STARKVILLE — The Chancel Choir of Starkville First United Methodist Church will present “Gospel Jubilee” on Sunday at 5 p.m. in the church sanctuary located at 200 West Lampkin Street.

The presentation is free and the entire community is invited to join together as the congregation relives the emotions brought back by good-old country southern gospel music.

The Gospel Jubilee was a staple of SFUMC’s summer programming beginning with the tenure of Ted Beverly who served the church as music director in the early 2000s. Back in the day, the choir and congregation delighted in seeing the many different hats worn by the females in attendance. Men wore overalls or pants with suspenders as they, too, dressed in a manner that invoked the spirit of the “good old days.”

The Jubilee tradition was carried on by Peter Infanger when he was the full-time director of music at the church in the period from 2013-2021. However in 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic changed the choir’s approach to the presentation when public gatherings were held with too many restrictions to make group singing possible.

Infanger and Parker Lee, church media director at that time, devised a way for individual members of the choir to be recorded with each choir member appearing in a little box on the screen. At that time, the choir was able to present three selections from a collection entitled, “Simply Southern Gospel,” with fun arrangements for piano and choir by Mary McDonald.

The 2024 presentation of Gospel Jubilee will include all six of the selections for “Simply Southern Gospel” accompanied by a brass quartet along with saxophone, guitar, bass and drums and a lot of audience participation with church pianist Elva Kay Lance on the keyboard and music director Peter Infanger serving as the song leader.

The singing program will be followed by an old-fashioned ice cream social with homemade ice cream provided by members of the congregation as we introduce our new senior pastor Warren Coile and his wife Linus to Starkville. Everyone is invited to join the SFUMC family as we welcome them to service in the community.