Community
5 December, 2025
St Paul’s Church brings story to life
A SECRET project four months in the making is now complete, with a life-sized nativity scene constructed in the St Paul’s Anglican Church.
A SECRET project four months in the making is now complete, with a life-sized nativity scene constructed in the St Paul’s Anglican Church.
Reverend Matthew Jones and Ron Simcox have been working towards the nativity scene in the lead-up to December, with construction of the scene taking three days to fully put together.
The display includes the Advent wreath with the five candles for the Advent season, the nativity scene – featuring Mary, Joseph, two shepherds, a cow and the baby Jesus himself – and the arrival of the three kings.
Rev Jones said the idea came after thinking about a way to tell the Christmas story visually that’s different from the shopping centres’ focus on Santa Claus, Frosty the Snowman, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and reds and greens.
“We were trying to think of a way to visually tell the Christmas story in a way that didn’t compete with what’s going on but gave a balance of the story – otherwise it’s all one-sided about buying presents,” he said.
“We want people, if they can, to come see this – particularly at our Nine Lessons and Carols on Sunday, December 21 from 7pm.
“It’ll be very powerful when we walk in singing ‘Once in royal David’s City’ and they’ll be looking at the life-sized cattle shed.
“I mentioned it to Ron and asked if we could somehow create something – he came back with a design and built it from scratch, including the rough timber manger and the shepherds’ crooks.”
Almost everything used to create the scene was sourced locally, with op shops across the district hit for materials to dress the kings, shepherds and Mary and Joseph and locally sourced timber.
The shepherds’ crooks were made with 150-year-old timber from the hall’s panels, which were taken down due to rotting and recycled for the project.
The candles were specially made by the Nimbin Candle Factory in northern New South Wales to be non-toxic, while the cow was delivered from Melbourne.
“It took about four months in the gathering and the building, and we did it all in secret – only four people knew what was going on, and things were hidden all over the place,” Rev Jones said.
“The cow was especially ordered and had to be delivered from Melbourne, but everything else except for the candles was locally sourced.
“We gathered things together and hid them in my house and Ron’s shed.
“On the day we started to build, we gathered everything together – we had piles of rocks and bits of timber to move and hessian to put on.
“The biggest problem we faced was getting the material to stay on – we went through an enormous amount of safety pins to pin it all on.”
Mr Simcox used wingnuts and screws to allow the display to become a permanent fixture in the church’s Christmas celebrations, saying he enjoyed being able to work on the project.
“I really loved doing it,” he said.
Among those working on the secret project was Sister Raphael Stone of the Benedictine Abbey, who helped to dress the models.
“We’re very appreciative of her skill of getting the fabric to sit,” Rev Jones said.
“She sent me a message thanking me for inviting her to be part of the secret project.
“We’d like people to come and see it – we’re trying to work out how we might be able to keep the building open some days closer to Christmas, particularly during the school holidays.
“They can certainly ring me and say they want to bring the kids to see it.
“It’ll be here until early January.”
The church is planning to open from 4-5.30pm on Friday, December 5 to allow people to view the display prior to their Christmas movie.
Anyone who wishes to visit the display over the coming weeks can contact Rev Jones on 0458 862 098.