Colin Crosby Heritage Tours

Leicester's Good Friday in City Centre

"Christ in the Centre" will once again be performed on Good Friday in the streets of Leicester City Centre.

It takes the form of an enactment of the last hours of Christ, from arrest to Cruxifixion, with actors playing the leading roles. The production is staged by the Sword Christian Drama Company of Kibworth.

The people of Leicester play supporting roles, as the crowd follows the route from Leicester Cathedral to Leicester Market and Town Hall Square, and along Gallowtree Gate to the finale in Humberstone Gate.

I have attended every year from the outset. The first time "Christ in the Centre" took place, in 2003, there were 3,000 of us, all attracting strange looks, sometimes hostile, from others who wondered why their Easter should be marred by this Christian nonsense.

By 2006, the event had grown to the extent that 8,000 people were involved. "Christ in the Centre" is a most important and highly meaningful event.

Tim Stevens, the Bishop of Leicester, says "This has become a major feature of Holy Week in the centre of the city and is one of the most powerful acts of Christian witness we can make. I do hope that we shall continue to build on this for future years so that the extraordinary love and compassion of God is set before the world. Thank you all."

Perhaps you might expect the Bishop to say something of the sort. But this is another anonymous comment received.

"My sister told me how she had stood in the middle of a crowded Market Place in Leicester on Good Friday. How she had with a crowd of others around her, seen Roman soldiers march past. Had seen a group of disciples and a band of women distraught. And had watched Christ being nailed to a cross. And how for her on that Good Friday, Easter was never the same again."

If you can be in Leicester on the morning of Good Friday, 6th April, I strongly urge you to be involved.

Posted by colin on Monday 26th March, 2007 at 9:05am