On Friday, 2 December, a 120-member choir from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints joined the Auckland Symphony Orchestra to launch the Christmas season in New Zealand. Around the world, people in many nations are also celebrating Christmas and the birth of Jesus Christ, who many accept as the Saviour of the World.
The themes of the annual Christmas concert focused on familiar music of the holiday season, including special focus on family, community, and faith.
Local Latter-day Saint Church leader, President Anthony Wilson, said, "It was wonderful to be able to begin the Christmas season at the Town Hall last night, listening to the Auckland Symphony Orchestra and the Church choir. It is a great community celebration of not only Christmas but remembrance of the birth of Christ. It really brought the spirit and meaning of Christmas home to our family and thoughts of those less fortunate than ourselves, especially Kaikoura and other parts of New Zealand who are suffering at the moment. It is a special event that my family and I look forward to each year."
Symphony conductor Peter Thomas masterfully led the orchestra and choir with enthusiasm and finesse. The audience joined-in as invited to do so with eager participation, leaving the capacity crowd filled with happiness and sweet reflection. Individuals, families, and friends enthusiastically filled the Auckland Town Hall auditorium quickly after the doors opened.
Of the evening’s experience, concert-goer Scott Loveless said, “The symphony and choir renditions alternated feelings of nostalgia, awe, and profound gratitude. We left moved, feeling ‘Hallelujah.’ It was a wonderful opening to the Christmas season and to its true significance in our lives, the birth of the true Saviour of this world, Jesus Christ."
The crowd was thrilled with beautiful renditions of Christmas standards and occasional lesser-known but beautifully rendered musical numbers. In the end, everyone left the hall warmly satisfied for having started their holiday season in such an uplifting and rewarding way.
Scott and Susan Seamons reflected on their experience at the performance and said, “We had a delightful evening tonight at the concert here in Auckland. As we reflect on the quality and feeling that was given to us during the concert, there was nothing that could have been more spiritual and more professional, and more appropriate for introducing this Christmas season.”
Around the South Pacific and the world, other nations joined in the celebrations of Christmas by inaugurating the Light the World campaign which encourages people of all faiths to reach out in service to their fellow man through daily acts of kindness and service, after the pattern of the life of Jesus Christ.
In New York City in America, the Light the World Christmas initiative was launched in Times Square with huge images celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ and encouraging viewers to visit the website Mormon.org. At this specially prepared website, each day in December daily ideas will be given to suggest ways in which individuals throughout the world can reach out to serve and lift those around them.
Here in the South Pacific, nations such as Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, Vanuatu and others are following suit with celebrations of the Light the World campaign.
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