\u201cO Little Town of Bethlehem\u201d has shaped how millions of English speakers imagine the Palestinian town where Jesus was born: a small place, still and peaceful, resting under the stars.\u00a0 The wars and struggles of recent decades invite us to question whether that image is true. And yet, \u201cBethlehem is still a very little town,\u201d says Stephanie Salda\u00f1a, a writer and mother raising her family in this religiously and culturally diverse place. \u201cIt is a small place where everybody knows each other.\u201d<\/p>\n
Still more striking is how closely the need that gave rise to the carol echoes the present moment. In 1865, after the Civil War devastated America, Philadelphia rector Phillips Brooks was broken by grief\u2014Lincoln\u2019s assassination and the loss of his younger brother to cholera while serving in the Union Army. Seeking solace, Brooks traveled to Bethlehem. What he found there\u2014peace, stillness, God present in a small community\u2014he later put into words and set to music as a carol for children who had lost fathers to war.<\/p>\n
Now, more than 150 years later, that same carol reaches those in the Holy Land today, reeling from pandemic and war\u2014and far beyond\u2014to offer us what it has always offered: stillness, God\u2019s presence, enduring hope.<\/p>\n
In this fifth season finale, host Maggi Van Dorn speaks with:<\/p>\n
Stephanie Salda\u00f1a\u2060<\/a>, a writer, wife, and mother in Bethlehem, reflects on life in the place where Jesus was born\u2014and on discovering the carol\u2019s deepest truths amid war, COVID-19, and economic collapse.<\/p>\n Rachel Wenner Gardner, rector of the\u2060 Church of the Holy Trinity\u2060<\/a> in Philadelphia where Phillips Brooks served, on his pilgrimage to the Holy Land and why he wrote this carol for children in the aftermath of Civil War.<\/p>\n John French, former organist at Holy Trinity for 28 years, on the brilliance of Lewis Redner\u2019s original tune and Ralph Vaughan Williams\u2019s folk arrangement.<\/p>\n \u2060Karen Swallow Prior\u2060<\/a>, poet and retired English professor, on the theological depth hidden in Brooks\u2019s poem.<\/p>\n The music featured in this episode was generously gifted to \u201cHark!\u201d Our thanks to Frank Tuson<\/a>, Richard Gilewitz<\/a>, Salt of the Sound<\/a>, Smalltown Poets<\/a>, St. Paul\u2019s Boys Choir School<\/a>, Cambridge, Mass., The Choir of King\u2019s College,<\/a>Cambridge, U.K., The Roches<\/a>, and Tony Alonso<\/a>, courtesy of GIA Publications, Inc.<\/a> Our theme music was produced by Frank Tuson.<\/p>\n Want short, inspiring Bible reflections every day during Advent and Christmas? This year, our Scripture Reflections are free for Hark! listeners\u2014sign up at AmericaMagazine.org\/hark<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Love a good holiday brain-teaser? Our weekly Christmas carol trivia is exclusively for America subscribers. \u2060Take the second quiz here!\u2060<\/a> Or visit, AmericaMagazine.org\/hark<\/a>.<\/p>\n \n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cO Little Town of Bethlehem\u201d has shaped how millions of English speakers imagine the Palestinian town where Jesus…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":66560,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154,734,5527,35356],"class_list":{"0":"post-66559","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bethlehem","8":"tag-bethlehem","9":"tag-bethlehem-headlines","10":"tag-bethlehem-news","11":"tag-children","12":"tag-christmas","13":"tag-war-and-peace"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66559","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66559"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66559\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}