Dear Friends,

In Shenyang China, the Protestant churches and the seminary celebrate the birth of Jesus with joyous "Christmas celebrations." These Christmas celebrations, held variously on an evening before Christmas, after the regular worship service on the Sunday before Christmas, or on Christmas Day itself, are productions on a grand scale involving believers of all ages from the local church as well as groups from other churches in town. Songs, dances, dramatizations of Scripture, comedy routines—the variety of performances is endless and the show goes on for hours.

At Bei Shi Church this year the highlight for me was a dramatization of Matthew 25:1-13, the parable of the ten maidens waiting for the bridegroom. The five maidens who brought oil waited patiently for the bridegroom, but the other five had more important things to do. They flounced off stage, amid great laughter, and went window-shopping, leaving their lamps behind. When the bridegroom arrived and they were excluded from the party, their grief was heartrendingly real. Seeing their tears, I understood in a new way the tragedy of not being prepared for Christ’s return.

At Northeast Theological Seminary, the powerful voices of the seminary choir proclaimed the news of Christ’s birth in both Western sacred music and Chinese hymns. Later in the program, a group of eight colorfully costumed Korean-Chinese women from the Korean-Chinese church performed a graceful, traditional Korean dance with brightly colored fans. They were followed by two men from a local church dressed as Santa Claus and Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer. Both looked somewhat the worse for wear. As they explained in their comic dialogue, they had just come from Afghanistan where an exploding bomb had singed Santa’s beard and broken Rudolph’s antler. Undeterred, they had traveled on to spread their Christmas message of peace on earth—and to bring uproarious laughter to the seminary.

The mixture of sacred and secular seems perhaps a bit strange to us Presbyterians, but I find myself drawn to these exuberant performances and touched by the joy that fills the church as Chinese Christians celebrate Christmas. In fact, these celebrations are nothing less than a rollicking, rather boisterous birthday party for the baby Jesus.

In Christ’s love,

Barbara Penney

The 2002 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p 180