Members from Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church greeted guests with a recital of hymns Saturday, some of which date back to the eighth century. While they were originally written in Greek, Father Haralambos “Rob” Spaliatsos said, the parishioners were delivering them in English.
“They were written by a hymnographer, who were essentially writing theology through the hymns,” he said. “It’s the same with the iconographers who made the pieces on the walls. We don’t call them painters, they are making theology through their work.”
Annunciation was one of six churches that took part in the third annual Yuletide Church Stroll on Saturday. The event, held every year on the day after Christmas, encouraged Missoula residents to experience the musical traditions and learn about the way Christmas is celebrated at different churches around the University District neighborhood.
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At the front of the Annunciation church hung a censer slowly burning small pieces of frankincense, a tree sap resin that is almost odorless until it is burned, Spaliatsos said. The frankincense, which is originally from Ethiopia, was given to Annunciation as a gift.
“Incense represents our prayers rising to heaven,” Spaliatsos said. “Smelling it is shown to produce a state of calm.”
While the frankincense is used for the church’s Nativity service, he said Annunciation uses a variety of different types of incense during the year.
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While locals were invited to visit the different locations in any order, University Congregational Church started the Yuletide Church Stroll with a special performance of the harp, played by one of its organists, Alice Williams. Wreaths hung throughout the building and Christmas trees flanked the left and right ends of the organ as Williams started into a rendition of “Silent Night.”
“It’s such a nice way to invite people in and share a bit about ourselves,” she said.
This year, the Yuletide Church Stroll also included a “passport,” with those who took part receiving a special stamp or sticker at each of the churches. Anyone who made it to all six received a Christmas ornament.
At Christ the King Catholic Church, parishioner Mary Gilmore talked to visitors about a hanging Nativity set she designed three years ago.
“I felt we needed some symbols, icons in the church, that were for children,” she said.
Gilmore began by drawing figures from the Nativity, and after getting the designs approved had them enlarged to be 11-and-a-half feet tall. She and a group of church members then turned each of the drawings into a hanging, quilted banner, with the fine details painted onto the fabric.
“We needed tall and simple with no faces. Let people decide what each of them looked like,” she said.
Every year on Christmas Eve, a child is chosen to go up to the center of the scene and attach the representation of the baby Jesus between Joseph and Mary, Gilmore said. The scene likely will stay up through the middle of January before being packed away for another year.
“I really tell people to let your children come up and touch them. That’s what it’s there for,” Gilmore said.
Holy Spirit Episcopal Church, St. Paul Lutheran Church and First Presbyterian Church also held musical presentations during the Yuletide Church Stroll.