Our Saviour’s Lutheran in Naperville to host Christmas cantata Dec. 8

Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church in Naperville will celebrate the season with a Christmas cantata on Sunday, Dec. 8.

All are invited to enjoy this annual tradition at 3 p.m. in the church’s sanctuary at 815 S. Washington St. It’s free and open to the public.

Under the direction of church music director Rick Sowers, the Cantata Choir will present a retelling of the Christmas story written by church member Ken Abeling. Sowers is a professor emeritus of music at Anderson University in Anderson, Indiana.

“The Miracle in Bethlehem” features a full choir and nearly two dozen instrumentalists.

“I am so excited about this year’s cantata because it has a whole other character from what we usually do,” says longtime choir member Laura Weren. “It’s a beautiful, beautiful piece of music with a fullness of sound that’s on another level. I can sing ‘Silent Night’ a hundred times, but it doesn’t have the sense of learning something new and putting it all together that this does.”

Weren notes that she and her husband, Jim, discovered Our Saviour’s thanks to its music program. “My husband sings in a barbershop quartet, and years ago somebody said to him, ‘If you really like singing, you should check out Our Saviour’s, because they have a phenomenal music program,” she says. “We’ve been there ever since.”

Our Saviour’s of Naperville, a member of the Chicago-based Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and an inclusive, affirming Reconciling in Christ church, has two campuses in central Naperville. The Washington Street campus, which is hosting the Christmas cantata, is located next to Edward Hospital. For more information on the cantata and on Christmas services at Our Saviour’s, visit oursaviours.com/Christmas or call the church office at (630) 355-2522.