This account is in celebration of fifty years of the Living Nativity Pageant of the West Court Street Church of God. Recollections of the past take many forms in different people's minds.Fifty Years of the Living Nativity Pageant of West Court Street Church of GodIn their second year of ministry at West Court Street Church of God (1949), Lola and Herb Thompson were discussing a living nativity but decided to delay it until 1950.
Ernest Walters, a buyer for a grocery chain and a member of the church, made weekly trips to Cincinnati, Ohio. As he drove back one night in middle December, he saw a Living Nativity Pageant that was open all night. He came home excited and told Lola about it. "Ernest, you build the stable, and I will do the rest," said Lola.
She began planning for the Nativity immediately, but she had quite a time selling the idea to the Board of Trustees. After receiving approval from the board, Ernest went to a small sawmill in Frankenmuth, Michigan, and brought home long pieces of slabs off the logs. He and dedicated men built the stable at the east side of the church. Lola instructed ladies in making the costumes. The Howard Toll family found Pedro, the donkey, and the Edson family found cows and sheep. She asked two young people, Betty May and Mike Scofield, to be Mary and Joseph; Joseph and Mary didn't move from the stable. The pageant was complete with shepherds and kings. That first pageant was three hours long. Lola played carols on the organ during the presentation. Flint rallied to this first Living Nativity Pageant by coming out in thousands to see it. It was given excellent coverage by newspapers, radio, and many businesses.
In 1950, 1951, and 1952, West Court took the Nativity Pageant downtown in front of the Durant Hotel to present the pageant in McFarlan Park. The hotel gave the pageant rooms to dress in and do make-up. They were generous in feeding all the characters, and the characters loved being there.
In 1953 the pageant moved to the Court House lawn at Court and Saginaw Streets. Hotel Durant still provided rooms and food for those in the pageant.
The December 1954 Living Nativity Pageant was held back at the home church in the triangle of West Court Street and Beecher Road during the week before Christmas. The times were 8-10 p.m., one hour before stores closed and one hour after. Lola created the original tape on the organ so that recorded music and narration were heard continuously. The performances were in fifteen-minute scenes. There was now a cast of twelve: Mary, Joseph, and Baby Jesus; five shepherds, which included a very old man and a young boy shepherd; the three kings with two slaves; and a stable man. The characters' identities were never revealed, even to the immediate relatives of the cast. The cast came to the pageant in character and remained in that mood all evening. It took fifty to one hundred people from the church to present the pageant. Their donated hours totaled fifteen hundred.
The Living Nativity Pageant expanded every Christmas season. Angels were added to the cast. They climbed to the top of the stable, and the spotlight came on the old prophet, another cast addition.
Bethany Kerr was playing the little angel one night after she had been coached well by her mentor. She climbed to the roof and stepped on an inner tube that covered the switch. She got to the tube, stepped on it, and jumped on it again and again. The spotlight did not come on for the prophet. After several tries, Pat Vestula Wasson came up behind her and found the switch, and the pageant continued.
D&R Cleaners cleaned and pressed each costume after the pageant for many years beginning in 1950. The owners said, "This is our way of showing the Christmas spirit to the community."
Beginning in 1962, Millie Whiteley eased in to lead the Living Nativity Pageant. She stayed the director until 1966 when the associate pastor, Sherrill Hayes, directed the pageant.
In 1967 Pearl Bohling was the director, and she added Mary riding the donkey to the stable.
In 1968 Millie Whiteley came back and directed another year.
Beginning in 1969, Marge Rueckert Hultquist took over as director through 1994, twenty-five years of directing. She started with creating group leaders for Mary and Joseph, Angels, Shepherds and Kings. She created two angel parts for young children. Marge was always looking for more ways for the congregation to feel a part of the pageant. She found that there was no part written in the pageant for fourth, fifth and sixth graders, so she invited them to the church kitchen just before Nativity to bake cookies for the pageant. In 1970 Marge started two new fire shepherds to stay at the fire while the other shepherds went to the stable. She added the child shepherd to give a part to a son of a shepherd who wanted to be a part of the Nativity with his father.
In 1972 Joyce Alford suggested the pageant have "Open Chapel" so the audience could come in and pray and partake of communion. Marge added a Lame Shepherd that year so a handicapped teenager could have a part in the Nativity. He did this part for a number of years. In 1973 she added the innkeeper to tend the animals and let the cast in the gate.
In all these many years, the Nativity Pagent was not cancelled except for one night because of bad weather.
The Christmas of 1995, Ron and Kimme Nuckles became the directors of the Nativity. They have continued to this year, 1999, our fiftieth year of the pageant.
There have been very few in West Court Street Church who haven't helped with the pageant. For years, many people have made costumes, cooked and served food in the kitchen for the cast, left their homes early to dress and make-up characters and put their prayers and monies in the pageant.
The attitude of the church is best characterized by the man who provides the donkey every year, even though he doesn't attend the church. He hurries home from work each night to load his donkey and bring him to be in the pageant. This family comes back after the performance and picks up the donkey to take him home. If aanyone asked Mr. Walt Duncan, "Why do you go to this trouble?", his voice would blend with all the others: "It's Christmas, the story of Jesus' birth. It's something we don't want the world to forget."Back to Living Nativity Page
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