Two months out
Shining the light on Epiphany H
eidi Neumark, pastor of Trinity of Manhattan [N.Y.] Lutheran, led her previous congregation
in celebrating Epiphany with a Three Kings (Tres Reyes) Party, including a pinata and a drama. The pinata tradition at Transfigu-
ration Lutheran Church in the Bronx was nixed after “excited children swinging a stick to get at candy” nearly resulted in injury to an elderly woman, Neumark said (hneumark@
gmail.com). But she promised the pinata fans a new tradition that would be equally as fun. The activity has been such a hit she continues to do it at Trinity.
Neumark offers these instructions: • Put chairs in a circle (fac- ing inward) equal to the number of participants. On each chair, tape a pic- ture of a character from the Christmas/Epiphany story (angel, Mary, Joseph, cow, sheep, donkey, star, Herod, three kings, etc.). Make dupli- cates of characters so there are enough for every chair. • After each partici- pant takes a chair, play Christmas/Epiphany music. Like musical chairs, people move in a circle around the chairs (but no one is ever out) and sit on the seat they’re next to when the music stops. • Participants take on the role of the character taped to their chair. One person stands
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in the middle and tells the story. When it comes to the part of the character on their chair, participants stand and say or do the thing that goes with the char- acter. If the group is large, that means multiple children/adults get up. The activity can go something like this (actions and lines are in italic):
• An angel came to Mary and said, “Good news!” • Mary and Joseph went to Bethlehem, riding on a “Hee Haw.” • They went to an inn to spend the night (Joseph knocks), but the innkeeper said, “No room!” • So they went to a stable with the sheep (baa) and cows (moo). • In the night, baby Jesus was born (whaaaaa!) and Mary rocked him (make baby rocking motion). • Herod was jealous and wanted to (make slit throat motion) baby Jesus. • But Herod was tricked by the kings who followed the star (stars get up and twinkle) to find baby Jesus and worship him (kings get up and bow). It helps to practice it once with everyone doing all the parts together before starting the music, Neumark said, adding that the group usually clamors to do it again and again. Everyone who joins in gets a bag of candy.
Bright idea At Christ Lutheran Church, Milton, Pa., an Epiphany idea was as clear as a light bulb above the pastor’s head. Last year the congregation collected various items throughout the Advent and Christmas seasons to help others. After the holi- days people were encouraged to drop off environmentally friendly light bulbs at the church.
The bulbs were eventually taken to a food bank, which was delighted to get a helpful household product, said Pat Pittsnogle, pastor (pastor@
christlutheranmpa.org). “It just went so well with the liturgical sea- son of light,” she said. “If you’re going to collect light bulbs, that’s the season to do it.”
Pittsnogle said the proj-
ect lit up the after-holiday slump when people had been “giving and giving and giving.” Having something so specific and easy to offer was just what they needed, she said.
Send congregational stories—both those for a specific month/holiday or your best timeless idea—to
julie.sevig@
thelutheran.org.
DESIGNPICS
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