Christmas Lilies of the Field is a 1979 made-for-TV sequel to the classic 1963 film Lilies of the Field. In this sequel, directed by Ralph Nelson (his final project before his death), 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) convinces Homer Smith into building a kindergarten as well as an orphanage by claiming that, since the chapel lacks a bell-tower and bells, the previous job was never completed.