Post by PAmedic on Dec 5, 2005 6:46:48 GMT -5
always like going to see this back in the day. Good to see they are continuing to produce it.
(As usual, this Laurant dude has a weird spin on it.)
Thomas Road hosts its last Living Tree
(As usual, this Laurant dude has a weird spin on it.)
Thomas Road hosts its last Living Tree
Lynchburg News & Advance
December 5, 2005
In a sermon on Nov. 26, the Rev. Jerry Falwell told his congregation: “I have good news for you on this special day. Over the past several years, we have watched the enemies of Christ launch and implement their attack on Christmas. Earlier this year, Liberty Counsel and their President, Mat Staver, responded to this attack by launching the ‘Friend or Foe’ campaign to save Christmas from the Grinches who want to steal it. Jerry Falwell Ministries and Liberty University, among others, joined forces with Mat. We attempted to mobilize 100,000 pastors, millions of Christian laypeople and over 700 LC Constitutional attorneys …
“Since the law is on our side, we simply had to educate the people and discredit the misinformation disseminated by the ACLU, AU and others. The results have been most encouraging and … we are able to announce today that we have had a most victorious campaign.”
Gee, that’s a relief; I didn’t realize that Christmas was in any danger. Falwell’s announcement reminded me of when the Department of Homeland Security tells us: “There was a really scary plot against the U.S. - we can’t tell you where or when - but we thwarted it. So just go back to whatever you were doing.”
The last time I checked, Americans have always been free to celebrate Christmas in our own fashion. The bottom line is this: those who believe Christmas to be a spiritual holiday celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ will observe it with that in mind; those who don’t believe that, won’t.
Yet I’d still put the Rev. Falwell in my Christmas Hall of Fame, and not because of any dubious anti-Grinch crusade. To me, his contribution to the holiday, at least in these parts, is The Living Christmas Tree.
Other churches around the country do living Christmas trees, it’s true, but none with the panache, colored lights and over-the-top enthusiasm of Thomas Road. It’s like “The Waltons” meets Radio City Music Hall - a sweetly sentimental story at the core, lots of music and hi-tech theatrics around the fringes.
Falwell brought the basic idea back from a trip to California, and it started out as simply a Living Christmas Tree - real evergreen boughs woven into a metal superstructure, a pyramid of choir members singing Christmas carols. Nice, but not exactly spectacular.
The pizzazz came after David Randlett was hired as minister of music in 1973. After a few years of refining the carolers’ tree, he introduced a musical drama to move the performance along. The tree and its singers remained, but as more of a backdrop than center stage.
The 2005 Living Christmas Tree started this weekend and will run through Dec. 11. This will be the last time it’s staged at the original Thomas Road Baptist Church (the one actually on Thomas Road) - next year, the production shifts to the new church in what used to be an industrial park next to Liberty University. Certainly, it will seem odd when that broad-shouldered, white-columned edifice at the crest of Thomas Road is no longer swarming with well-dressed visitors, especially at Christmas time.
For various reasons too complicated to get into here, the Falwell ministries have often been at odds with other churches and local government, especially in the early years. That may be one reason he established the tradition of inviting Central Virginia civic leaders to a special Sunday matinee of The Living Christmas Tree, perhaps as a way of saying: “See, we’re not so different. We love Christmas, too.”
Even Grinches like a good show.
December 5, 2005
In a sermon on Nov. 26, the Rev. Jerry Falwell told his congregation: “I have good news for you on this special day. Over the past several years, we have watched the enemies of Christ launch and implement their attack on Christmas. Earlier this year, Liberty Counsel and their President, Mat Staver, responded to this attack by launching the ‘Friend or Foe’ campaign to save Christmas from the Grinches who want to steal it. Jerry Falwell Ministries and Liberty University, among others, joined forces with Mat. We attempted to mobilize 100,000 pastors, millions of Christian laypeople and over 700 LC Constitutional attorneys …
“Since the law is on our side, we simply had to educate the people and discredit the misinformation disseminated by the ACLU, AU and others. The results have been most encouraging and … we are able to announce today that we have had a most victorious campaign.”
Gee, that’s a relief; I didn’t realize that Christmas was in any danger. Falwell’s announcement reminded me of when the Department of Homeland Security tells us: “There was a really scary plot against the U.S. - we can’t tell you where or when - but we thwarted it. So just go back to whatever you were doing.”
The last time I checked, Americans have always been free to celebrate Christmas in our own fashion. The bottom line is this: those who believe Christmas to be a spiritual holiday celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ will observe it with that in mind; those who don’t believe that, won’t.
Yet I’d still put the Rev. Falwell in my Christmas Hall of Fame, and not because of any dubious anti-Grinch crusade. To me, his contribution to the holiday, at least in these parts, is The Living Christmas Tree.
Other churches around the country do living Christmas trees, it’s true, but none with the panache, colored lights and over-the-top enthusiasm of Thomas Road. It’s like “The Waltons” meets Radio City Music Hall - a sweetly sentimental story at the core, lots of music and hi-tech theatrics around the fringes.
Falwell brought the basic idea back from a trip to California, and it started out as simply a Living Christmas Tree - real evergreen boughs woven into a metal superstructure, a pyramid of choir members singing Christmas carols. Nice, but not exactly spectacular.
The pizzazz came after David Randlett was hired as minister of music in 1973. After a few years of refining the carolers’ tree, he introduced a musical drama to move the performance along. The tree and its singers remained, but as more of a backdrop than center stage.
The 2005 Living Christmas Tree started this weekend and will run through Dec. 11. This will be the last time it’s staged at the original Thomas Road Baptist Church (the one actually on Thomas Road) - next year, the production shifts to the new church in what used to be an industrial park next to Liberty University. Certainly, it will seem odd when that broad-shouldered, white-columned edifice at the crest of Thomas Road is no longer swarming with well-dressed visitors, especially at Christmas time.
For various reasons too complicated to get into here, the Falwell ministries have often been at odds with other churches and local government, especially in the early years. That may be one reason he established the tradition of inviting Central Virginia civic leaders to a special Sunday matinee of The Living Christmas Tree, perhaps as a way of saying: “See, we’re not so different. We love Christmas, too.”
Even Grinches like a good show.
