New Easter Passion Film highlights battle against Drug Addiction

The Church’s film stars are unlikely pin-ups each of whom tell their inspirational stories on the JustPray.uk website and have featured in teaser adverts for the film over the past four weeks.

Emma is 24 years old and for the first time in her life feels she has something to live for. Drugs, alcohol, and self-harming have all played their part in her young life so far. She had a chaotic family upbringing and developed her own drug habit and started to self-harm in response to an unhappy and often violent previous relationship. But her darkest time was last year when she lost a baby and she still suffers pangs of hopelessness now where she questions her faith and God, but without her faith, and the family she has found at the Saturday Gathering, she firmly believes she wouldn’t be here.

Rob has lived on the streets or on his wits since a young boy. In and out of reform homes, his parents couldn’t cope with his behaviour and he was kicked out of home at 15. When his older brother took his own life a few years later, Rob went completely out of control. He has lived in woods, on streets, under car parks, behind shopping centres -and drugs have been the mainstay of his survival. He found himself on the streets of Halifax after a failed relationship and intrigued by an open church on a Saturday, he walked into the Ebenezer Methodist church – and the rest as they say, is history. He came to faith at the Saturday Gathering and has slowly been rebuilding his life. And after years of being estranged from his family, he celebrated his 46th birthday in January with his mother at the Saturday Gathering Place.

40 year old Howard from Bradford came to faith eight years ago. A former addict who was in and out of prison, he was offered a place in a Christian rehab centre for young men and it was here, as he struggled with the sleeplessness and restlessness as he was withdrawing from heroin and methadone, that he began to join in the early morning prayers. It was to be his solace. But for Howard, temptation is never far away and on the day of his baptism, he used drugs again – after eight months clean. His story of faith is a constant tug of war with real bouts of doubt that can stop him praying, stop him praising and thanking God. He has been out of prison now for over 12 months and offers support to others at the Saturday Gathering and wants to be a good role model for his teenage son.

Brenda was the local white witch, heavily into the Wicca movement and its alignment with nature, conservation and the environment. But when her mother cheated death over two years ago, it was a wake up call to all the family that there was something bigger out there. Her mother died last year in difficult circumstances and all the family began to volunteer at the Night Shelter run by Christians Together in Calderdale as a way of coming to terms with the enormity of her death. It was while volunteering one Saturday night, that Brenda – a mother of four herself – dropped into the worship and found herself overwhelmed by the love and acceptance. Brenda is now training to be a leader herself and wants to be ordained into the Church of England.

The Revd. Arun Arora, Director of Communications for the Church of England, said, “this film is a testament to the triumph of faith and hope over struggle. From bereavement to addiction, from homelessness to imprisonment, Easter is a reminder that suffering doesn’t have the last word and that love is more powerful than the grave. Each of the stories is a testimony to the fact that Love wins. As the Church across the globe celebrates Easter day we wanted to make a film that highlighted the stories of individuals who have come through suffering to the Easter joy of faith in Jesus.

“Our brief to the filmmaker was to reflect the doubt and forsakenness that life throws at you and to track the journey from grim reality and to bleed into the colour of joy. We are delighted with the result which reflects the journey into joy”.