Monday night’s showers made the Lutheran Church of the Reformation’s first live nativity scene a "wet run," church member Alicia Boatwright said, but the youngsters are eager to come back again. The display is open to public viewing from 6 to 8 p.m. nightly through Thursday at the church, located on Weymouth-Rhymer Highway by Tutu Park Mall.
The manger scene features a "stable" of evergreen boughs and palm fronds with the kind of bare-bones furnishings the Holy Family might well have found for themselves on the first Christmas. The church youth and other members of the congregation are taking turns nightly portraying Mary and Joseph, shepherds, angels, wise men from the Orient and contemporary visitors. Christmas music and live animals beginning Tuesday add to the ambience.
The public can drive by the manger scene for a close-up look without tying up traffic. Motorists should go eastbound on the highway just past McDonald’s and the Chase Bank mall entrance, and turn left at the first entrance to the Reformation Church parking lot. After viewing the manger scene, drivers will proceed back onto the eastbound lane of the highway at the other end of the parking lot.
Some people wonder why the nativity scene is being set up "after Christmas." There are two reasons. The practical one is that the planners did not want to compete with the many pressures and demands on people’s time in the days immediately before Christmas Day — shopping, decorating, preparing foods, rehearsing for programs and the like. The religious reason is that the church’s celebration of Christmas does not "end" on December 25th; that’s when it begins. This is where the "twelve days of Christmas" comes from, running from December 25th through January 5th — with Three Kings Day on January 6th completing the cycle.
Now that the hustle and bustle of "pre-Christmas" is over, the youth of Reformation Lutheran Church invite the public to enjoy their depiction of the first Christmas, to reflect for a few moments on the true reason for the season. A freewill offering will be taken, with funds to go toward rebuilding the church structure destroyed by Hurricane Marilyn.
Community choral groups are invited to present sacred Christmas music at the manger scene any of the evenings. To schedule a time to take part, please call 775-1022 or 776-4812.
