Fort Assiniboine to host live nativity scene

FORT ASSINIBOINE - It's not the Christmas season in Fort Assiniboine until hundreds of people take the Journey to Bethlehem.

The live outdoor interactive performance, hosted by the Fort Assiniboine and Friends Christian Community, will be on the weekends of Nov. 16 and 17 and Nov. 23 and 24.

Cary Ann Prociuk, a facilitator for the production, said the play is the dramatic retelling of the last mile of the Christmas story from the perspective of a family led by their guide and head of the family making their way from Nazareth to Bethlehem along the same route as Mary and Joesph to pay their taxes as part of the census.

"It goes back to the fall of 1998 when the daughter of [Fort Assiniboine residents] Jack and Joyce Tipping sent a [VHS video] of an outdoor production, called Bethlehem Alive [from Stouffville, Ont] reenacting the night Jesus birth," she said.

The following year, in September, they formed the basis of  Fort Assiniboine and Friends Christian Community, and two months later, the group was able to stage two consecutive Sunday productions.

Initially, Prociuk said the group used tents for the building, eventually replacing them with buildings.

"We were delighted to have 80 people come the first year," she said. "Then we had 800, and now, last year, we reached the point where 1,555 people attended the production," she said.

Prociuk joked that they have such accurate attendance numbers because "nothing has changed in 2,000 years; people still have to pay their taxes, and our tax collector is mean, and he knows how many are in a family."

She added that the production takes a small army every year to produce, and upward of 100 actors are needed for each performance.

"We have cast members coming from as far as Fort Saint John, Fort Saskatchewan, let alone the audience," Prociuk said, noting they have heard that people schedule their vacations to visit their relatives in the area, with the specific purpose of attending Journey to Bethlehem.

The walk-through nativity story runs nightly from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the St. John Vianney Catholic Church on Main Street in Fort Assiniboine and ends at the Fort Assiniboine Friendship Centre or museum. It takes about 20 minutes to walk through the whole nativity scene. Depending on the number of people waiting, walk-throughs start every eight to ten minutes. For those who have to wait, there is music and entertainment at the Catholic Church, hot drinks, and other refreshments at the Friendship Centre.

"The setting is perfect. The church is a historic building constructed in 1948, and we go out and walk a mile along the [Athabasca River] bank through Bethlehem, paying the taxes. Along the way, stop or are along the way sets, or characters, that depict the [Christmas story] evening over 2000 years ago," Prociuk said. "Ending in food and fellowship in the beautiful [recreation of a Hudson Bay fur trading fort]."

Admission is free, but donations are accepted to help offset the cost of staging the performance. Any remaining funds will go to Christian Blind Mission International, which originated the script on which the Fort Assiniboine production is based.

Prociuk reminded attendees that the production would proceed regardless of the weather, so they should dress appropriately, including footwear.

"We've had people come in high-heel shoes, which can be difficult to navigate in the snow," she said.

Barry Kerton, TownandCountryToday.com