Yesterday, the hut was installed under in the north church tower garden, ready to welcome the nativity set. Darren, the guy working on it was unable to rendezvous with me to get the set of figures out of storage in the temporary vestry. As he said on the 'phone to me: "I'm only six hours behind on fixing lighting problems today."
We managed to meet up this morning and the figures were installed by lunchtime, with baby Jesus now resplendent in a little wooden crib Darren cobbled together with pieces of batten from B&Q. Somehow the half-sized recumbent cow got left behind in store, and was only discovered after Darren had gone. Thankfully, he hadn't finished, as there was one more thing to do - a grille to cover the opening, to deter thieves, vandals and bottle throwers. When he returned later to finish off, the cow was slipped into place.
No, it doesn't look quite so charming behind a protective net of rigid plastic, but I'm honestly not bothered, as this adds something different to the portrayal of Christ's birth. The appearance has a little of the prison about it, as well as being protective. After last year, viewers will understand the need for the latter, but the former is less obvious, until you recall that homelessness is a sort of prison for those who must endure it. Jesus started life with his parents in the prison of temporary homelessness, 'insecurely accommodated', as social work professionals say today.
I must make sure of finding a way of drawing public attention to this.
We managed to meet up this morning and the figures were installed by lunchtime, with baby Jesus now resplendent in a little wooden crib Darren cobbled together with pieces of batten from B&Q. Somehow the half-sized recumbent cow got left behind in store, and was only discovered after Darren had gone. Thankfully, he hadn't finished, as there was one more thing to do - a grille to cover the opening, to deter thieves, vandals and bottle throwers. When he returned later to finish off, the cow was slipped into place.
No, it doesn't look quite so charming behind a protective net of rigid plastic, but I'm honestly not bothered, as this adds something different to the portrayal of Christ's birth. The appearance has a little of the prison about it, as well as being protective. After last year, viewers will understand the need for the latter, but the former is less obvious, until you recall that homelessness is a sort of prison for those who must endure it. Jesus started life with his parents in the prison of temporary homelessness, 'insecurely accommodated', as social work professionals say today.
I must make sure of finding a way of drawing public attention to this.
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