CBS Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

 

Linda

Love TV, movies, and books--mostly mysteries, with a good love story thrown in every now and then. I have four adopted dogs who I adore. I love trying new recipes, and enjoy eating what I make. English language perfectionist. Reading in bed, Italian food, warm weather, the beach, all types of games = favs!

Linda

Love TV, movies, and books--mostly mysteries, with a good love story thrown in every now and then. I have four adopted dogs who I adore. I love trying new recipes, and enjoy eating what I make. English language perfectionist. Reading in bed, Italian food, warm weather, the beach, all types of games = favs!