FOR one week in Lent, St Mary the Virgin, Goldington, Bedford,
in St Albans diocese, was transformed into the
"Easter Story Trail". It had been inspired by Peter and Julie
Fraser, of the Bible Encounter Trust. A team from Churches Together
in Goldington worked to paint scenery, erect frameworks, and create
four scenes from the story: the Upper Room, the Garden of
Gethsemane, the Cross, and the Empty Tomb. (Lent studies had also
been based on these four scenes.)
More than 400 children from local primary schools visited the
Trail, where, at each scene, they listened to narrators, dressed in
first-century costume, tell their part of the Easter story.
Writing in the Trail visitors' book, words such as "awesome"
were used by children and adults alike. The Vicar, the Revd Richard
Howlett, said that it had been a wonderful opportunity to welcome
the children and adults, and to explain the good news of Easter in
an age when such general knowledge cannot be taken for granted.
