Craig Macartney
Spur Ottawa Writer

St. Peter & St. Paul’s Anglican Church is inviting the city to come and get into the Christmas spirit with a good-old fashioned community Christmas singalong. The event offers a chance to gather and reconnect, sing Christmas carols, and enjoy some Christmas treats.

“Coming out of COVID, a lot of people want to get connected with each other and build relationships,” says Ben Vanderheide, the church’s associate pastor. “We thought this would be a great way to do that. Our MCs will be joking around to hype up everyone between songs and there’s going to be a special guest, not Santa, but we’re keeping it mysterious.”

The event starts at 6 p.m., on December 4, at St. Peter & St. Paul’s. They hope this turns into an annual community tradition.

“There will be costumes that children can wear, lots of singing—a mix of secular and Christian Christmas songs,” says Brent Stiller, the church’s senior pastor. “And there will be lots of treats to enjoy afterwards: hot chocolate and cookies. The idea behind this is to connect with the culture.”

Nancy, a congregant who asked to only share her first name, says it can be very intimidating for people who do not come from a Christian background to walk into a church building. They may not know what to expect, how they should act, or what to wear.

“The idea is to invite your friends and neighbours. Come get to know a bunch of people.”

“The singalong provides a very low-barrier way to come into the building. It’s fun, it’s friendly, it’s familiar. Carols feature in all kinds of Christmas movies,” she explains. “People are already comfortable with the genre. The music is beautiful and so much of the wonder of God coming to earth is contained in carols. Hopefully this event will allow people to think more deeply.”

Nancy hopes the singalong will help people feel more comfortable engaging with church, and be more open to come see what church is about.

“The idea is to invite your friends and neighbours. Come get to know a bunch of people,” Vanderheide adds. “We are doing a big plug here in our parish, inviting as many people as we can who don’t normally go to church.”

Vanderheide says they geared the event to be non-threatening for community members.

“We’re not going to have one of us pastors stand up and give a 45-minute sermon. We’re going to pull from the culture with a four-minute clip from a movie. Then there will be an opportunity for people to respond by lighting a tea light and leaving it at the manger of Jesus. It’s kind of like a parable, if you will, a gentler, embodied response.”