It was a bank holiday and a market day so the town's main street was busy with shoppers. The Walk of Witness included about 3 hundred people and many more stopped their shopping (buying Easter eggs?) to come and watch the scenes.
It was very dramatic and certainly a witness to the Sufferings of Christ.
A comment from a Passer-By: 'Is that all those people can do, celebrate torture and execution?'Mmmmmm....
I ducked into a store at one point, to get a bottle of water, and heard this as the Christians marched past: 'God, there's loads of them!' For some reason, this made me laugh. It made us sound like rats or something. Perhaps that is how we are thought of?
I'm not sure about Walks of Witness on Good Friday. I think maybe there'd be more impact if we were celebrating His Resurrection on Easter Sunday.
Though the whole thing brought tears to *my* eyes.
The procession ended up at another church on the other side of town where a church band was waiting to play some modern Christian songs like Mighty to Save, thank goodness. At one point, some of the characters from the play interrupted one of the song to bring news that Jesus had been seen alive. That was good. I'm glad they ended it that way. But I'm not sure how many of the townsfolk who saw the scenes and witnessed the march would have hung around long enough to see the most important part of the Easter events- Death defeated, the hope of the Resurrection.
I ducked into a store at one point, to get a bottle of water, and heard this as the Christians marched past: 'God, there's loads of them!' For some reason, this made me laugh. It made us sound like rats or something. Perhaps that is how we are thought of?
I'm not sure about Walks of Witness on Good Friday. I think maybe there'd be more impact if we were celebrating His Resurrection on Easter Sunday.
Though the whole thing brought tears to *my* eyes.
The procession ended up at another church on the other side of town where a church band was waiting to play some modern Christian songs like Mighty to Save, thank goodness. At one point, some of the characters from the play interrupted one of the song to bring news that Jesus had been seen alive. That was good. I'm glad they ended it that way. But I'm not sure how many of the townsfolk who saw the scenes and witnessed the march would have hung around long enough to see the most important part of the Easter events- Death defeated, the hope of the Resurrection.Does your town do anything like this on Good Friday? What are your thoughts? Feel free to respond either as a Christian or a non-Christian.
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8 comments:
Hmm ... well, our denomination does not permit the representation of Christ. Acting as Him, and especially the crucifixion, horrifies me a bit, to tell the truth.
Like you, I'd prefer it if we all dashed around market squares on Monday, telling folks He is Risen.
In the current anti christian climate, I'm not sure the 'celebrating torture' thing does much good witness wise, in a straight line - though the fact that you are all prepared to go out there in the face of all Dawkins and Derision is a strong witness in more of a curve, if you get my gist.
Mixed feelings would have been a quicker way to say it! {g}
I'm not aware of anything public like that in our area but we don't have much of a downtown in most areas.
Our high school youth group did do Living Stations of the Cross. While I can understand celebrating the glory of the Resurrection; I think we need to remember that Christ suffered and died for us.
Speaking of Dawkins, I heard at Mass today that your London busses have signs that say: ""There's probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life."
How sad.... Maybe Christians need to counter with some messages of hope
"Is that all those people can do, celebrate torture and execution?"
LOL! Believing is understanding.
We don't have this in our little town per say...too many legal issues with permits. The individual churches(open to the public) do put on pageants.
Blessings to your family this Easter!
Renee, there was a counter campaign on the buses by one of the evangelical groups.
Personally, I thought it was fine. The more people who think about the issues, isnstead of settling for the status quo by not thinking about it, the better!
Also, most people I know had a good chuckle at atheists who use the word 'probably' in that sentence. Shouldn't they be agnnostics then? LOL!
I have mixed feelings.....I grew up overseas and it was the norm to have flagelantes parade through the streets, literally whipping themselves (ugh) and they'd often even nail someone to a cross....it did always seem horrifying to me and that the point of LIFE had been missed....and yet without the crucifixion the power of the Resurrection is dulled.....but I think I'd rather do a big "witness walk" type thing on Resurrection Sunday....
I do applaud the Christians in your area for getting out in this climate and taking a stand....I'm not aware of anything like this around here....but that could be because I'm fairly well focused on Passover and then base chapel things.
Like I said - I have mixed thoughts, since you asked. ::snort::
I'm not aware of any such things anywhere around here either. Interesting. It is too bad that people might have missed the ending if they weren't at that spot to witness the resurrection part.
I've never heard of anything like this. It does look very dramatic.
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