Flash flood damages, destroys Nativity scenes stored in church basement

Jun. 25—Volunteers sorted and washed dozens of wise men, donkeys, angels and baby Jesuses, then laid them out to sun dry in the Trinity Episcopal Church courtyard at the corner of Kirkwood Avenue and Grant Street this week.

There were a lot of Josephs, too, and as many Marys, made from ceramic, wood, plastic, metal, cardboard and other materials.

Friday night's flash flooding filled the church basement with 3 feet of water. Among the heavily damaged and lost items: Trinity's storied collection of more than 150 Nativity scenes from around the world.

Nancy Hutchens, who heads the church building, grounds and gardens committee, sought help from church members to sort through the contents of each soggy cardboard box to document the contents for an insurance claim.

Some of the more durable creches would be saved. Others, including a soaked Czech paper doll set from Prague with a fold-out map of Bethlehem, went into the trash.

The Rev. Matt Seddon stood nearby on Wednesday, watching the salvage effort. He's been the church rector since October, and never got to see the creche display that's set up in the Great Hall every December.

It normally took three days to arrange the nativity scenes. Students from St. Charles Catholic School would take a field trip to see them. But the pandemic kept the collection boxed up in the basement this past Christmas season.

The 3 feet of water in the basement was polluted with oil from the church's flooded-out elevator, which will have to be replaced. Church members used Dawn dishwashing detergent mixed with water in plastic bins to scrub each piece they thought could be saved.

Seddon lamented the loss of much of the historic collection, which came from all parts of the world and featured African, Eskimo, Native American, European and other renditions of the birth of Christ described in the Bible.

"The incarnation of God on Earth is extremely important to Episcopalians, and the nativity is the coming-to-Earth event," he said. "This hits you right in your theological gut."

Most of the creches were donated by the late Doris Seward, a church member who collected them on her travels. She died in 1999, and a portion of her ashes are interred in Trinity's columbarium in the courtyard.

"What enchanted Doris was that God came to Earth to a family, and wherever she went, the creche looked like the people there, a family there," said church member Marie Shakespeare. "It was a really beautiful and tender thing to her."

By 2 o'clock Wednesday afternoon, the creche clean-up crew was opening the ninth box of the day.

David Wade scrubbed three clear-glass wise men with a blue-handled brush. On the table was an oil-stained ceramic baby Jesus covered with a blanket and lying in a manger; a stray piece, they said.

Out in the sun was a brightly painted Navajo creche that was undamaged except for a flower that had broken off a cactus.

On a table inside the church Great Hall stood a 12-inch-tall white porcelain Joseph, a Mary on her knees praying and a baby with his arms held out. A church member had scrubbed them down and the pieces looked unscathed there on a cookie baking sheet.

"One creche at a time," Shakespeare said as they opened the 15th box to check on the condition of yet another Jesus, Mary, Joseph, three more wise men, a donkey and an angel.

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