Religious groups offer spiritual New Year’s Eve alternatives

c. 1999 Religion News Service UNDATED _ From a hilltop near Peekskill, N.Y., torch-bearing Franciscan friars and at least 100 people looking for a spiritual way to begin 2000 will gather for a procession this New Year’s Eve. Celebrities from opera star Denyce Graves to retired South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu will appear in Washington, […]

c. 1999 Religion News Service

UNDATED _ From a hilltop near Peekskill, N.Y., torch-bearing Franciscan friars and at least 100 people looking for a spiritual way to begin 2000 will gather for a procession this New Year’s Eve.

Celebrities from opera star Denyce Graves to retired South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu will appear in Washington, D.C., churches where people will pause to enjoy music and say prayers as they leave one century behind and head into another.


Baptist, Presbyterian and Seventh-day Adventist youth will ring in the year in arenas and via satellite hookups across the country.

While some Americans plan to live it up among huge crowds in the nation’s cities, and others envision a quiet evening at home, a variety of churches, Christian groups and interfaith coalitions are planning spiritual alternatives to this year’s New Year’s Eve celebrations.

The Graymoor Spiritual Life Center near Peekskill has 100 people booked for a New Year’s Eve retreat that normally attracts less than half that number.”The schedule of the retreat is obviously not designed for somebody who wants to spend New Year’s Eve partying,”said the Rev. Walter Gagne, director of internal communications for the Franciscan Friars of the Atonement, the event’s sponsor.

Gagne said there was so much interest in the regular two-night retreat _ which costs $95 per person double occupancy _ that when it filled they added a $35 mini-retreat and the free procession that will proceed the first Mass of 2000.

Congregations across the country have long held”watch-night”services to literally pray in the new year. This time around, some are going for something a bit more extravagant.

At National City Christian Church, a large edifice that rises from Washington’s Thomas Circle, various meeting spaces will be put to use on Dec. 31 _ in a big way.

Graves, known for her work in the title role of Bizet’s”Carmen,”will sing classical, jazz and spiritual selections in the sanctuary. But her appearance _ with tickets ranging from $35 to $100 _ is just one event in the evening’s fare.


At 5 p.m., before the concert, there will be a choice of a buffet dinner and Dixieland band or hors d’oeuvres and a jazz pianist. Post-concert, those who dined get dessert and those who nibbled get dinner and dessert. The band and gospel choirs will perform in the fellowship hall and atrium, respectively. And after all that, there’s an 11 p.m. free worship service to ring in 2000.

Monte Hillis, the chairwoman of the”Millennium Gala,”hopes the options will convince people to venture out and celebrate in a spiritual way.”We’re hearing what Time magazine reported _`I just don’t know if I want to be out at all,'”she said.”We’ve also heard `If I’m going to be out, I want to be in church.'” Across Northwest Washington, Tutu’s appearance at the Washington National Cathedral will follow an eclectic concert _ costing $10 to $25 _ featuring performances from choirs, brass players, an African dance troupe and the cathedral’s peal and carillon bells.

After Tutu’s meditation, cathedral officials hope thousands will gather outside the church for a moment of silence and darkness. Then the entire cathedral will be specially lit with a solid beam of light and the lights of as many as 4,000 flashlights from interfaith participants.”There is a great symbolism in light and hope for the future,”said Bob Becker, the cathedral’s public affairs director.

The cathedral’s interfaith event is just one of more than 150 happening across the globe as part of United Religions Initiative’s 72 Hours Project.”There are people of all faiths all over the world who believe it’s time to leave behind some things as we cross this threshold in time,”said the Rev. Charles Gibbs, an Episcopal priest who serves as executive director of the San Francisco-based initiative.”And those things have to do with hatred and distrust of each other.” Gibbs said at gatherings from Dec. 31 to Jan. 2 _ at the cathedral, at the Khyber Pass in Pakistan, in the hills above Rio de Janeiro, Brazil _ people of many faiths will pray that their spiritual traditions will be viewed as a means for peace rather than division.”There is a very heightened sense that even though the turn of the millennium is on the face of it a Christian observation … many people of faith are finding that a meaningful, symbolic transition time,”he said.

Group events both within specific Christian denominations and across denominational lines also are prevalent this New Year’s Eve.

Promise Keepers, the evangelical men’s organization, spent $750,000 to ship a”Hope for a New Millennium”video to more than 300,000 churches nationwide, said spokesman Steve Chavis. The video features a range of Christian speakers urging fellow Christians to pray for nationwide spiritual renewal.


While some individual congregations plan to use it at a New Year’s Eve celebration or in the first Sunday service in 2000, a ministerial association in Glasgow, Ky., will air it at an ecumenical celebration that includes a chili cook-off, family games and a”concert of praise.” Leaders of youth-oriented events sponsored by several different denominations are billing their efforts as a”safe”way for teens to celebrate the start of 2000.

They hope to mix inspiring speeches and evangelism with the music and technology that attracts teen-agers and college students.

For example, YouthLink 2000, the Southern Baptist Convention-sponsored event, will bring students to seven cities from Dec. 29-31 and will feature satellite links between those venues and other youths in Jerusalem. The U.S. venues for the $90 event are convention centers and arenas in Anaheim, Calif.; Atlanta; Denver; Houston; Philadelphia; St. Louis; and Tampa, Fla.

Bob Reccord, president of the SBC’s North American Mission Board, hopes students will be emboldened to combine their plans for the future with a commitment to evangelizing others.”While the millennium is a celebration point, it is the secondary celebration point and only gives us a wonderful forum for calling out young people to make a difference in the world,”Reccord said.

Planners of YouthLink 2000 and the Presbyterian-sponsored”The Dawn … An Epiphany!”both report a substantial drop in attendance expectations. Baptists had hoped for 200,000 and now expect 45,000. Presbyterians had hoped for 15,000 and now say they’ll be happy with 3,000 to 5,000.”The Y2K stuff is looming larger than we ever expected,”said Rodger Nishioka, coordinator for youth and young adult ministries of the Presbyterian Church (USA).

Nishioka hopes the $40 day passes during the Dec. 28-Jan. 1 event in Indianapolis will continue to attract students to concerts headlined by such Christian music stars as Kirk Franklin, Jars of Clay, Michael W. Smith and Steven Curtis Chapman.


Cesar Gonzalez, one of the organizers of the Seventh-day Adventist Church’s”Genesis 2000″event, expects a total of 6,000 attendees at locations in New York, Dallas, Denver and Riverside, Calif. That free event, featuring Adventist choirs, contemporary Christian musicians and drama, kicks off a year in which North American Adventists will emphasize youth and young adult evangelism.”It really is a good alternative to staying home,”said Gonzalez.”If you’re going to stay up one night in your life, I would think it would be this.”

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