This Christmas season marked the 85th year where the handcrafted nativity scene adorned the church. The crèche was built and donated by brothers Maurice, 18, and Harold Possley, 16, in 1938 and has been displayed at the St. Ambrose parish each December since.
During an excursion around the Erie countryside in 1938, the young men gathered green willow sticks to construct their simple but strong nativity. They worked together to bend, hammer, and nail the willow wood into a crèche measuring three ft. long, two ft. tall, and 1.5 ft. deep. As parishioners of St. Ambrose, they humbly donated their manger scene to the church, where it’s been sheltered in the eight decades since.
The timelessly Catholic church at the corner of Main St. and 5th Ave. was just two years old at that time. In 1936, the parish commissioned the current brick edifice to replace their house of worship. According to the book “Remembering Erie” by Cliff Reisenbigler, parishioners started meeting in an uptown store building in 1919 or 1920 before they purchased and remodeled a house that would serve as their original church.
The nativity set is usually placed on the altar but has been located at a few different places in years past. “I do think it’s important to keep the story alive,” said Harold’s son Tim Possley of Erie, also a member of the parish. “Because six years later, both of these young boys were serving in World War II.”
Maurice, also known as “Mort,” served in the Army Air Corps during the war. He was killed in action on Sept. 1, 1944 when his B-24 Liberator bomber plane was shot down just eight days after his 24th birthday. Harold served in the Navy and was stationed in the Marshall Islands.
After the war, Harold returned to his hometown, where he and his wife Dorothy raised their seven children. He helped with the family cheese factory in Erie and remained a dedicated and faithful parishioner of St. Ambrose Church, passing away at age 95 on July 21, 2017.
The crèche’s steadfast presence at St. Ambrose is a reminder to the faithful of the true meaning of Christmas. Original nativity figures were provided by members of the Possley family, and a strand of lights was later added. The current figures in the manger were given by parishioner Gloria Stubbs, in honor of her parents.
The crèche is a parish tradition but also serves as an unofficial memorial to Mort, and a reminder of simpler times in the small town. There was even an article in the Catholic Observer magazine in 2009 about the brothers’ gift to their church, complete with a photo of Harold kneeling next to the crèche scene.
The Christmas Nativity will be on display for a few more days before it’s carefully packed away until next December.
Photos provided by Tim Possley
