December 2, 2025, was our Lessons and Carols service at Tennessee Wesleyan. This is always an absolute treat to put together—the community rallies behind it, the faculty show great support for it, and the students seem to enjoy tackling some tough pieces and discovering their relations to the texts that they respond to.

There are parts of the service that stay the same each year by design, which helps a sense of ritual for regular attendees. I went with King James language throughout the readings, had professors and administrators (including the university president) read, got to enjoy some great percussion from one of our music minors on djembe, had the congregation sing several hymns (all provided in the program). Several students had never performed for such a large audience or sung this sort of music—and in general, they learned the whole hour-and-a-half concert in a month and change. We had to cut the Willan carol for an emergency absence in the second soprano section.

All in all, it was a successful, human, loving, and fun event, including the famous Josquin motet “Ave Maria … virgo serena” (we went with the Italian Latin pronunciation and a bit of piano help), a bit of Whitacre (“The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light” gets a nice response by “Lux aurumque”), a piece by ElizaBeth Beckham (a dear friend from my undergrad years in the Mississippi Delta), some nice solo opportunities for several singers, and, I am told, several long-lasting smiles from the audience.