news-record.com

GREENSBORO — Greensboro College staff will meet today to decide how to mark the Christmas season without the life-sized nativity scene that has been a holiday tradition for more than 70 years.

"It is very, very sad when people strike out against sacred symbols," said Craven Williams, president of the college. "It's a bigger issue than striking out at these life-size figures."

Williams said the 71-year-old nativity scene, which has been displayed on the college's lawn at 815 W. Market St. since 1990, is a total loss.

"It is clearly beyond repair," he said.

The nativity had artfully rendered fiberglass figures representing Joseph and Mary on the road to Bethlehem, the inn and the manger scene.

Those figures were knocked over, broken and smashed Saturday morning.

"This was the destruction of a set of values," Williams said. "It is very sad to see someone's violent response to those values."

Thousands of visitors have made viewing the scene part of their Yuletide routine, first at the Pilot Life Insurance Co.'s Sedgefield office, which began the tradition in 1936, and at Greensboro College for the past 17 years.

Williams said he knows of families who bring grown, out-of-town grandchildren back to the scene every year.

By Sunday, people had offered Williams help raising money to rebuild the nativity.

Each piece - including Mary, the wise men, the shepherds, sheep, camels and the manger — must be individually re-created, Williams said. After the Joseph figure was stolen in 1996, the school spent $5,000 to have it rebuilt, he said.

The college employs a security guard to watch the nativity overnight, but the guard left at 5:30 a.m., Williams said. He estimated the damage was done about 6:30 Saturday morning.

Contact Sonja Elmquist at 373-7090 or selmquist@news-record.com