A vicar in Plymouth has come up with a creative and covid-safe way to share the Easter story.

Father Simon Rundell has designed an app that allows churches across the country to create their own Holy Week trail.

Biblical Stations will guide families along a route made up of 15 different QR codes located around their local area which, when scanned, load videos containing readings, images and music.

“By moving through the biblical stations, we are able to visit each of the parts from the four gospels that tell us the story of the Passion of Christ. And of course, finished with his entombment. And then his glorious resurrection. Because you can't tell the story of the stations, I think, without having the resurrection at the end,” Father Simon told Premier.

Prior to being ordained, Father Simon, from the parishes of Bickleigh and Shaugh, worked in app development and has always had a passion to use technology as a means to spread the gospel.

“I recently finished a master's in digital theology, which was an opportunity to look at faith and mission through the lens of digital culture and the internet. And that really is where I believe the next frontier, the next area for evangelism is to come. That's why we have to be skilled in these techniques in order to be able to reach the people who are still yearning for the good news of Jesus.”

Having originally come up with the idea in the context of a Christmas carol-themed walk, Father Simon said he realised the idea was easy to convert and wanted to make it available for other churches to use.

“I'm now encouraging other parishes to choose their 15 locations to send me those locations, and I will build them into the app. Then they can put their QR codes around their own localities. People can experience this wherever they are,” Father Simon said.

The app is now available to download on Google pay.