| This
year
Christ in the Centre
started on Palm Sunday (1st
April 2007)
with Jesus leading a donkey with his disciples
through the streets of Leicester. The
fifth Good Friday Passion pageant took place on 6th
April 2007, starting in Leicester Cathedral at 10.15 a.m. with the
Bishop of Leicester's welcome and opening words.
The performance
started with "The End" - with the prophet Daniel's vision of
the ascended Son of Man coming with the clouds of heaven before God, the
Ancient of Days. He is given authority glory and power. All
nations worship him. This is followed by the Beginning, when the
Word of God, who spoke everything into existence, becomes human in Jesus
(which means Saviour). Jesus is baptised by John the Baptist and
then after calling his 12 disciples he began his Ministry. A procession led by
Jesus left the Cathedral and passed through the streets of Leicester to Town Hall
Square collecting several thousand people on the way.
In Town Hall
Square, the expectant crowds watched as Jesus tought, performed miracles,
told parables, attacked the Pharisees, had one final, last
supper with his disciples and was betrayed
by one of his own disciplines, arrested, tried,
brought before the Roman Governor, Pontius Pilate,
tortured, whipped and eventually sentenced to death by
crucifixion. As Jesus was forced to carry a
cross through the streets to his own death, the crowds surged behind
the procession along Gallowtree Gate to the Clock Tower and then into
Humberstone Gate (Golgotha) where the three giant crosses stood starkly
against the blue sky. Jesus stumbled and fell, weighed down by the
cruel torture, the weight of the cross and the knowledge of the ordeal
to come. An onlooker, Simon of Cyrene, was
dragged from the crowd by the Roman soldiers and is forced to carry the
cross while Jesus staggered on, barefoot towards the crosses. A
giant TV screen is placed halfway along Humberstone Gate to give the
thousands of people who came to watch a good view of the proceedings on
the stage at the far end of this street. Enormous banks of speakers have
been fitted so that every sound uttered on stage could be heard right back
to the Clock Tower.
After being nailed
to the cross, the final
scenes of the crucifixion had Jesus comforting his mother, Mary,
accompanied by his disciple John and then crying out and committing his spirit
to his Father before his body was tenderly lowered into the
arms of his
grieving mother. Joseph of Arimathea asked Pontius Pilate for
permission to bury Jesus' body in his own tomb.
An act of
worship was completed by an uplifting address from Rev. Bruce Nadin,
Minister of Sutton in Elms Baptist Church and Chaplain to Leicester City
Football Club, and closing prayers were led by the Bishop of
Leicester. As the music swelled and the crowd were beginning to
think about moving away, the resurrected Jesus, in
dazzling white garments, appeared, greeted the crowds, his disciples and
his supporters before they all walked through the crowds to rapturous
applause. Another magnificent performance mixing wonderful music
with powerful drama had ended.
Resonance, a
local Christian band, played on both main stages before each performance
(Town Hall at 10am and Humberstone Gate from 11am). Aching Arms Puppets
performed on the Humberstone Gate stage at 9.45 a.m.
In the previous two
years videos have been made of the whole event by the Leicester Movie Makers group
who are offering copies for sale. If you would like purchase a copy
then please join the event Mailing
List or e-mail:
. If anybody has photographs or videos from this year's
events, we would love to see them. |
