Be part of the nativity this Christmas
Friday 30 November 2009
This Christmas, people in over 40 towns will be donning tea towels and angel’s wings and taking part in an instant nativity.
‘Get in the Picture’ seeks to involve all kinds of people in the Christmas story by encouraging them to participate and experience being part of the nativity in a fun way.
Members of the public will be encouraged to become one of the characters of the Christmas story and to have their photograph taken in a nativity tableau. The photographs will be available to view and download for free on the ‘Get in the Picture’ website alongside information about local church carol services, a reading of the Christmas story from the bible and stories of what Christmas means to people today.
Churches Together in Peterborough will be starting ‘Get in the Picture’ on 3 December in a shop they have rented out in the city until 20 December. On the opening day people who take part will be posing with a live donkey. At the shop, called Love Came Down At Christmas, there will a variety of other attractions including free mince pies and gingerbread biscuits and an exhibition of children’s pictures of the nativity.
Rochester Cathedral is using ‘Get in the Picture’ outside the building during the town’s Dickensian Christmas weekend (5-6 December). However, instead of people dressing up in outfits, they will put their faces through holes in a painted nativity scene picture similar to those at the seaside. Inside the cathedral actors will give three-minute monologues telling the Christmas story from the viewpoint of different characters from the nativity. “We will be saying to people ‘come inside and hear from a character from the Christmas story – come outside and be a character from the Christmas story’,” says one of the organisers, Canon Jean Kerr. The cathedral is expecting up to 6,000 people to visit on each day during the weekend.
‘Get in the Picture’ originated in Chester last year where evangelist Chris Duffett trialled it with great success. It is now being rolled out nationally by the Baptist Union of Great Britain (BUGB) and endorsed by a number of Christian denominations and organisations including the Church of England, the Methodist Church and Churches Together in England.
The BUGB Mission Department organised a ‘Get in the Picture’ for the Didcot Christmas Street Fair in Oxfordshire last week (26 November) and took over 100 photos. “It was a great success,” says the Head of Mission, the Revd Ian Bunce. “You could see people were having fun engaging with the Christmas story in a new, non-threatening way. From stories I have heard across the country, ‘Get in the Picture’ is really capturing people’s imagination.”
For more information on ‘Get in the Picture’ go to www.getinthepicture.org.uk/home.htm
