Easter

Rating:
Summary: The Passion of Christ is at Hand
Review: Arditti has skillfully woven together the many lives that make up the parish of St Mary-in-the-Vale as it prepares for Easter. The Passion of Christ is relived in the experiences of the clergy, parishioners, and the greater diocese. A questioning Vicar, his wife, Jessica (whose character is particularly well drawn), a gay Curate...haughty matrons, young lovers, men with AIDS, and (wittily) Queen Elizabeth provide the central cast, with a cartoonish (then tragic) bishop and twisted archdeacon, and various congregants adding color. The contrast between Evangelicals and Anglo-Catholics is black and white -- true to reality in the Church of England or not? Christ, salvation, liberation, the meaning of the Cross are all explored. Warning to the cautious: graphic homosexual scenes -- not titillating, but very honest. Top notch. Many (but not all!) seminarians loved it.