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Magical Christmas


Whether you are living in a temperate, wintery country or hot and humid tropical country like ours, the season of Christmas always seem to have something magical and joyful about it. Maybe it’s the Christmas decorations seen all over town, in each shopping complex or maybe it is the cheerful Christmas carols playing continuously. Whatever it is, there just seems something sublime about the atmosphere.
A quick tour of the shopping complexes around town, we found Bangsar Shopping Center turned into a fairy-like winter wonderland. While at Mid Valley, the decorations had a distinct British flavour to it complete with Paddington bear, locomotives and the arch-typical red telephone booths.
Amidst all the festivity, we wonder should Christmas be only about decorations, Santa, elves and presents?
This year I received an interesting invitation to attend a Christmas carol service. Located at the rooftop of Lot 10 (yes the rooftop), was a beautiful church that was holding its annual carol by candlelight service. Upon stepping into the rooftop, you will be greeted by a Christmas tree on a perfectly manicured lawn. And on one side of the lawn, it’s a whole wall of lovely greenery. The entrance to the church was simply a modern metal structure.   
Coming into the church, the atmosphere was truly ethereal, with candles glowing and even a stained glass window projection on the large screen. There was already a crowd of few hundreds of people in the church as we entered, and the still more were filling in. Through a series of carols interspersed with readings from bible passages, the service aimed to convey the story of how Jesus was born in Bethlehem from the virgin mother Mary. It also told of the significance of His birth to the world.
The choir lead the crowd in singing carols, accompanied by a live orchestra. The choir performance was simply splendid, it is hard-pressed to imagine the choir were made up of their own church members because they sounded truly like professionals. At the end of the service, the pastor, Reverend Miles Toulmin, wrapped up the service with a humour-injected, but timely sermon to remind us what it truly means to celebrate the birthday of Jesus Christ.

To top things up, there was also a German Market after the service, but the crowd was just too overwhelming for us to fight our way through, so we had quick skip through that.  
The name of this church is HTBB and it is an Anglican church originating from the UK. It certainly has an overseas feel to it. As you step into this “rooftop church”, it feels like you are being transported into another place and time – a true sanctuary from the hustle and bustle, right at heart of the city centre. 

HTBB
Level 8 (Rooftop), Lot 10, 50 Jalan Sultan Ismail, Bukit Bintang, 50250, KL 
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