By Pennie DeClark
Special to The PREVIEW
Pagosa Springs will have two opportunities to see Our Savior Lutheran Preschool and Classical School children this December in Christmas programs.
First, today, Dec. 13, at 6:30 p.m. in the gym, the preschool will be presenting “What Child Is This?” Each stanza in the well-loved hymn “What Child Is This?” addresses important people in the nativity account: Mary, angels, shepherds, wise men and even us. But, the main focus is on the child sleeping on Mary’s lap. In this Christmas program, the preschool children point to the Bible for the answer, “This is Christ the king, whom shepherds guard and angels sing.”
Second, on Thursday, Dec. 20, at 6:30 p.m., the elementary children of Our Savior Lutheran Classical School will be presenting a Christmas program based on a children’s program written by the Rev. Friedrich Lochner for his congregation, Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church of Milwaukee, Wis., in 1869. For several decades, it was the only children’s program used by the congregation. It is a celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ, the Son of God who was born to save the world from sin and death.
In keeping with the classical and traditional content of Lochner’s program, the children of Our Savior Lutheran Classical School will perform “Adeste Fideles” in Latin, which is the language taught in the school’s classical curriculum.
“Silent Night” will also be sung in German using the original composition written by Franz Gruber and accompanied on guitar by Joseph Mohr at St. Nicolas Church in Oberdorf, Austria, on Dec. 24, 1818. The children will perform the original composition and be accompanied by guitar, also using the original guitar arrangement.
The upper-grade students will also perform “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring” by Johann Sebastian Bach. This selection is well-known as one of the composer’s greatest and most beautiful hymns.
Please mark your calendars and plan on attending the historic Christmas program presented by Our Savior Lutheran Classical School on either Thursday, Dec. 13, or Thursday, Dec. 20, at 6:30 p.m. in the gym.
