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Place Your Ad Today!! Walworth County Sunday Sunday, December 23, 2007 15
BY LYNN GREENE
SENIOR EDITOR
BURLINGTON — This year,
the English Settlement United
Methodist Church in Burlington
is looking for nine babies.
If they were to put a help-wanted
ad in the paper it might read:
“Job requirements include a willingness
to be swaddled. Should be
comfortable lying in a manger
inside a barn, and must be accompanied
by parents.”
The job in question? Being part
of a living nativity. The babies
and their parents portray the key
roles of Mary, Joseph and baby
Jesus in the reenactment of the
first nativity.
“They don’t all come from our
congregation; we get them wherever
we can,” said Bev Squire, one
of the event’s organizers.
After 28 years of presenting
the Christmas in the Barn, the
church adjusted to the large
influx of people wanting to see the
event, and now
offers live reen-
actments every
half-hour from
5 p.m. to 8:30
p.m.
The event is
always held on
Christmas Eve
at the Squire
barn in
Burlington.
This year, organizers expect more
than 1,200 people to attend.
It’s an outreach activity for the
church’s congregation, and it’s
always been free to the public.
“If people do insist on donating
something, we give it to the
Burlington food pantry,” Squire
said.
The idea for the nativity originated
with the church’s former
pastor, Joseph Webb.
“Everyone liked it so well, we
added a second service, then
three, and we kept going,” Squire
said.
Today, Pastor Tom Long welcomes
those gathered in the barn.
“My role is really just to introduce
the nativity and then tell
them really important things like
no smoking in the barn,” Long
said with a laugh, adding that the
living nativity is a wonderful tradition
that is put on by the entire
congregation.
“I’ve always been so impressed
with the job they do,” he said. “It’s
a wonderful custom that rallies
the church and provide inspiration
for the community.”
Christmas in the Barn started
when Everett Squire owned the
barn. His son John and wife
Cindy now own the property and
do their part to keep the tradition
alive.
Transforming the barn into a
stable involves moving things
around a bit, setting up straw
bales — enough to seat 120 —
and creating a stage area where a
rough, wooden manger holds the
baby Jesus and the supporting
cast: Mary, Joseph, three wise
LIVING
NATIVITY
Burlington church celebrates the
true meaning of Christmas
AT A GLANCE
■ What: Christmas in the Barn: Living
Nativity
■ When: Viewings every half-hour from 5
p.m. to 8:30 p.m., Monday.
■ Location: The Squire Barn, 26715
Church Road, Burlington
■ Contact: Bev Squire, (262) 534-6592
men, shepherds, angels and the
innkeeper that turns the holy
family away from the inn.
Recasting the event each year
is congregation-wide event. Kathy
Rubach organizes the script for
the program. Dale and Dan Noble
provide the straw. Dick and Mary
Alice provide the sheep. Rachel
Bunker lines up the kids.
“Bev organizes the babies, I
arrange the rest of the kids in the
cast,” Bunker said. “I teach
Sunday School, so I have access to
the kids, so to speak.”
The women of the church
organize and prepare the coffee,
cookies and hot chocolate that are
served to attendees and volunteers.
The men of the church get
together a few days before
Christmas Eve to set up the barn,
haul in straw bales and plow a
field for parking. The volunteers
organize the cars coming and
going to the barn.
The weather can be an unwitting
character
in the live
nativity.
“Last year, it
was just mud,”
Bunker said.
“We just pray
it’s not real
muddy or real
wet,” Squire
said.
Somehow, it
all comes together.
“Everybody does something,”
Bunker said.
The Bunker family — Rachel,
her husband Jim and their four
children — has been involved
every year since they moved to
Burlington in 1999. Gracie and
Charley, the two youngest girls,
played the part of baby Jesus
when they were infants.
“When Bev saw me pregnant at
Valentine’s Day, she asked me if
we would do it,” Bunker said.
“That was when we had Gracie,
so that was 2001.” Two years
later it was Charley’s turn.
Kennedy and Carson Bunker,
the older children, also are
involved.
“They started young too, being
angels or shepherds,” Bunker
said. “Usually we have the older
kids play the wise men.”
Even Jim has been wrangled
into playing a part when needed.
“We have four readers and he
usually does that, but a couple of
years, I needed an innkeeper so I
put him in costume,” Bunker
said.
The lantern-lit barn’s rustic setting
does a good job of reproducing
the biblical event. Originally
the lanterns were fueled by
kerosene; now they’ve been electrified.
Real animals also play their
parts. There are sheep, a calf and,
of course, a donkey — the animal
Mary rode into Bethlehem on.
The costumes are kept from
year to year and are stored at a
church member’s house. They’ve
been added to since the church
staged its first Christmas in the
Barn in 1969.
“We’ve only had to cancel one
year — it was just too cold,”
Squire said.
The costumes are hung in a
dressing area on a pipe. The participants
put the long garments
on over their own clothes and
play their parts for one of the
half-hour viewings, then turn the
costumes over to the next set of
participants.
During the enactment, the original
nativity story is read and
those gathered sing “O Little
Town of Bethlehem,” “O Come All
Ye Faithful,” and “Hark the
Herald Angels Sing.”
Betty and husband Richard
attend the living nativity every
year. Their daughter Jean got
involved through her youth group
when the event first began.
The Nativity Story
Luke 2:1-20
In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be
registered. This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of
Syria. All went to their own towns to be registered. Joseph also went from the town of
Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was
descended from the house and family of David. He went to be registered with Mary, to
whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child. While they were there, the time
came for her to deliver her child. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him
in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the
inn.
“We always liked the singing,”
Betty Rehberg said.
The event has proven popular
for many years.
“Every year, we get letters from
people after they’ve been to the
Christmas in the Barn,” Squire
said. “We put them in our scrapbook.
It just overwhelms me how
the members of our church, they
just put everything aside for the
Christmas in the Barn.”
In that scrapbook are photos of
many of the participants from
years past. Before Tony Romo
became the Dallas Cowboys’ quarterback,
he played the part of a
shepherd in the mid-’80s. Romo’s
parents are still members of the
church.
Squire and her husband Earl
have seen many of the kids grow
up, have kids of their own and
return again. Even though the
PHOTOS COURTESY OF BEV SQUIRE
At left, Andrea and Jeff VanDan
and their son Vincent portrayed
the holy family last year. Below,
Jean and Jeff Iverson came
back to Burlington with each of
their children to portray the
parts of Mary, Joseph and baby
Jesus. This photo from 1993
shows Emma, Trent and Blake
with another participant as an
angel in the background.
Rehberg’s daughter Jean got married
and moved away, her family
kept coming back.
Jean and Jeff Iverson live in
Minnesota, but each of their children
— Emma, Trent, Blake and
Joel — played baby Jesus in various
years.
“Now the kids are older so they
don’t make it back every year,”
Rehberg said. “But, I’ve had
grandchildren in there too.”
Last year, her grandson Landon
Rehberg played the baby Jesus
for one of the segments.
“It’s amazing how many people
come,” Long said. “A lot of them
aren’t members of our church, but
they come to the barn and then go
to their church service afterwards.”
Said Bunker, “It’s our
Christmas Eve. It’s become our
tradition. The kids love it.”