THE national director of Youth For Christ says he's pleased that churches in Gorleston and Bradwell are using a modern version of the medieval mystery play to take the message of Easter out on to the streets today .

THE national director of Youth For Christ says he's pleased that churches in Gorleston and Bradwell are using a modern version of the medieval mystery play to take the message of Easter out on to the streets today .

Young people from King's Church will provide the dance alongside a brief drama which will be presented on the back of a lorry in three locations later this morning.

It is all part of a national mission called Hope 08 which many churches in Norfolk have taken up. The aim is to get churches and young people working together to take both the Christian message and practical action into the community. The idea came from three national youth organisations, including Youth for Christ.

National director Roy Crowne visited Great Yarmouth last week and said: “Any way that we can celebrate Easter out in the community is exactly where the church of Jesus Christ needs to be.”

He added that other major faiths regularly took their important celebrations, like Diwali, outside. He said: “Easter is our event so let's not secure it in a church building. Let's take it out so it provokes the message of Easter by whatever means we can use to do that. People are fascinated by this message. Let's take it out of our church buildings and put it on the streets.”

Months of planning has gone into today's event with local hauliers MDF Transport providing the lorry which will start at Gorleston's Lower Promenade at 11am. With cold weather expected at such an early Easter each presentation will be brief, with local clergy introducing it. The lorry moves on to Magdalen Square at noon and then the Rainbow Supermarket car park at Bradwell at 1pm.

Heading up the 08 plans is the Rev Tony Ward. He said: “Our churches do co-operate together and we normally have a Good Friday march of witness. But we wanted to do something a bit different this year, and reach a wider area if we can. We'll be pointing people to local church services and also drawing attention to the BBC's series about Jesus, 'The Passion.'”.

In the summer East Norfolk Youth for Christ, better known as Unite, will be organising young people to help local churches with holiday clubs and other activities. Organisers say that it is also hoped some kind of community clean up campaign can be arranged.

Tomorrow Gorleston and Bradwell Churches Together will be giving out free hot cross buns in the High Street from 10am onwards.