VillageLivingOnline.com
December 2013
Village Living Volume 4 | Issue 9 | December 2013
Right down Santa Claus Lane
• A1
neighborly news & entertainment for Mountain Brook
Away in a manger
Dancers, singers and floats galore will take to the streets of Mountain Brook Village for the annual Holiday Parade. Find all the details in this issue.
Community page B1
11 in a row
Mountain Brook Baptist Living Nativity celebrates 50 years By MADOLINE MARKHAM
The MBHS cross-country girls took the state 6A title yet again this year. Read more inside.
Sports page A20
INSIDE Sponsors ......... A4 Chamber ......... A5 City ................... A6 Business .......... A12 Food ................. A15 School House.. A16 Sports ............. A20 Community ..... B2 Faith ................ B14 Celebrations .. B16 Calendar ......... B17
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Angels were indeed on high at Mountain Brook Baptist Church. On cue, kids dressed in robes and halos levitated over live sheep, donkeys, cows and, of course, baby Jesus. The angels had walked down Montevallo Road and hiked up a hill to fly in the air, or at least appear to be on the hill behind the roof of the manger. And all of Mountain Brook was there to watch. Fifty years after the first production, the MBBC’s Living Nativity still welcomes 300400 people for each of three nights leading up to Christmas Eve. But the significance of the event is about more than numbers. “I think it’s meant a lot to this community and is about what the meaning of Christmas is — getting together to worship the Lord and maintain family relationships,” said Mary Scott, who played the original “Mary” in the nativity and is still a member of the church.
“I think it’s meant a lot to this community and is about what meaning of Christmas is — getting together to worship the Lord and maintain family relationships.” - Mary Scott
Members of Mountain Brook Baptist Church’s Living Nativity will reprise their old roles during this year’s production. The 50th-anniversary event will take place this month. Photos courtesy of Ed Willis.
Scott’s daughter, Ashley, and son, John III, acted in the nativity years later, and last year her grandson John Paul IV was an angel. Scott’s counterpart back in 1963, Richard Adams, who played Joseph, is also the first of three generations to play as wise men, angels and shepherds in the production. “I could repeat the whole [script], as could my children and grandchildren,” Adams said. “After three or four performances a night for three or four nights, you have it memorized.” The production’s organizers are hoping both Adams and Scott will be part of a special reunion night this year where members of nativity casts from over the years step into their old roles. According to the church’s history book, Dr. Dodson Nelson, MBBC pastor starting in the
early 1960s, realized the church had its biggest crowds at Easter and Christmas, and he wanted to do something to reach out to the community on one of those holidays. With that, it became a project of the associate deacons to tell the Christmas story to the community. The script for the 17-minute program has been the same all 50 years and has continued through rain and frigid temperatures. After all, no one can mess with the legacy of Nelson’s voice that plays on the recording. “Everyone says it’s what they imagine God’s voice would sound like,” said Ed Willis, who has run the sound for the production for the last 25 years after taking over for his dad.
See NATIVITY | page A23