For a second straight year, the birth of Jesus Christ will be portrayed on the streets of downtown Lenoir as area churches come together for a live Nativity scene.

"Into the Light," a Christmas Nativity scene, will take place Friday, Dec. 11 from 7-8:30 p.m. on the stage in the downtown Lenoir square.

The event started last year with six churches involved. This year, the number of churches participating has grown to 10.

"We're growing," said Jane Prestwood, one of the chief organizers of the event. "This is just a community thing that we need to do, something our churches need to be involved in."

The event will bring together people of all denominations to share the story of Jesus' birth.

This year's list of participating churches includes Central Advent Christian, Crest View Baptist, First Baptist of Lenoir, First Presbyterian, First United Methodist of Lenoir, St. James Episcopal, St. Stephens Lutheran, Tabernacle Advent Christian, United Presbyterian and Zion United Church of Christ.

The live Nativity scene will feature members of the churches filling up to 17 different roles to re-enact the events surrounding Jesus' birth long ago. There will be Mary and Joseph, along with the innkeeper and his wife. Angels, shepherds and wise men also will have roles in the portrayal, which will feature live animals supplied by J&B Petting Farm of Morganton.

"The shape of the stage reminded me of what we think of as a nativity scene," Prestwood said. "It made me think this will be a great place for this. I think this brings together our churches and our community."

A community choral ensemble also has been assembled to provide music and songs for the Nativity scene. It will be directed by Patsy Hollar, and people attending are encouraged to join in with the ensemble as it performs.

"We should have a really good group to sing, and we want the audience to join in," Prestwood said.

The story of Jesus' birth will be narrated by Rocky Brooks of Foothills Radio Group. He will be reading an adaptation of the age-old story taken from the Bible.

Prestwood said last year's event proved to be a success, and this one appears to be headed in the same direction with the interest shown already by other churches to be part of it. She said the hope is that the event will grow in coming years and be offered on multiple nights with two or three churches participating each night.

"Our hope is to have it happen more than one night," Prestwood said. "We'd like to get more churches involved and divide the nights. It's something we can do for the community."

For more information about the live Nativity scene that will be offered, contact Jane Prestwood at 828-758-0198 or 828-754-0101.