Born Among Us

On Friday 6th December we held a reflection in words, song and dance of the diversity of celebration surrounding Christ’s birth around the world entitled ‘Born Among Us.  Musical items were interspersed throughout the evening, including hymn singing, choir items and a very moving solo by Ceri Norris, entitled ‘If’, reflecting on the plight of a 16-year old pregnant girl.  After the opening hymn and welcome, we began joyously with a display of

Russian-style dancing, before moving on to one of the main themes of the evening, the three mangers.  The next section focused on three different mangers:  the Manger of Poverty, the Manger of Conflict and the Manger of Renewal.  When the idea was originally conceived, three manger scenes from Malawi, Britain and Peru were used because these were what members of the congregation at that church had available.  Three members/couples from our church were invited to interpret one each of these themes and produce a manger.  Each manger was presented in turn together with an explanation from the producers of their scene and

its inspiration.  These explanations can be read at:  the Manger of Poverty Script and the Manger of Conflict Script.  Each theme was further illustrated by art from different cultures around the world, poetry, meditations and music before moving on to the next manger.  The final major item of the evening was a one-act play ‘MIXHAEΛ’ adapted from a translation of Tolstoy’s story ‘What Men Live By’.  Not only was the evening very enjoyable and thought provoking but the retiring collection also raised over £120 for the St Asaph Diocesan homeless project in Wrexham, which has the second highest incidence of this problem in Wales.

Two clips ‘Michael’ from the play and ‘If’ by Ceri are at the bottom of this page and below are some of the art works used to illustrate the themes and explanations for each picture at Nacimiento (Nativity), Nicaragua, The Road to Egypt and The Meaning of Christmas, Philippines: