There was an unseemingly amount of chatter and laughter coming from the Parish Hall at the back of United Christian Church (the old meeting house in the Center) Sunday morning as Pastor Elizabeth Barnum conducted the service. In fact, half the congregation, who had left their pews to get ready for the annual Christmas pageant, were having too much fun back there.

If you grew up going to church, or perhaps, if you’re old enough for the pageant to have happened in your school, you remember it. What’s a pageant anyway?

Since I am old enough to have perennially been chosen to be a shepherd (never an angel, and certainly not Mary) in Joseph Sears School’s Christmas program, I do remember what a pageant is. Miss Davenport, the music teacher who probably ruled the staff at that school, taught us to assume our pose, so when the curtain came up in the auditorium, we were supposedly completely motionless so the audience (our parents and all the older children) could absorb the message of the scene.

The requisite Mary, demurely gazing at the bundle in the straw, her stalwart husband Joseph – appropriately bewildered at the proceedings – stands/kneels? next to her. A flock of assorted animals, shepherds and angels mill around the periphery of the scene, providing atmosphere. Oh, and somehow the three kings, draped in somebody’s cast off bedspread or fancy curtains, stand regally at the side.

Now generally, in my experience, the actors are all children: a miniature Mary and Joseph, sometimes a real baby but most likely a doll, giggly animals and shepherds who actually have no idea what a shepherd is, and the cutest little girl in the bunch, the angel. The kings, usually boys, wearing pasted on beards, awkwardly present the gifts.

And the congregation sings their hearts out: Little Town of Bethlehem, Away in a Manger, The First Noel, Hark the Herald Angels Sing, Come All Ye Faithful, winding up with Joy to the World!

This year we did a brown bag pageant. Here’s how it worked.

Anyone arriving at church could pick a colored card if they wanted. Halfway through the service those with a card went back to the Parish Hall where they found the brown paper bag with their color on it. Inside was a simple costume suggestive of their role: ears and a nose and a wooly scarf for a sheep, wings and a sparkly head piece for an angel, etc.

One by one they filed into the sanctuary, not only hidden in fake animal muzzles and head dresses and robes, but also behind the requisite masks. It took a while to figure out exactly who that camel was and who were Joseph and Mary, dressed in the most elaborate of the costumes? Mary, an actual young mother, and Joseph, an elderly man (who’d attended this old church as a boy), said he’d never been chosen to be Joseph before, were followed by unlikely sheep, a donkey, a camel, a cow and of coutse, assorted shepherds. Two ten-year-olds read the story while the rest of us sang the carols.

As one woman wrote me later: “Wasn't that lovely? I was so lucky, up in the balcony with three old angels and the littlest angel. I could not see anything but the procession of characters to the stage, but I could see the faces of all of you (the few, the adoring). Caleb and Maggie and Andy were perfect Wise Ones. Jack was an excellent narrator. Tait dragging the stuffed lamb up the aisle had me giggling (it is my lamb). All of it was corny and sincere; in other words, a Christmas Pageant.”

What would Miss Davenport think of our Christmas pageant here in 2021 Lincolnville?

Watching the whole performance was our own Owl, the 360-degree camera, mic, and speaker that sits at the front of the church, sending the service out to everyone zooming from home. The family with little ones not yet church-worthy, the Covid-careful who aren’t comfortable mingling indoors with others, the snowbirds already ensconced in Florida, the ones who preferred to skip the snowy roads – they can all click on Sunday morning, still in their pjs, coffee mug in hand and join their church family.

Yes, our congregation, our town, all of us have had a whole new learning curve to master these Covid years: Zooming. Remote meetings, Facetime. We need reminding to mute during Zoom church. We have to figure out where the camera on our device is pointing (ipad, computer screen, phone) and dress accordingly. If it’s a business meeting we should probably lock up the dog, and maybe the toddlers too, so as not to appear unprofessional.

It’s been a wild ride, or perhaps more accurately, a wearisome slog, these past nearly two years. Just as many of us were expecting a more normal Christmas this year we’ve been hit with the next wave of virus.

And it’s affected the tradition that so many in town have looked forward to: the Candlelight Christmas Eve service. Our two churches – Bayshore Baptist and UCC – have made Christmas special for so many of us. 

This year the UCC has decided a large indoor gathering would be high risk, so instead of an in-person service it will be streamed live from the sanctuary at 4 p.m. Friday. To join in, email to receive the bulletin for the service and the Zoom link. Though the church will be lit up, while Pastor Elizabeth is conducting the service in the sanctuary, the pews will be empty.

Bayshore will continue the tradition of their Candlelight Christmas Eve service at 6 p.m. Bayshore is located on Atlantic Highway just north of the Beach. All are welcome!

So, however, you celebrate mid-winter – and it’s worth celebrating the return of longer days on tomorrow, Dec. 21, 10:58 a.m., the Winter Solstice – I wish you all peace and love, hope and joy!