We hope that Jesus today, tomorrow, forever will be a useful and user-friendly resource for teaching RE.

It is linked very closely to the Schemes of Work for Key Stage 3 Religious Education published on the DfEE web site.

We have also adapted the detailed notes for Unit 8b - What does the Resurrection of Jesus mean for Christians today? - in order to show how our video and accompanying web-site can be used in conjunction with that unit.

Jesus today, tomorrow, forever? contains five inter-related resources which we hope will be of value to RE teachers.

Jesus for Today is an hour-long TV programme presented by Pam Rhodes, TV presenter and novelist. It tells the story of Jesus with the help of the Cheltenham Passion Play. More than that, it explores what Christianity, and especially Easter, means to people on the street and to committed Christians as well. The programme is divided into the five acts of the Passion Play - friendship, conflict, betrayal, death, and resurrection.

Jesus for Tomorrow is a thirty minute TV programme using much of the same material, but edited with schools in mind. It is introduced by Matt Medhurst, who played the part of Jesus in the Passion Play. It is divided into five parts, reflecting the themes of the Passion Play - friendship, conflict, betrayal, death and resurrection. Each part comes to an end as pupils of Pittville School Cheltenham ask Matt questions relating to his portrayal of Jesus and to the Christian faith. Jesus for Tomorrow was put together with the help of the RE department at Pittville School, Cheltenham. It relates closely to Unit 8b of the schemes of work.

Jesus for ever the same, is a sequence of five three minute meditations presented by Pam Rhodes. They are based on the themes of the Passion Play and could be used as part of collective worship, or to prompt thought and reflection on the themes of friendship, conflict, betrayal, death and resurrection.

The Guide is a 20 page booklet which comes with the Video. It contains an introduction to the Video, an introduction to the Passion Play, and suggestions for the way in which each of the three programmes can be used. In addition there are sections on the People of the Passion Play, the biblical text behind the Passion Play, and a final section with suggestions for doing a Passion Play in your own locality.

The Web Site contains an inter-active version of the Guide, with interesting links to the World Wide Web which will be of particular interest to teachers. The text of the five meditations which make up Jesus for ever the same, together with the two meditations which are included in Jesus for Today - words of Comfort at the Last Supper, and the Stations of the Cross, are included on the Web site. The site also contains a trailer in which Pam Rhodes explains the way the video can be used. One page tells the story of Jesus, using stills from the Passion Play, and realplayer video clips of the Passion Play itself. Another page includes a set of questions and answers on Life and Death. These make use of interviews with people on the street in Cheltenham, and with people who took part in the Passion Play - the interviews explore the Christian faith and questions of life and death. This includes material which is not included in the video.

An on-line tour of the site, together with a down-loadable worksheet, make it possible to use the web-site in the classroom context. Pupils could work on-line at the computer before watching the video, or alternatively they could make use of the web-site to do further research after watching the video.

Churches Together in Cheltenham took the story of Jesus on to the streets of their town in order to celebrate Easter in a special way for the Millennium. They offer all the resources of Jesus today, tomorrow, forever in the hope that they will prove a useful set of resources to help in the teaching of Religious Education.

Copies of the video can be obtained from Evangelical Films. Click here to order >>GO

For more information contact Richard.cleaves@Jesusfortoday.co.uk