It was a joint venture between our church, CCA (Centro Cristiano de Alhaurín) and the local Catholic church, San Sebastien, with musicians and singers from both congregations taking part in the celebration. It's only relatively recently that evangelical churches have been recognised as legitimate here in Spain, and so this "ecumenical" celebration caught people's attention and won the support of the Ayuntamiento (the town council).
Members of our CCA worship teams presented Christmas songs in a variety of styles, while some from the Catholic church presented Christmas songs in a flamenco style, which added a real Spanish flavour to the evening. Scripture readings were given by people from both congregations, our pastor preached a short message, and a group from San Sebastian performed a short drama about the link between Christmas and Easter.
As the celebration drew to an end, it was very moving to see so many people, both church members and passers by, holding candles and singing, "Silent Night" together.
Videos of the whole concert have appeared on various web pages, including that of the town council and one of the local newspapers. The newspaper, Diario Alhaurín, also published lots of photos of the event.
I had gone to the celebration with my neighbour Matilde and the dogs, so we had to laugh when we discovered ourselves, together with Buba, Bonnie and Maiki, among the newspaper's photographs.
Perhaps the most exciting thing, though, was to see those words, "Dios con Nosotros" (God with us) as the backdrop to the stage, as we proclaimed God's presence and peace over our town of Alhaurín de la Torre.
