Faith feature: Church to carry on with midnight service

PORTALES — Even without a minister, First Presbyterian Church in Portales is continuing its annual tradition of a midnight Christmas eve service.

Beginning at 11 p.m. on Monday, Yvette Howl said the service will include a message about the season as well as singing Christmas carols and the lighting of the Christ candle.

Howl is a commissioned ruling elder, one of seven members of the church’s congregation that stepped in to lead the church when its minister left about three years ago.

Karen Kibbe, another of the church’s commissioned ruling elders, will be leading Monday’s service. Kibbe told The News that her sermon will focus on “the miracle of Christmas and how that miracle and the arrival of the King has changed the world.”

Kibbe said the service will close with each member of the congregation lighting a candle and singing “Silent Night” as they exit the church, symbolizing the light that Jesus brought into the world with his birth.

“I think what the Christmas eve service does is it really helps us to get back to the beauty and the story of Christmas and it takes us away from the shopping and the decorations and all of the extra things that maybe take up our time and it gives us time to sit quietly and still and meditate on this miracle of this child’s birth and how it changed our lives and what Christmas is about,” Kibbe said.

Both Kibbe and Howl taught in schools for more than 40 years each. Howl is retired and Kibbe still teaches in Texico. Both said the process of becoming a commissioned ruling elder has strengthened their faith.

“Instead of just sitting every Sunday and waiting to hear the sermon, you’re thinking ‘OK what do we need to do to get more people to come, what do we need to do to be able to give the congregation what they need in as far as a message or as far as fellowship?’ And it just makes you more involved and makes you feel like you are an intricate part of the church, not just a passive person waiting for the sermon,” Howl said.

“It has taken our small church and helped all of us members to grow,” Kibbe said. “It’s like they own a piece of it. We feel like it’s truly our church and our family that we see week in and week out.”

Kibbe invited all community members, no matter their denomination, to take part in Monday’s service.

“We just welcome everyone in the community to take a few minutes and dwell on the miracle of Christ,” she said.