Calvary Baptist breathes life into nativity scene
Posted on Sunday, December 7, 2008
Real cows, goats, mules and sheep help set the scene for Calvary Baptist Church’s first living nativity scene.
The three-day event started Friday and ends tonight with a final performance from 6:30 to 8:30 p. m.
“There’s not anything quite like it in this area, as far as we know,” Rose Francis, Calvary Baptist Church secretary, said. “We just want people to come and experience the real meaning of Christmas, which is the birth of Jesus Christ.”
More than 60 church members took part in designing the costumes, props and characters that bring the nativity to life.
“The creation of this event really gave us an opportunity to work with so many people in the church,” said Apryl Okoroafor, who helped designed the nativity set. “It was wonderful to see the mix that came together. We had toddlers, all the way up to senior citizens, involved in putting this together.”
The event is free and open to the public.
As visitors arrive, they are greeted by church volunteers and given a cassette tape, disc or audio player. A recording narrates each of the seven nativity scenes, directing drivers when to pull forward. The overall experience lasts about seven minutes.
“People can stay in their cars with the windows rolled up so they don’t get cold,” Okoroafor said. “Our crew members switch out about every 20 minutes so they can go inside and warm up a bit.”
Drivers are asked to turn off their headlights as they approach the seven illuminated nativity scenes.
“The first scene starts out with Mary and the angel,” Debbie Dowell, who helped coordinate church volunteers, said. “The next one features Joseph and the Angel, followed by the trip to Bethlehem and the marketplace. The last few scenes include the nativity, the shepherds and the wise men’s visit to Mary and Joseph.”
Church members act out each scene, as the recording narrates.
Okoroafor said volunteers had only one dress rehearsal prior to this weekend’s performance.
“We’re just out there moving and acting as people would in those times,” she said. “We didn’t have to learn any lines.”
Sets for the living nativity were created from stretched canvas material.
Okoroafor said she, along with seven volunteers, used sewing machines and electric conduit piping to create buildings for the marketplace scene, which measures about 96-feet long.
“You don’t realize how long that is until you actually put it into a sewing machine,” she said. “There was no pattern for putting this together, other than my drawings on a piece of paper. We got pretty creative figuring out how what worked along the way.”
Volunteers began preparing for this weekend’s debut in September.
Francis said the church hopes to make the living nativity a holiday tradition for Fayetteville.
“We plan to add something new to it each year,” she said. “It’s our gift to the community.”
Calvary Baptist Church is at 1410 N. Porter Road in Fayetteville. For more information, call 442-4634.
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