Creche travels from Christmas fields to Christmas Eve service.

The olive-wood creche set that was filmed for the Church of the Brethren Christmas Eve telecast on CBS has a unique background, reports Howard Royer, who created the decor for the service along with Brethren graphic artist Rosanna Eller McFadden. Royer manages the Global Food Crisis Fund for the General Board and is a member of the board of SERRV/A Greater Gift.

The creche set was made this past year as a special order for the SERRV gift shop at the Brethren Service Center in New Windsor, Md., said Linda Kjeldgaard, a SERRV staff member. "The artisans are from Shepherds Field workshop and truly work in the fields that once were used by the shepherds during Christ's life," she told Royer.

"The olive wood is from cuttings taken while pruning the olive trees in Israel," she added. "No trees are cut just for their wood. Although many trees have recently been destroyed in the ongoing conflict and the fence-building around the Palestinian compounds, in peaceful times olive trees are kept alive as long as possible with many still surviving from the time of Christ. The artisans are Palestinian Christians and work in small shops or in rooms in their homes. Due to the smaller number of tourists (one of the main customers of their work) they have been especially hard hit by a lack of orders."

"A detail that is hard to figure from a TV screen is the size of the carvings," Royer said. "There were 11 pieces, the taller 20 inches in height." The General Board has purchased the creche set, adding it to the board's art acquisitions.

Source: 12/31/2004 Newsline