“I know what the Bible said,” Carlsen said. “We’re supposed to love our neighbors as ourselves.”

The Rev. Lee Curtis, who also serves at Christ Church and came up with the idea for the demonstration, said the biblical trio was a family of refugees seeking asylum in Egypt after Jesus’ birth.

“An angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, ‘Arise, take the young child and his mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I bring you word; for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him,'” according to the New King James Version of Matthew 2:13-14. “When he arose, he took the young child and His mother by night and departed for Egypt.”

Said Curtis: “This holy family is every family, and every family is holy.”

The church set up the caged nativity scene Monday night as part of its #EveryFamilyIsHoly campaign.

This is not the first time the downtown Indianapolis church, the has weighed in on social issues. The Episcopal Diocese of Indianapolis has more than 9,000 members in almost 50 churches across the southern two-thirds of Indiana.

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