NORFOLK - Several churches in the Norfolk and Norwood area are joining together this year to perform a Christmas Cantata for the Norfolk and Norwood communities.

The performances of “Shout the Good News” will be at 3 p.m. Dec. 9 at the Norfolk United Methodist Church and again at 7 p.m. at St. Andrews Catholic Church in Norwood.

Director Chris Page said the Norfolk Methodist Church has done a Christmas Cantata for several years, and they decided to combine singers this year with St. Andrews Church.

“We also pulled in a few from outlying districts. We probably have four or five different churches represented. The Episcopal minister and her daughter are also performing,” Ms. Page said.

She said the Norfolk United Methodist Church had previously opened their Cantata to anyone who was interested, but this is the first year they’ve combined churches for the event.

The late Peggy Jenner had organized the Cantata for a number of years, she said, and this year’s performance will be dedicated in her memory.

“She did a keyboard Christmas carol sing-a-long at the end of the Cantata each year,” Ms. Page said.

Ms. Page, who serves at the organist at St. Andrews, said she got involved with the Cantata at the Norfolk United Methodist Church because St. Andrews didn’t have one at the time.

“I started singing with them first. Then they needed a keyboard player, so I switched over to keyboard. I retired a couple of years ago and thought it would be nice to start one at our church in Norwood. I left the Norfolk church’s Cantata to start my own,” Ms. Page said.

They didn’t have enough people at St. Andrews Church to perform the Cantata last year, she said, but this year it won’t be a problem now that the churches have united.

“We have about 26 members, a good showing, plus our pianist is actually from Massena,” she said.

They began rehearsals in October and generally get together for two hours on Sunday evenings.

“It’s going really well. It’s just a wonderful group to work with,” Ms. Page said.

A Christmas Cantata tells the story of Christ’s birth through singing and readings, and the event is well-attended in the community, she said.

We usually get a pretty decent turnout,” she said.

Thousands of readers like you have made Northern New York Newspapers the number one ranked website* for local news and sports coverage in the north country.

You can continue on to this article in a few seconds, or you can visit one of our websites:

• Watertown Daily Times
• The Ogdensburg Journal
• Daily Courier-Observer