THE NARNIA EXPERIENCE
In 2023 we spent many months creating our fantastic Narnia Experience.
We turned All Saints’ New Longton into Narnia with a series of themed rooms, much loved characters from the C.S Lewis books and tonnes of interactive exhibits throughout our church.
We welcomed hundreds of local people, of all ages, though our doors including our congretion, local families, local schools and even the Bishop of Blackburn! The grand Finale, Narnia’s Winter Wonderland saw appearances from Lucy, Edmund, Peter and Susan, The Professor, Father Christmas and even the White Witch!
Our visitors learned about Aslan and the great sacrifice he made…
We hope you enjoy watching Rev’d Tomnus walk you through our Narnia Experience!
THE EASTER EXPERIENCE
The Easter Experience: a sum up of success!
During Holy Week, we opened to the public and welcomed around 150 visitors. Easter Day, which was our busiest service yet, was a chance for even more people to visit the scenes on a self-guided basis.
Additionally, during Easter week, over 250 children from local schools and nurseries were welcomed in for a guided tour.
The Easter Experience took place during Holy Week and Easter 2025
The All Saints’ team were excited to get creative and bring this important story to life with a series of key scenes and “witnesses” placed throughout to tell their stories.
We created 5 seperate scenes:
Palm Sunday (Jerusalem)
The Last Supper (Upper Room)
The Garden of Gethsemane
The Cruxifiction (Golgotha)
The Resurrection (Empty Tomb)
Scripts for prepared for our witnesses - volunteers who would retell the story in each scene as if they had been there over 2000 years ago.
As we got closer to Easter, excitement was building, local schools began to reserve a space and we were delighted to hear that Bishop Philip would visit us on Good Friday.
Holy week arrived and it was time to begin setting up the scenes in each of the rooms. A team of helpers worked in the church room and transformed a gazebo into Jerusalem! We had plenty of palm leaves for waving and even borrowed some potted palms to line the pathway where Jesus rode his donkey on Palm Sunday.
From here, Rev’d Tom took on the task of creating the Upper Room. He borrowed plenty of earthen pots to lay out the table, ready for the last supper. Candles were lit around the room, and a window looked out onto the Temple in Jerusalem.
The story continued in The Garden of Gethsemane, a beautiful scene created in the Lady Chapel. The room was filled with plants and green lighting. A spotlight shone across the space to highlight the moon in the night sky.
Outside, there was a path to the lawn, which was transformed into Golgotha - the scene of the cruxifiction. 2 of our wonderful PCC member built and instaled the striking wooden crosses on the lawn.
En route to the next scene, a torn temple curtain hung in the window of the porch.
The final scene was in the chancel, where the altar was transformed into the cave known as the Empty Tomb. Flowers were placed around the cave and our witness took on the role of Mary Magdeline as she told our visitors all about the resurrection morning.
“What a wonderful experience for all ages. Thank you to everyone who made this a very special Easter time.”
“Thank you for the invitation to your Easter Experience, it was wonderful. The boys enjoyed it and so did I. Please thank everyone involved.”
Thank you and your team for producing the "Easter "Experience" which we enjoyed visiting today. A lot of hard work has gone into it. There seemed to be a steady stream of visitors which is rewarding. Congratulations!
❋coming soon.