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BY CHRISTINE KUMAR
UMConnection Staff

For the first time in the denomination?s history, a deaf United Methodist Church will be featured in a curriculum series.

Members of Christ Church of the Deaf in Baltimore were filmed by a camera crew from the United Methodist Publishing House while performing their nativity Christmas pageant during worship Dec. 17.

The 14-week curriculum series will have a Christmas lesson, in which footage from the pageant will demonstrate how God uses people from different walks of life to tell God?s story.

'God uses left-out people to be key players - like he used the shepherds to get the word out about Christ?s birth,' said the Rev. Peggy Johnson, pastor of Christ Church of the Deaf.

Johnson said the deaf members in her church do not feel left out, but others may view them that way.

Johnson was excited to have Patricia Magyar attend the pageant. Magyar recently became executive secretary for Health and Welfare Ministries at United Methodist Global Ministries in New York. 'I liked the way they expressed themselves with the use of bells and drums to communicate,' said Magyar.

The DVD will portray not only the deaf, but also deaf-blind members of the church.

'I love to go to church, and I want to be here for Jesus? birth,' signed longtime deaf and blind member, James Rhubottom.