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Campus Christmas Celebration Begins with Candlelight Vespers Service

Posted: Monday, November 26, 2012

To observe the beginning of Advent, the Christian season leading up to Christmas Day, all are welcome to attend the University of Evansville’s annual Candlelight Vespers service at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, November 29 in Neu Chapel.

Approximately 20 minutes before the service begins, the Neu Chapel Jazz Quartet will perform jazz arrangements of familiar Christmas music. The group includes UE students Matt Banks (clarinet), Tim Gaisser (percussion), Joe Luegers (piano/guitar), and Caleb Thompson (saxophone), along with Doug Reed, University organist and professor emeritus of music, on piano. Mai Ishihara, a UE international student from Nagasaki, Japan, will also play the organ as part of the pre-service music.

This year’s Vespers service will feature Kantorei, UE’s smallest and most select choir, singing Benjamin Britten’s A Ceremony of Carols. Harpist Mary Dicken will accompany the group. The service also includes Advent and Christmas congregational hymn singing by candlelight and scripture readings by UE students, faculty, and administrators.

“The readings and prayers will serve as a theological narrative that will take us from the prophetic announcement of a coming Messiah to the season of Advent and the proclamation of the return of Christ,” said UE Chaplain Tammy Gieselman. “In short, we will recall and proclaim good news for all.”

Candlelight Vespers is a UE tradition that dates back to 1948. For more information, please contact the Department of Religious Life at 812-488-2235.

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