Cedar Crest	UPDATED: Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Print This Page Email This Story Add to Favorites

A joyous holiday season

Posted on Wednesday, November 26, 2008

By Joel Keller
THE ERICKSON TRIBUNE

Few communities exhibit the holiday season’s spirit of openness and sharing like Cedar Crest, the local Erickson retirement community, where numerous faiths work together to share the on-campus chapel and celebrate their beliefs.

This year, three of the community’s faith groups have major plans for the season, and they are opening their services and their hearts to anyone who lives at Cedar Crest, regardless of religious persuasion.

“My overall impression is that there has been a great deal of respect that (the religious committees) have for each other,” says Bert Moore, Cedar Crest’s director of pastoral ministries. “They make accommodations so that each group has the opportunity to utilize the chapel, have their services, and follow their faith’s traditions as closely as possible.”

An operatic Christmas
“It’s a nice chapel. It’s got a lot of charm,” says Monsignor Vincent Puma, a Cedar Crest resident and the spiritual director of its Catholic community.

This Christmas Eve, Puma is bringing in some special entertainment for Catholic residents and their family and friends. A trio of singers from New York’s Metropolitan Opera, accompanied by pianist and musical director Albert Stanziano, will perform in the chapel. The program will consist of traditional Christmas music, mostly in Italian. The trio will stay on to sing during the Christmas Eve Mass.

Advent services and “Lessons and Carols”
Cedar Crest’s Protestant community will be celebrating Christmas in a more low-key fashion. For example, November 30 brought the addition of Advent observances to the usual Sunday service. During the four weeks of Advent, readings and teachings are given with an eye to directing parishioners’ thoughts to the Nativity and the birth of Jesus Christ.

Cedar Crest

More Cedar Crest

Tools

Print This Page

Email This Story

Add to Favorites

On December 14, there will be a special “Lessons and Carols” ceremony. “That’s a service a lot of Protestant and some Catholic churches use,” says Don Wisse, the Protestant minister at Cedar Crest. “We read various passages and scripture from the New Testament, and interspersed in there are some favorite Christmas carols.” According to Wisse, the Protestant worship services are “totally non-denominational. We have Episcopalians, Methodists, Presbyterians,” and other Protestant faiths coming to the chapel on Sundays.

Hannukah fun at Cedar Crest
As most people know, Hanukkah doesn’t carry the religious resonance that Christmas does; it’s more of a secular holiday that celebrates a war victory and the miracle of light that followed it. Cedar Crest’s Jewish Council knows this, which is why they plan a festive celebration every year, complete with entertainment, fun, and a nosh afterwards.

This year, the celebration will be held at the community’s performing arts center on December 22, the first day of the holiday. Plans include entertainment from a one-man band, lighting of the menorah, and a fun musical ceremony where each resident dresses up as a candle and reads a passage or sings a song about the holiday.

Because the reception is so much fun, it attracts a full house of about 350 people every year. “Oh, it’s a party!” says Sharon Huber, a Cedar Crest social worker assisting in the planning of this year’s celebration. “It’s a party to celebrate the differences that unite us. We’re all living here together, and Cedar Crest truly makes it so that it’s all united.”