By Quin Hillyer at PJ Media, published Christmas Day;
[NOTE: This one is far from theologically profound, but it is of a favorite personal memory of mine that just might resonate with you.]
I cannot think of Christmas without picturing Mr. Shaw standing in the very back of the church, listening to the students sing.
Back in the 1960s and first part of the ’70s, the Rev. Thomas N.F. Shaw was headmaster of Trinity Episcopal School in New Orleans, a private PreK-through-8th-grade bastion of excellent, holistic education for some 300 students. Each year the school held a Festival of Lessons and Carols as its closing act before Christmas break. In a candle-lit church just after dusk, students read their lessons; other students played a song or two with guitars and/or bells (the rest of the songs being accompanied by an organist); still other students acted as acolytes and ushers and choir.
But Mr. Shaw’s particular pride was in inspiring the whole student body to sing out, enthusiastically, each of the traditional hymns and carols. It couldn’t be a half-hearted or shy bit of singing; it had to be clear, sonorous, rich, and lovely.
The whole column is at this link.
