St. Henry parishioners gather to rejoice

Intermountain Catholic

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Folks from 11 churches of various denominations in the Brigham City area gather to sing Christmas carols and stay warm around a bonfire drinking hot chocolate, cider and coffee.
IC photo/Christine Young

BRIGHAM CITY — Parishioners from Saint Henry and 10 other churches of various denominations in the Brigham City area gathered under the stars around a bonfire in Watkins Park to sing Christmas carols on Dec. 12. It was Gaudete Sunday, the third Sunday of Advent, and despite the cold the group was rejoicing the Lord is near.

"We are members of the Ministerial Association," said Father Patrick Reuse, pastor of Saint Henry Parish. "This association includes Catholics, Lutherans, Methodists, Presbyterians, the Assembly of God Church, the Bible Church, the Main Street Church, a non-denominational church, the Baptist Church, and North Hills Christian Church. The ministers meet once a month to share common interests. We have had a summer service and decided to get together in the winter."

"We have the opportunity to meet once a month to share joys, pray for one another, support each other in ministry and also collaborate on various opportunities to get together to bring the body of Christ to worship together," said Rev. David G. Hiester, pastor of United Methodist Church. "We have a Thanksgiving service, a sunrise service during Easter, we started Church in the Park last summer, which was a huge success with about 600 people in attendance, and we thought carols in the park in December would be a great idea."

Hiester said when he moved to town about nine years ago, he met with the Episcopal vicar at the time, and they decided the church ministers needed to meet to learn to support each other.

"No one has a facility large enough to hold all of the church people in town, so I said, ‘We did Church in the Park in June, let’s do Carols in the Park in December," said Rev. Jim Catlin, pastor of Main Street Church, who has been pastor since 2004. "People thought it would be too cold, but I said with a bonfire we would be just fine. This is the first time we’ve tried it and it turned out really neat."

Catlin read a Gospel from Luke (2:1-14), "Fear not, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord."

"Like that night that the angel brought good news, the night was clear and cold like it is tonight," said Catlin. "So this is why we sing in the dark, to remember the shepherds who were the first to hear the good news that a savior had been born."

Following the reading, the more than 100 people gathered sang "Hark, the Herald Angels Sing" and several more carols. The evening concluded with a prayer by Rev. Mike Galica, pastor of Holy Cross Lutheran, who "thanked God for the mingling of the people."

"There is just something powerful about getting together as a non-denominational group and being outside in the dark where we can see the stars and appreciate the birth of Christ, which happened under the stars," said Tracy Hiester, wife of Rev. Hiester.