Evangelical Alliance

Here’s your chance to tweet your part in the greatest story ever told   

Picture the scene: It's Passover week in first century Jerusalem. A bustling throng of Jewish pilgrims has gathered in the city. But this year a carpenter-turned-preacher from Nazareth is set to turn the tables of history - right before their very eyes. 

Here is the Easter story and now it's your turn to tell it to the world. To do this, you can take part in Easter(LIVE), a Passion play told in real time on the social media platform Twitter. 

Throughout Holy Week, tweeters can post 140-character tweets on their Twitter profiles. The Easter(LIVE) website will then automatically compile the entries into a library of scripts that can be followed from 17-24 April.

To register your interest, visit www.easterlive2011.com where you can also access a number of resources for inspiration and guidance. Participation is open to anyone irrespective of their age, nationality or religious belief so long as they follow themes followed in the Easter story. Scribes can be as creative as they want by retelling the story in a modern or ancient context. They can also tweet images, illustrations, songs, poems or videos.

Easter(LIVE) is the brainchild of multi-media design company Share Creative, with the Evangelical Alliance, Worldview Media and Emerging Culture. It also forms part of Biblefresh, a year-long project coordinated by the Evangelical Alliance and other agencies to encourage people to get into the Good Book during the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible.

Huw Tyler, of Share Creative, says: "The Easter story is one of treachery, death and renewal that has been told every year for countless generations, usually from the pulpit. By signing up to Easter(LIVE), you can bring your own personal reflections to the story as well as exercise your creative flair and imagination."

Easter(LIVE) has been brought back to Twitter for the second year running owing to its huge popularity. During Christmas a nativity play, entitled the Natwivity, launched on social media platforms Facebook and Twitter, attracting 10,000 followers.

The Easter story starts with Jesus triumphantly entering Jerusalem on a donkey before the Passover to adoring crowds, some 2,000 years ago. The next day Jesus is betrayed by Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples, for thirty pieces of silver and handed over to be tried by the Roman governor Pontius Pilate. By order of the chief priests Jesus is then crucified and buried in a tomb. On the third day he rises from the dead and appears in person to many different people, demonstrating his divine ability to conquer death and thereby bring hope of life after death for everyone.