This Christmas in Britain a new world record has been set for a Nativity. Amateur actors in Wiltshire teamed up with the Bible Society to stage the biggest ever Nativity play, with 1,254 people taking part as wise men, shepherds, angels, donkeys, sheep and even shining stars of Bethlehem joining Mary, Joseph and the baby Jesus. Guinness World Records authenticated the attempt, which defeated a previous record of 1,039 people, made in Utah in 2014. The experience also included children reading right through the entire Nativity, straight from the Bible. In all, 7,000 people were involved that starry night in Calne, part of what people in the Nativity business believe is a resurgence in traditional Christmas storytelling.
Over the years, tradition has been pushed to the side as more wacky and unconventional ways of telling the birth of Christ emerged. A Netmums survey in 2014 found that two thirds of mums said they wished their child’s school held a traditional Nativity. Instead they were being ditched in favour of “pop songs and punk fairies” and that just one third of schools were holding a traditional Nativity play. Many schools called it a “winter celebration”, “seasonal play” or merely “end-of-year concert”. Netmums reported that instead of shepherds and angels, children were as likely to be cast as aliens, recycling bins, Elvis, footballers, a napkin and yes, a lobster, perhaps developed from the scene in Love Actually where a child gets cast as “first lobster” in her school Nativity.
In Ohio, a “zombie” Nativity scene was launched, featuring a baby Jesus with fangs and blue skin. However, earlier this month angry locals acted out and vandalised the scene. The people of Barcelona were also disgruntled with their nativity, which shows different scenes from the story displayed inside enormous plastic balls. Some may consider it artistic, but a yearning for the traditional is apparent.
According to a 2010 ICM survey commissioned by the Bible Society, eight out of ten people felt Nativity plays should be performed in schools. It also found that the lowest levels of support for Nativities in schools were in London, the most multicultural city.
The society recently launched a free, “pop-up nativity”, which has been downloaded more than 17,600 times by schools and other organisations, including an estimated 700 churches. The concept is simple: a traditional script, costume ideas and easy-to-follow stage and audience directions such as: “Shepherds: Hands out and bent forward, say ‘Baa’.”
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Rachel Rounds, of the Bible Society, said: “There has been a resurgence. There was a fear about six or ten years ago that Nativity plays in our multicultural society were becoming less acceptable. Now there has been a swing back the other way.”
Nativities are not only for children. Earlier this month, at St Clare, Warren Park in the Portsmouth diocese, the vicar Rev Jonathan Jeffery and his wife Carolyn Owens put on an alternative community Nativity play. It featured real camels for one matinee and included adult actors. Owens’ script was discursive, with thoughtful dialogue for the Magi and two invented friends of Mary and Joseph. “The objective was to create something wonderful for our community, empowering people and showing how the church is engaging with the community,” said Jeffery.
Nearly 400 people also took part in a flash mob-style “walking” Nativity in the Portsmouth diocese. In Hulcott, Buckinghamshire, vicar Mark Ackford created a “real” Nativity. Local sheep farmers became shepherds, a pub landlady assumed the role of innkeeper and a newborn baby was cast as Jesus, with his birth mother playing Mary. Live donkeys and sheep were also used.
However, nativities are not without controversy. In the Netmums survey, nearly one fifth of parents said their child’s school charged an entry fee for their Nativity.
St Joseph’s Catholic primary school in Warndon, Worcester, tried to do just that. The head teacher, Louise Bury, decided to charge parents £1 for tickets to raise funds for literacy resources.
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In a letter to parents Ms Bury wrote: “For the first time this year we have decided to charge for the tickets. It is evident from the feedback received that there are mixed feelings about this.”
She admitted that for some parents, paying to see their child perform did not feel right. Some teachers were verbally abused by parents.
One of the most powerful Nativities this year was at St Mark’s, part of the Hanley team ministry in Shelton, Stoke on Trent. The church’s social enterprise, Sanctus, supports asylum seekers and refugees and has witnessed the baptism of more than 50 adult Muslims from Iran and Iraq. For all but one of the people featuring in the church’s Nativity, it was their first Christmas as Christians.
Frank McGregor, Hanley team missioner, came up with the idea for the tableau, where a Christian Nativity version of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah was used to tell the story as the actors played their parts.
Rev Sally Smith, the vicar, said: “It’s a privilege to rediscover the Christmas story through fresh eyes. One of the most powerful things was it was the wise men who bought the gifts for Jesus. They came from the East. It was just lovely to see young men and women from Iran and Iraq taking part in the Nativity story, bringing the gift of themselves and bowing to Jesus.”
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Recently, the concept of the traditional Nativity scene has been questioned. Rev Ian Paul, a theologian and member of the Archbishops’ Council, believes the idea that Jesus was born in a stable was based on a false premise and professes that the birthplace was a normal family home. His theory is based on the meaning of the Greek word kataluma in Luke ii, 7, traditionally translated as the “inn” at which there was no room. Dr Paul, along with a growing number of other New Testament scholars, believe this word actually refers to an “upper” or guest room in a family home. These rooms were small and there would certainly have been no room for Mary to give birth in one. Dr Paul posits that the holy couple were staying with members of Joseph’s extended family who moved them into the main family room, where, as is common in agrarian cultures, the farm animals would have been housed overnight and where Jesus would have been placed in the manger after his birth.
So convinced of this is Dr Paul that when he leads worship with a Nativity scene at St Nic’s, Nottingham on Christmas Day, it is this homely scene he will enact. Whether his scholarship will make any difference to worldwide practice remains to be seen. It is an irony that in venerable Christian tradition this newest Nativity — the stable reborn as a house — could actually be the oldest story yet.
Ruth Gledhill is a contributing editor for Christian Today