People gathered in the Hall where I'd set up a long table (3 tressels) covered with layers of white tablecloths. In the centre, a sliver Menorah with 7 purple candles. There was a selection of flat-bread, dips, antipasto, grapes and there would have been dates but I couldn't find them quickly. This is an "after" photo:
People were invited to consider various stories they knew about Jesus and those he encountered and to choose a character from one of these stories. Then, for about half an hour, they were invited to adopt this character and talk to other people at the gathering. Some questions to get them going were "How do you know Jesus", "Why do you think you've been invited to this party?", "What do you think is going to happen next?"
Everyone got right into it! One person told me he had thought half an hour was too long but found that it went by really quickly.
At the end of the 30 minutes, we did a sort of an Oprah style thing and invited people to give some of their thoughts and reactions to the whole group. The diversity in character choice was amazing and it was good when a few characters appeared more than once because they had different perspectives. Overall, it seemed to work well and created a vastly different experience from the usual... at least... that was the feedback on Friday morning and Sunday.
Sean Gilbert (the Minister from Christ Church, with whom we share the Maundy Thursday and Good Friday services) was "dumped" into the Jesus role. He was not thrilled - but did it anyway - and closed that part of the evening by holding up his glass and saying "drink this all of you... I shall not drink with you again until God's kingdom is revealed" or words to that effect.
With that, people were invited to move up a dimly-lit path into the church which had become "the garden of gethsemane."
5 metre lengths of plastic tablecloth with an image of the Olive Grove in East Terrace* rear-projected and various branches, garden bits and candles set up in front. Loreena McKennitt 'An Ancient Muse' playing in the background.
People were invited to spend as much or as little time as they wanted in the garden - reflecting on their party experience and the Holy Week journey... then to leave in silence.
* If you want to try this and need some olive grove photos, you'll find a few on my Flickr page.
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