PRINCETON: Seminary celebrates a global Christmas

By Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer
   Merry Christmas can be said in different languages and the holiday celebrated in different ways, something the people at Princeton Theological Seminary know well.
   On Monday, the seminary again will hold its Carols of Many Nations, a series of three free public services consisting of music and Scripture in English and foreign languages that reflect the range of nationalities of the seminarians, who come from throughout the world. The first service starts at 3:30 p.m., followed by the second at 6:30 p.m. and the last at 8:30 p.m. at Miller Chapel on seminary’s Princeton campus.
   There are 20 international students out of 518 at the Presbyterian seminary, founded 200 years ago. But here, Carols of Many Nations is seen reflecting the global nature of Christianity — and how Jesus Christ’s birth is celebrated in ways similar and yet different around the world.
   Martin Tel, the seminary’s music director since 1996, said Wednesday that his predecessor had started Carols of Many Nations although it was held every other year, alternating with the more traditional lessons and carols service that is used at many churches.
   ”But after a certain time, I noticed that people particularly were moved by the Carol of Many Nations service. And I think one of the reasons for that is it was just different,” he said Wednesday afternoon inside Miller Chapel.
   The seminary decided to drop the lessons and carols format, started at King’s College at the University of Cambridge.
   ”We offered something different than any other institution in this format of many nations approach,” said Mr. Tel, a Seattle native.
   The singing is by the seminary’s choir, whose members have to learn lyrics in Mandarin, German and other languages. He said he finds it’s almost easier to sing a foreign language than speak it.
   ”There’s something of the singing quality that blunts the edges,” said Mr. Tel, who said Chinese is the most difficult.
   He chooses all the music, careful to pick selections from parts of the world where Christmas is celebrated without snow on the ground in the midst of winter.
   ”I always try and find something to kind of wake people up and say, ‘Don’t make assumptions of what it is like to celebrate Christmas in another part of the globe,’” Mr. Tel said. “With the music, we just try and cover the continents and the different styles — actually try and get out of our comfort zone, not necessarily with terribly complex music but music that might not sound Western.”
   The services have grown in popularity — going from two a day to three to accommodate the hundreds of people who fill the chapel. Aside from the music, there will be seven Scripture readings, six of them read in a foreign tongue by either a student or seminary staff member.
   The Rev. Janice Smith Ammon, the minister of the chapel, said Wednesday that she recruits the readers.
   ”It’s amazing in this seminary community how many languages are spoken and how international” it is, she said.
   The participants also will include a deaf student reading a passage from the Gospel of St. Luke in American sign language.
   Sunder John Boopalan, of India, and Chananporn Jaisaodee, of Thailand, both doctoral students, have participated in past Carols of Many Nations. Mr. Boopalan, a Baptist, said the international flavor of the service is “a very simple recognition that Christianity is a global faith, and that we are represented all around the world, and it’s just a time in which we affirm that.”
   Hearing the different languages at the services, Ms. Jaisaodee said, “just adds to our belief that Jesus, God, is for everybody.”
   In both their cases, they come from countries where Christians are a minority: 2 percent in mostly Hindu India and 1 percent in Buddhist Thailand. As they sat inside Miller Chapel, both said there are similarities between how Christmas is celebrated in America and in their home countries.
   Ms. Jaisaodee, living in the United States for six years, said she observed Christmas here is beginning to lose its true meaning, more about Santa Claus and getting gifts. In Thailand, where Christmas is not a national holiday, Christians have candlelight services Christmas Eve followed by large feasts. Then Christmas morning, there is church followed by service activities to visit orphanages, nursing homes or refugee camps, she said.
   For more information visit ptsem.edu.