MILLWOOD --A brief candlelight service of Lessons and Carols -- in a small country church with no electricity or heat -- will celebrate the Christmas season Sunday, as it has for at least 15 years.

     But the service really hearkens back to the active years at Old Bethel Church, said Ian Williams, Bethel Memorial Association president. "It really captures the 1850s sort of spirit of Christmas."

     The conditions, lessons, and service are much like those people would have experienced about 160 years ago when Old Bethel had a Baptist congregation.

     Old Bethel was organized in 1808 on what is believed to be the site of a former Quaker meeting house. The current brick church near Swift Shoals Road was started in 1828 and dedicated in 1830.

     The congregation closed the church's doors 100 years later in 1930, after membership declined.

     But in the early 1940s, the memorial association began efforts to restore the structure and its cemetery. And today, the church holds twice-yearly events -- an August picnic and annual meeting and the December Carols and Lessons service, traditionally held on the Sunday before Christmas (but not on Christmas Eve.)

     The Christmas service is short, about 30 minutes, and aside from simple stories and hymns, features a handbell choir and a vocal soloist.

     Debbie Piplani, 61, of Front Royal will perform for the first time this year, singing "O Holy Night."

     Williams asked her several years ago to appear at the service, but this is the first time she has been available.

     Piplani's life has been surrounded with song. She began taking voice lessons at age 16 and is taking them again today from Janette Ogg, a professor in Shenandoah University's Shenandoah Conservatory in Winchester. The return to lessons is a refresher necessary as a person's voice ages, she said.

     Piplani also teaches private voice lessons. She sings in the Shenandoah University Arts Academy Chorale and in the choir of Calvary Episcopal Church in Front Royal.

     A longtime church musician, Piplani is a former liturgy director for Catholic churches in Northern Virginia. She is a former high school and elementary school music teacher and a veteran of some small opera companies, in which she sang in the late 1970s in New Jersey.

     Song "just been a part of my life, ever since I can remember," she said.

     Her voice is set to ring out at a Christmas service that continues to gain popularity as time passes, Williams said.

     "Each year has been better and better attended," he said, with about 200 people turning out last year. The downstairs area can fit about 180 people, with the upstairs portion accommodating about 60. However, the handbell choir will be upstairs this year, Williams said, taking away 14 of those slots.

     To assure a place at the 5 p.m. service, Williams encouraged people "to come early and dress warmly."

     He noted, though, that with 200 people and plenty of candles, the old church does warm up.

Directions

     Take U.S. 50 east from Winchester. Between the Shenandoah River and the U.S. 340 interchange at Waterloo, turn onto Red Gate Road (Route 622) and follow it for about a mile, turning left onto Swift Shoals Road (Route 624). Drive about a half-mile and turn right onto Bethel Lane. The church is on top of the hill. The roadway encircles the building.

- Contact Stephanie M. Mangino at
smangino@winchesterstar.com