CHILDREN FIND THEIR PLACE IN CHRISTMAS STORY

In the wake of Premier Steve Bracks officially telling Victorian schools not to ban Christmas celebrations, the churches of Morwell and surrounds in partnership with the Gippsland Fusion and Awakening teams have given the kids in Churchill the chance to be the stars of the Christmas story.

Part of a national program, the Schools in Harmony Advent Pageants are now in their seventh year and have been enabling the Christian churches in a community to come together and serve their schools and communities by firmly marking Christmas as a family celebration.

“One of the amazing things about an Awakening Advent Pageant is that its not about a bunch of adult performers telling the Christmas story to the kids… instead it’s the kids sharing the story to their community – they are the stars!”, says Liz Sulley, Fusion Coordinator in Gippsland.

Organisers of the Advent Pageants across Australia marvel at their simplicity, “They are one of the simplest tools to tell the Christmas story in a way that can engage the whole community that I have ever seen”, says Matt Garvin, Fusion’s State Coordinator. “It really is a community wide retelling of the Christmas story where the local pub owner can have a role as the innkeeper, the local mayor as a ‘wise’ man, and the kids as angels, shepherds, sheep, Mary and Joseph.”

“The main street is blocked off and the kids march down it singing Christmas songs and smiling to all the people who come out of shops, their parents, grandparents and any other bystander who stops to watch.  Then they usually arrive at a local park where a short program happens retelling the Christmas story through drama, dance, song and performances by the children.  Then there is an ‘open crowd’ festival where everything is free and everyone is invited.  The kids will hold it as a memory for the rest of their life.”

And that is what organizers see as one of the key aims, for Australian children to build up a Christian memory. “Thirty years ago there were around fifty percent of Australian children in Sunday school.  Today we would be struggling to reach five percent.  An Advent Pageant in a community held each year builds up the Christian memory of our kids in a way that nothing else can.”, says Mr Garvin.

The Advent Pageant is scheduled to run annually on the last Friday of November and is part of a national community radio linkup where children can be connected with other Pageants that are happening at the same time right across Australia. Next years date is set already – Friday December 1st, 2006.