At Haywood Village Church, Weston-super-Mare, the telling of the Christmas story is taking on an imaginative twist this year, as young people in the village prepare to recreate the nativity story as a “breaking news” broadcast, and filmed in their community.
The youth group of Haywood Village Church with Hutton and Locking will be out in the village, cameras in hand, stepping into the roles of reporters, eyewitnesses and bystanders. They’ll be capturing scenes on location and weaving them together into a full video retelling of the first Christmas, all set against familiar local backdrops.
Even The Landing Light pub and the local Co Op take on a starring role. As part of their filmed interviews, there will be input from local ‘eyewitnesses’. Revd Fiona Mayne, Pioneer Minister and leader of Haywood Village Church expains how it will work. "It will be like a news programme. For example we might cut to a bystander who says: 'I was just walking home when I heard singing, not from people, but from the sky! Then I saw a group of shepherds rushing to an old stable. Everyone’s talking about the baby born there. They say He’s special maybe even the one we’ve been waiting for.' We might cut to a weather report about the clear skies over Bethlehem."
The youth group were inspired to think about making the film for Christmas after recreating the Easter story in this way as an exercise at youth group. The young people got so creative with their ideas and wrote the wrote the script themselves. Fiona says, “When the young people imagine themselves in the story, as reporters or witnesses, they connect with it in a real way. And when they start ask to questions such as, ‘How did you feel when you heard the angels?’ or ‘What was it like finding no room at the inn?’, they can imagine what the joy of the first Christmas was really like and suddenly, it’s not just a story, it begins to be relevant and come alive.”
Many of the young people involved with the filming have also helped write the script and are taking on the part of some of the characters in the nativity. Once filming wraps, the finished video will be shared at a community carols gathering in the school’s community room, bringing families, friends and neighbours together to watch and enjoy this retelling of the Christmas story.