or, How I worked my way up from junior shepherd to senior Wise Man, one Christmas at a time.
 |
| Living Nativity Scene, Centenary Methodist Church, New Bern, N.C., 24 Dec 2001. Sun-Journal photograph. |
by John B. Green III
As a small child, I was fascinated by the Nativity Scene that my father brought down from the attic each year along with the rest of the Christmas decorations. It was the same one that he had enjoyed as a child. There was the stable with its dried moss roof and the manger filled with straw. There were sections of fence which surrounded the stable. And there were figurines of all the Bible characters - Mary and Joseph and the baby Jesus, angels, shepherds, and the Three Wise Men. When arranged beneath the Christmas tree and lit from above, it seemed to my small self to be magical. I would stare at it for hours and if I squinted my eyes I could almost imagine the figures coming to life.
 |
| Nativity Scene, maker unknown, c. 1930 |
Imagine my amazement, when I had grown a little older, to be taken to see the Nativity Scene that stretched across the lawn of Centenary Methodist Church - my church - and which included real people and real animals! My astonishment was complete when my father revealed that he would, on occasion, struggle into costume and play a shepherd or Wise Man or Joseph himself in the very Nativity Scene arrayed before me. From then on we always went to see the Nativity Scene on Christmas Eve. My mother and I would stand on the courthouse steps across the street trying to detect my father among the shepherds or Wise Men. There they stood, perfectly still, as Christmas carols filled the frosty air.
 |
| Nativity Scene, Centenary Methodist Church, c.1990. |
The Living Nativity Scene, as it was called, had first been performed for the community in 1954, two years before I was born. By the time I was old enough to participate, the performance had become a well-oiled effort. The hour-long display would be on view for three nights, usually between the hours of seven and eight, with the final performance on Christmas Eve. Each hour consisted of three twenty-minute shifts of actors. The goal - and the magic - of the performance was to accomplish the shift changes of twelve actors each in such a way that a casual observer might not notice that a change had taken place. The first shift was easy enough. The actors had already moved into place and assumed their poses before the lights were turned on. The arrival of the second and third shift actors was more complicated. Moving at an even pace, two actors at a time would move into position behind the actors they were to replace. A brief sideways movement and hand-off of any prop and the exchange was complete. The third shift would stay in place until the lights went out at 8 o'clock and then silently file off. The wild cards in this silent tableau were always the live animals who occasionally got skittish and the spectators who occasionally got rambunctious. A farmer for the one and a policeman for the other were always able to calm things down.
I began participating in this spectacle when I was about ten or 12 years old. My first role was that of junior shepherd. The shepherds stood off to one side in front of a small wood fire and with one or two live sheep staked out to graze beyond us. My job was to keep the fire going with wood stashed under the low bench I sat on. After a few years of playing one or another of the three shepherds, I graduated to Wise Man. It was during this time that I was joined by my younger brother Bill, and together with our father, we started a family tradition of the three of us serving one shift each Christmas as the Three Wise Men. I enjoyed these years not only because I was with my father and brother, but because standing perfectly still for twenty minutes in the cold, clear air allowed me to settle my thoughts and appreciate the scene around me.
 |
| My brother and I bedecked in the splendors of the Orient. I'm on the left. Bill seems to be portraying a wise guy rather than a Wise Man. |
This year will see the sixty-sixth consecutive performance of Centenary's Living Nativity Scene. My brother and I go to different churches now and my father has passed away, but come Christmas Eve, you will find me standing on the courthouse steps, taking it all in, and grateful for the memories.
