“O Come, All Ye Faithful” was written in 1987 as the processional hymn for the Christmas Eve service at St. Timothy’s Episcopal Church in Fairfield, Connecticut.

St. Timothy’s was a small, but affluent, country parish (the CEO of IBM was a former vestry warden) and many women of the congregation attended the midnight service in ball gowns, their husbands accompanying them in white tie and tails.  Diana Erdmann, a lyric soprano who had appeared with a number of opera companies, was a member of the parish and the arrangement, with its newly composed fourth verse and the following descant, were written for her and the quiet, but luxurious, service. — Michael Linton