Church is transformed into the land of Narnia

A church in Lancashire has been transformed into C.S. Lewis’ beloved land of Narnia with the hope of pointing visitors to Christ.

Finding Jesus in Narnia, at St Bartholomew’s Church in Colne, was made up of scenes from the stories – cut out of large sheets of plywood and painted. The exhibition included written guides and panels explaining both the story and its Christian elements.

The minister of St Bartholomew’s, Alex Oehring, told en: “Our prayer through this display [is] that God will change the desires of people’s hearts; that the things people love about Aslan – his sacrificial death, his love for the animals and people of Narnia, and his power to end the cold winter – they will discover are really true about Jesus.”

“Just as when Aslan breathes on the statues [and] they are restored to life, when [the] Spirit of Jesus breathes on hearts of stone, they are restored back to life in all its fullness,” Oehring said.

Oehring told en that work began in February 2025. Alongside the exhibition, the church produced a booklet of devotions: Finding Jesus in Narnia: The True King. The literature includes 14 reflections “based on” the exhibition’s contents. On its first page are the words: “Step through the wardrobe and discover the deeper magic.”

Reflections include At the Lamp Post (day two), focusing on Jesus as the Light more powerful than the darkness (John 1v5) and The Battle and the Witch’s Defeat (day 13), concentrating on Jesus’ victory over sin and death (1 Corinthians 15v57). Each devotion ends with “response” questions such as “Where do you look for hope when life feels dark?” (day two) and “How does it encourage you to know evil will not have the final word?” (day 13).

“A Christian mother once wrote to C.S. Lewis worried that her young son might love Aslan more than Jesus after reading The Chronicles of Narnia,” writes Oehring. “C.S. Lewis replied: ‘Laurence can’t really love Aslan more than Jesus, even if he feels that’s what he is doing. For the things he loves Aslan for doing or saying are simply the things Jesus really did and said. So that when Laurence thinks he is loving Aslan, he is really loving Jesus: and perhaps loving Him more than he ever did before.’” [1]

1. From The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis, Vol. 3 (1950–1963)