Christmas Lilies of the Field

Many years have passed since nomadic handyman Homer (Billy Dee Williams) helped to build a chapel for a group of nuns back home, but when he returns, its as if he never left. Head nun Maria (Maria Schell) is still a formidable force and wastes no time in insisting that Homer now build a bell tower and an orphanage since, by her reckoning, he didnt finish the chapel not completely. So, with the help of the nuns and the gorgeous Janet Owens (Fay Hauser), Homer makes a difference once again.

Christmas Lilies of the Field is a 1979 made-for-TV sequel to the classic film Lilies of the Field. In this sequel, directed by Ralph Nelson, Homer Smith (played by Billy Dee Williams instead of Sidney Poitier) returns to the Arizona desert where he had built the chapel for the nuns. This time Mother Maria (played by Maria Schell), claiming that since the chapel lacks a bell-tower and bells the previous job was never completed, convinces Homer Smith into building a kindergarten as well as an orphanage. The TV special was released on VHS in 1989.