The 2025 Formby Walk of Witness and Passion Play

ON 18 April 2025, Churches Together, Formby, Altcar and Hightown held its annual Passion Play; within the grounds of Formby Pool. Before the play started, representatives of the local Christian community took part in the annual Walk of Witness, which runs from the Village Center to the Park Pool.

Walks like this are meant to help Christians remember that Jesus had to carry his cross through the streets of Jerusalem and are held annually at Easter. This community event, now run by Churches Together, Formby Hightown and Altcar, has been run since the 1980's, when the procession started at the Formby Council Office, that were located next to the Formby Railway Station bridge. When the offices were demolished, the starting point moved to Duke Street Park and later to the Village Library Car Park. These annual walks finished in the Village Center with a simple service. Today, the walk now starts at the former end point next to the side allyway on the corner of Boots Chemists and Dappa Coffee. The procession now proceeds from that location annually since the early 2000s, to a Passion Play, which replaced the simple service. The Passion Play is now normally held within the grounds of the Formby Pool, as it was this year.

This year's Passion Play, like the walk, united the local Christian community, with representatives and members of the congregations from most denominations within the area.  The Passion Play or Easter Pageant is a dramatic presentation depicting the Passion of Jesus. A cast of local church members put on a dramatic performance of the trial and death of Jesus Christ which occurred in the 1st Century AD. This type of religious drama of has medieval origins dealing with the suffering, death, and Resurrection of Christ. As this event is in public and open to all ages, the Formby portrayal of the story of Easter as told in the Bible is not as focused, but still covers the main elements of confronting:- treachery, betrayal, injustice, sacrifice, redemption and the resurrection of Christ.

More photographs can be found on the next 4 pages within this edition.  Sadly, due to music copyright issues, we can not run footage of the Passion Play this year, but it can be found on  the Churches Together in Formby Altcar and Hightown website.  Did you go to this event? Please do let us know what you thought about it this year....? Email our Newsroom at:- News24@SouthportReporter.Com or send us a message on:- Mastodon, Facebook, or Twitter!