A Lancashire parish is transporting people to the land of Narnia via a series of handmade tableaus - including more than 1000 local schoolchildren! 

The tableaus have been specially created for a fabulous new outreach mission at St Bartholomew's Church in Colne - using the famous Christian allegories of the Narnia stories to introduce people to Jesus. 

'Finding Jesus in Narnia' is open to all ages and is free. People are visiting from across the community, local schools and more. The whole event has also featured prominently in social media content available on the Diocesan social media channels including Facebook and also on the Diocesan Board of Education channels including Instagram.

Finding Jesus in Narnia has been pulled together by the Vicar, Rev Alex Oehring, working with a key member of his church, Caz Pinder and her artistic team. There are 14 life-size scenes and everything has been handmade and painted.

The scenes tell the story of 'The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe'. Everyone will be given a booklet with 14 daily reflections, along with character descriptions and allegories within the story.

Alex says: "Both Caz and I came to faith through reading the Narnia stories and that gave us the inspiration to put this new mission event on. It has been supported financially by the Diocesan Vision Fund and is a great way to introduce people of all ages to Jesus and the hope we have in Him.

“I used illustrations from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and various Narnia stories in my sermons. Caz and I talked about it and we got excited about the possibilities of telling the stories in a new way. But I've not got an artistic bone in my body, so all the credit is Caz’s and my job was to try and make it happen!

“With support from our PCC (the church’s governing committee) we decided to take a step of faith and spend some money, including a grant from the Diocesan Vision Fund which helped to subsidise the project; we were really grateful for that support to help fulfil our mission aims.

“Being able to speak about Jesus to so many local schoolchildren is fantastic too – we are offering guided tours alongside handing out the reflection booklets.”

The artistic director of the project, Caz Pinder, added: “When I was a little girl, I read Narnia. I was really upset when Aslan was killed but when I read the next chapter and he rises again, I realised it was Jesus. I was only 7 or 8. And I didn't realize the significance of it, but it has always stayed with me, and my faith has grown and grown from that.

“I do quite a bit of ministry here at St Bartholomew’s and it has been wonderful to fulfil the mission aims we had with this project.”

The whole event began last week with a grand 'Narnia Sunday' opening, attended by Rt Rev Dr Jill Duff, Bishop of Lancaster, and it runs until this Friday, every day 11am to 3pm. There are refreshments available at a small cost.

Once this current show is over the church generously plans to offer the entire set of tableaus to other parishes across Lancashire.

Alex added: "We want to give other parishes in the Diocese the chance to put the same kind of mission event on once this initial launch is over and we have already liaised with the Diocese to promote this opportunity.”

Following her visit Bishop Jill commented: “What a joy it was to see the story of Narnia brought to life with such creativity and faith! The scenes created by Caz Pinder and her artistic team, working with Rev Alex Oehring, are a beautiful invitation to meet Jesus through Aslan in Narnia. It’s inspiring to see so many people - especially more than 1000 school children - encountering the love and hope of Jesus in such a vivid and imaginative way.”

Captions for photos, top to bottom:
Pictures 1 and 2 taken by Heather Lee for Blackburn Diocese

1. One of the many stunning Narnia tableaus
2. (l-r) Louise Smith, the church Children's and Youth Worker; Caz Pinder and Rev Alex Oehring preparing to show local school children round Narnia!
3. Bishop Jill with Caz Pinder on the opening day of the ‘Finding Jesus in Narnia’ event