Caritas Chamber Chorale, directed by Barbara Sanderman, will present a concert series of sacred, a cappella choral music for Christmas entitled Love Came Down. The concerts will be held on the weekend of December 11-13, 2026, as well as January 3, 2027. A freewill offering benefits the Adorno Fathers’ African Mission. All are invited.
Through a cappella sacred song, Love Came Down considers the many aspects of the Christmas story and its enduring meaning for us today. In music that spans centuries, we hear how Christians have both contemplated and celebrated Christmas throughout the ages. We also consider the significance of Christmas in our own time.
Featured works include Judith Weir’s Drop Down, Ye Heavens, From Above, based on the Gregorian Chant Rorate caeli, John Tavener’s rollicking Today the Virgin, and Tomás Luis de Victoria’s timeless Renaissance motet for Christmas, O magnum mysterium. Contemporary arrangements of familiar carols, such as Susan LaBarr’s The Angel Gabriel from Heaven Came and Richard Lakey’s Wexford Carol will also be presented. Of special interest is Lucy Walker’s The Christmas Life, a luminous setting of the 2017 poem by Wendy Cope.
The concert will be presented on:
• Friday, December 11, 2026, at 7:30 pm at St. James Church, 115 E. Delaware Ave., Pennington, NJ
• Saturday, December 12, 2026, at 7:30 pm at Our Lady of Lourdes Church, 390 County Road 523, Whitehouse Station, NJ
• Sunday, December 13, 2026, at 3 pm at Our Lady of the Mount Church, 170 Mt. Bethel Rd., Warren, NJ
• Sunday, January 3, 2027, at 5 pm at Sacred Heart Church of Christ the Redeemer Parish, 98 S. 2nd Ave., Manville, NJ
The concerts are free and open to the public. The entirety of a freewill offering will benefit the Pierluigi Fabbiani Nursery School, the Gianni Diurni Primary School, and the Foyer de l’Enfance Paolo Di Nardo Orphanage, run by the Adorno Fathers’ St. Francis Caracciolo Mission in Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo, Africa.
Since its founding in 2005, Caritas’ audiences have supported the Adorno Fathers’ St. Francis Caracciolo Mission in DRC, Africa through freewill offerings.
Caritas Chamber Chorale is a community choir of approximately 20 voices dedicated to serving the poorest of the poor through the art of sacred music. Visit @caritaschamberchorale on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Spotify. For more information, please visit www.caritaschamberchorale.org or contact .
390 County Road 523
Whitehouse Station, NJ
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