Advent season will start with another edition of the popular Lunch and Lesson series at First United Methodist Church of Ironton.

The Rev. Wayne Young started the series during Lent and continued it monthly throughout the summer and fall.

The topic for the Advent series is “All in the Family,” focusing on the earthly family of Jesus. This Wednesday the subject is Mary, based on the Gospel of Luke; on Dec. 10 the lecture will be on Joseph from the Gospel of Matthew; and the final lecture will focus on Elizabeth, Zachariah, John the Baptist and James, based on the Gospel of Matthew.

Each lecture begins at noon with a half-hour lunch provided by the church with the lesson by Young at 12:30 p.m. ending at 1 p.m.

At 6 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 21, the church will host the Christmas Story pageant that was originally created by the late Mary Slagel, Clare Huey and Kay Slagel at Christ Episcopal Church. The first pageant, based on the Gospel of Luke, was presented in 1942 at the Episcopal Church and has featured throughout the decades a number of prominent residents in its roles.

About 10 years ago Robert Slagel, nephew of Mary Slagel, and his cousin Peter Dodgion decided they wanted to revive the pageant at First Methodist to carry on the tradition their families had started.

The pageant is open to the public with a Christmas party to follow.