Hundreds of Montreal-area members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints recently formed a flash mob and sang Christmas carols in French at Complexe Desjardins. The Montreal mall is located across the street from where The Book of Mormon musical was playing at the time.
Marie-Frédérique Carter, the event organizer, said, “We wanted to send a special Christmas message of goodwill to the people of our beautiful city!” Church members and leaders hoped that as they shared songs about Christ with the public, some of the stereotypes about the Latter-day Saints, as promoted by the recent showing of The Book of Mormon musical, would be dispelled.
Video courtesy of: Richard Gingras, Jonathan Gingras, Luc Langlois, Éli Salm, Tanya Menshykova, Philippe Lamy and Jérémie Baldi
Marianne Lambert, first-prize winner at the Concours International de Chant de Marmande (Marmande International Singing Festival, France, August 2008), performed with the flash mob. She has performed with the Opéra de Montréal and Opéra de Rennes. She is one of Quebec’s magnificent and brilliant new coloratura soprano voices.
One of the organizers, Jonathan Gingras, handed a pass-along card to a couple who had just come from watching The Book of Mormon musical. They expressed gratitude to him for the beautiful Christmas music.
| Temple Square is always beautiful in the springtime. Gardeners work to prepare the ground for General Conference. © 2012 Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved. | 1 / 2 |
“Giving, not getting, brings to full bloom the Christmas spirit,” said Thomas S. Monson, president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. “The celebration of Christmas should be a reflection of the love and selflessness taught by the Savior. We feel more kindly one to another. We reach out in love to help those less fortunate. Our hearts are softened. Enemies are forgiven, friends remembered, and God obeyed. The spirit of Christmas illuminates the picture window of our soul, and we look out upon the world’s busy life and become more interested in people than in things” (2013 First Presidency Christmas Devotional).