What if the passion of Jesus was happening today?

What if the disciples, his followers, Judas and even Pilate were witnessing the unfolding events of the Passion and sharing their thoughts and fears on Twitter?

Could telling the passion, as it unfolds, with the voices of those surrounding Jesus at the time, give a fresh perspective on the story, make it accessible and meaningful to a society that now shares stories, news and their inner thoughts in 140 character chunks?

#PASSION will bring together a group of writers and theologians, to take on the roles of key characters in the Easter story and tweet their thoughts throughout Holy Week the team includes:-

            the author of Spiritual Intelligence and thought for the day presenter, Brian Draper

            Malcom Guite, singer, poet, priest and author

            writer, chaplain and presenter  Joanna Jepson

            BBC comedy writer James Cary

            Comedian and writer Milton Jones

            Digital writer and creator Tobias Sturt

Told between Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday, as if the unfolding events were happening live each day, #PASSION will give a new perspective on the doubts, the fears the agonies and betrayals surrounding Jesus in his final days.

Each of the key characters will be ‘played’ by one of the writing team, giving them a unique character and making them reflect on how the story would have been seen in the moment – by those who were facing the death of a man they had followed or hunted for so long. Each post to Twitter will use the hashtag #PASSION to bring all of the characters stories together.

Each character in the story will have their own twitter account from @petercephas to @pontiuspillate, and will be part of a twittergroup called PASSION. The ‘followers’ of the group (we get the irony) on Twitter will be able to contribute their own posts as if they were members of the crowds on Palm Sunday or a witness to the Trial.

While watching the tweets live will engage a growing audience over the Easter period, as public awareness and word of mouth generate increasing interest, #PASSION will also create a simple website that will collate the tweets and provide a living and an archived version of the story. www.hashpassion.com will be a useful resource for schools, churches and individuals who want to explore the meanings of the story from a fresh perspective.

We are also investigating the idea of creating a spoken version of the story, still told in tweet sized chunks as a radio play or podcast, and possible routes to publish the final version of the story, including the contributions from the twitter audience, in printed form.