Passion play’s the thing
Rev Ross Blackman Hamilton Old Parish Church of Scotland
What do Brexit, the American elections, and Easter have in common? Strong characters, a populist vote, national implications, concerns among minorities, and protests on the streets?
In light of some knife-edge decisions and the events playing out on the world stage, perhaps a reminder of those Easter events 2000 years ago is timely. It was a time when a challenging preacher in the Middle East, rather than find support, met his end to the call of a majority.
Those events are often called“the Passion”. The first time I heard that phrase was with the movie“the Passion of the Christ”and then some street theatre that a friend was involved in.
I didn’t know what was being talked about. A play? A passion play? It took a while to make the connection.
Later on I would discover the Bavarian village of Oberammergau puts on a play every 10 years to fulfil a centuries-old promise. It is a reenactment of the last few days of Jesus’s life, leading up to his crucifixion and resurrection. It uses the visual arts to powerfully convey those events in a way that the written text often fails to accomplish.
It has been performed in parts of Scotland and now a smaller scale version is planned for Hamilton. The churches of Hamilton and the wider community have an opportunity to come together in their common British culture.
Rehearsals have begun in Hamilton Old Parish Church every Tuesday evening at 7pm, and there is still plenty of time for people to get involved.
Come and see. will be in East Kilbride for this week only. We look forward to having you with us.
Memorial Parish Church