December 10, 2010
By Lucy Chumbley

Bethlehem will come to Washington, D.C., this Christmas, by way of a joint simulcast service in English and Arabic that will connect worshippers on two continents.

Christians in the D.C. area will assemble at Washington National Cathedral on Dec. 18 for the fourth annual service with Palestinian Christians gathered at the Christmas Lutheran Church in the town where Jesus was born.

Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori will lead the service in the United States, with Bishop John Bryson Chane of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, Washington National Cathedral Dean Samuel T. Lloyd and Bishop Richard H. Graham of the Metropolitan D.C. Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

In Bethlehem, the service will be led by Anglican Bishop in Jerusalem Suheil Dawani, Bishop Munib Younan of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land, and the Rev. Mitri Raheb of Bethlehem's Christmas Lutheran Church.

Because of the time difference, worshippers will gather at 10 a.m. in Washington, and at 5 p.m. in Bethlehem. Viewers elsewhere will be able to watch a live or on-demand webcast online on Washington National Cathedral's website, http://www.nationalcathedral.org/.

The annual service began in 2006 as something of a technical experiment. Washington participants gathered eagerly in the cathedral's Bethlehem Chapel to wait for a live video stream from Bethlehem to appear on a screen next to the altar. The service started late, the picture and sound crackled in and out, and there were a few stretches where the connection was lost altogether, but as the sound of familiar carols sung in Arabic crackled over the miles, and the golden light of candles gleamed in the faraway church at the center of the Christian universe, the spirit of the service was unmistakable.

This year's service of Lessons and Carols will start and end in Bethlehem, said the Rev. Gwendolyn Tobias, director of worship at Washington National Cathedral. It will begin with a voluntary and welcome from the Rev. Mitri Raheb and then the two congregations will launch into Hark! The Herald Angels Sing in English and Arabic.

As in previous years, Washington National Cathedral is designing the service and producing the bulletin, which was sent to Bethlehem in late November for translation, Tobias said. Audio-visual staff in both locations have been working together to ensure the connection will be successful and the two congregations will be able to see and hear each other.

"We stream a webcast that they pick up, and they stream a webcast that we pick up," said Craig Stapert, the cathedral's associate director for online strategies. "The real hope and prayer in all this is that their bandwidth holds up and a connection across the world holds up. It's always a hope and prayer that the bandwidth doesn't get compromised – and usually it does at some point. But that's all part of the experience."

Last year, Jefferts Schori participated in the service for the first time, but a blizzard that broke all area records for December snowfall put a damper on the Washington end of the service.

This year, the service will move out of Washington National Cathedral's Bethlehem Chapel and into the nave. While some symbolism may be lost, the technical side of the service will be much easier to manage, Stapert said, noting that there is no cell phone access in the chapel and that numerous cable extensions have been required for the AV equipment in previous years.

Also, he added, one of the cathedral's most experienced AV technicians, Tracy Dieter, will be on the other side of the lens in Bethlehem this year.

Dieter is travelling to Bethlehem as part of the Diocese of Washington's Dec. 8-20 pilgrimage to the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem and the Middle East. (The two dioceses began a three-year companion relationship in January).

"This is going to be new, because I'm usually behind the camera in the Bethlehem Chapel," she said. "It's going to be different. I kept saying we needed to schedule a date to be back in D.C. to do the telecast, and [pilgrimage leader the Rev. John Peterson, former canon for global reconciliation at Washington National Cathedral] said, ‘Why would you want to do that? Be in Bethlehem!'"

As the service moves back and forth from Bethlehem to Washington, there's usually a slight delay in the video feed when the location changes, Stapert said. But, he adds: "This is not primetime broadcast TV. This is a ground up effort between the two places."

"In our work with each other, accomplishing this, it's not about an end result – it's about process," Tobias said. "It's about solidarity and working together for peace and to end suffering."

For more information about the Bethlehem Service, contact the Rev. Gwendolyn W. Tobias at wtobias@cathedral.org.

To read or listen to Jefferts Schori's message at the 2009 Bethlehem Service, visit http://www.nationalcathedral.org/worship/sermonTexts/kjs091219.shtml.

Episcopal News Service
Lucy Chumbley is the editor of Washington Window, the newspaper of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington.