We went to Manistee tonight to hear "A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols" sung by a local group called the 16th Century Singers. It was an outstanding Christmas experience, very nearly perfect with only one major flaw.

The Lutheran church where it was presented was traditional, narrow and high. The banners and drapes on the lecterns and railings were shades of blue with gold trim- stunning against the white walls and dark wood. There was a tall, tapering Christmas tree to one side decorated thickly with white lights and white and gold ornaments in the shapes of many symbols of Christianity. The lamb and the chalice, crosses, stars, chi rho, and snowflakes.

The scripture readers were all very good and could actually make you listen to passages that we've all heard since we were two years old. The organ prelude selections were Bach, Brahms, and a piece by Alexis Chauvet that I did not know before, but I'd love to get the music for. The singers were on key and I love the complexity of the rhymes in the old English songs, and the odd musical rhythms that mark some of the old carols. The congregation got to sing along on six of the songs.

The sixteenth century costumes were fascinating, with many different styles worn by the 12 different singers.

A totally worshipful Christmas experience!

The one flaw... after the singers processed so we could see them, they all went to the balcony and sang from there so we couldn't watch them. I suppose that, too, is traditional, but c'mon.... can't we engage more than one of our senses at a time? I really wanted to be able to watch them. I know it was live music, but I feel as if I might as well have stayed home and listened to a CD.

And here's a real joke... just the perfect irony of the church. This program was first presented at Kings College, Cambridge in 1918. It was planned by Eric Milner-White, who felt that the church needed more imaginative worship. With no apparent grasp of the joke, the next sentence of the historical description in the bulletin says that from that date on the service has always begun with the same song.!