Each year, on Christmas Eve, the First Congregational Church of West Tisbury hosts a community pageant at the Agricultural Hall attended by over 800 people. The service includes carols and a pageant, brought to life by Island kids, ranging in age from newborn (baby Jesus) to grade school.
While blocking a scene during practice this week, the young children playing shepherds and sheep were asked to imagine what dangers the sheep might encounter while walking in the dark.
“They could be eaten by a wolf,” one child answered.
“They could get lost,” another said.
“They could fall into the ocean and be eaten by a shark,” said Wren Briggs, who plays the donkey.
All answers were accepted as Elle Lash, co-director of the pageant, who agreed with the children about how scared the sheep must have been the night Jesus was born. She told the older children playing the shepherds to take care of the sheep by guiding them up the stage and comforting them when the Angel Gabriel, played by Hazel Myers, lights up the sky.
Ms. Lash and co-director Sarah Ream said they altered the pageant’s traditional scripture this season to reflect the theme light in the darkness. The idea came to them when they sat down with Rev. Cathlin Baker to plan the pageant.
“I think 2024 has been a really challenging year for a lot of people, in a lot of different ways . . .” Ms. Ream said. “Christmas is such a time of hope that I thought, if we could find a metaphor that would illuminate that, it might be helpful.”
Reverend Baker said there are many themes in the scripture that resonate with the community.
“We started amplifying the hospitality message, that idea of there being no room at the inn and Mary and Joseph being in need of care and shelter,” Reverend Baker said. “This year, the kids are saying ‘can you help us find a place that is warm and light?’ Instead of just saying ‘shelter.’”
Ms. Lash said they are trying to get the kids to think about ways in which the story is hopeful. At the first rehearsal, Ms. Lash and Ms. Ream read the nativity story to the children and asked them what they thought it represented. Some of the older children lifted up the themes of poverty and love.
Each year a real baby plays the newborn Jesus, which the directors said adds magic to the story. Ms. Lash recalled babies in years past who have waved at the audience, while some were old enough to stand on Mary’s lap.
This year, four-month old Louie Thanhauser will be swaddled by Opal Roach, playing Mary, and Whittier Stead, playing Joseph.
“A live baby is such a symbol of life, hope and possibility,” Ms. Ream said. “Those are all things, I think, that are elements of Christmas in a way that a plastic baby just would not be.”
Reverend Baker said telling the story each year is a gift from the church to the community, and this year’s pageant is dedicated to people who bring hope and light to the Vineyard each and every day: teachers, first responders, medical professionals and essential workers, to name a few.
“God having this baby is a way of reminding us that we each have a bit of the sacred in us,” Reverend Baker said. “The messages of peace, goodwill, welcoming and hospitality, all need to be told again and again.”
The Christmas Pageant hosted by the First Congregational Church takes place on Christmas Eve inside the Agricultural Hall, beginning at 5 p.m.
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