Churches tell Easter story

Garth Stevenson and Shirley Spooner in the large St Paul's carpark. PICTURE / PAUL BROOKS

On Good Friday (March 30) and Easter Saturday, the carpark beneath St Paul's Presbyterian Church will be another world and another time as depicted by 11 participating churches.

The covered carpark will be divided into 13 bays and each church will depict one of the Easter events in the way of their choosing.

Shirley Spooner, St Paul's pastoral care worker, describes how the public will see it, starting from the entrance to the carpark off Cooks St.
"This is the entry into Jerusalem when Jesus rode his donkey and made his triumphal entry, and this is the Methodists' site. It follows Passion Week so we'll have Judas betraying Jesus, the foot washing, right round to the trial, the crucifixion, the resurrection and the Road to Emmaus. Over there we're going to have The Great Commission which is 'go into all the World and preach the Gospel'."

Churches taking part are St Paul's, Elim, St Andrew's, St James, Te Puna O Wai Ora, Faith City Church, Christchurch Anglican, Trinity Methodist, Salvation Army, Riverside and Harrison Street Community Church.
"We're going to have a church service in here [the carpark], in the middle of it all on Good Friday," says Shirley. The service is at 10am and a collection will be taken to aid Tonga following the devastating cyclone.

The installations in the bays will be open on Good Friday from 1pm to 4pm and on Saturday from 10am to 2pm.

The event came about following an idea by church organist Garth Stevenson, an idea he shared with Shirley. She is a member of the Christian Leaders Association in Whanganui, took the idea to the chair and got the go-ahead. The churches readily came on board.
"We want as many people as possible to come through," she says. All visitors can have a cuppa and a hot cross bun in the carpark.