Why or how is it that an event that took place two thousand or so years ago, involving a hill and three crosses outside the walls of a Middle Eastern city, under foreign occupation, still has relevance for us today? And not just relevance but which presents a reality that we cannot escape. We are all products of history, of our pasts; our lives are shaped by our upbringing, the way our parents treated us, and their parents before them – and so on. And we can’t do much about that. But over and above that, an event took place all those centuries ago which transcends in its importance any other influence that may have been exerted upon our lives. We celebrate it as Easter. Not just the Easter eggs and the chocolate bunnies and Easter bonnets – but a much, much more earth-shattering event than that. God appeared on earth in the form of Jesus Christ. Jesus was God but also human. This coming together of God and humanity is known as the Incarnation. We remember Jesus’ birth at Christmas, we have accounts in the New Testament Gospels of the miracles he performed, the stories he told, the people he met – and his death and resurrection. But I’m getting ahead of myself!

On Easter Saturday, in Sudbury, from 11am, beginning on the Croft and moving up Gainsborough Road, down North Street, through the Market Hill and back to the Croft, there will be a re-enactment of that event. From agony and betrayal in the Garden of Gethsemane, the trials Jesus underwent, the painful journey to the place of crucifixion and the defeat of death in the resurrection. In many ways it will be more than that for those participating. It will represent a recommitment of faith, a witness to that faith and a proclamation of that faith for others to see. We hope and pray that many folk in Sudbury will be touched by what they see, will ask questions of the Christians around them and in God’s time will realise their need to form a relationship with him.

An altogether less dramatic presentation of the Easter story will take place in Siam Gardens, at the Gaol Lane end of the North Street car-park, on Good Friday and Easter Sunday. A tableau focusing on the tomb and the resurrection will allow for quiet reflection, as well as activities for children to enjoy. 

Kettle & Fish wishes you a wonderful Easter and a very warm invitation to attend the events Churches Together in Sudbury & District are sponsoring.                        Malcolm Offord