'Jesus absorbs all the hatred, anger and evil of the world - all the darkness hidden in the corners of our hearts.' 

These were the words of the Archbishop of Westminster Cardinal Vincent Nichols as he and thousands of others marked the crucifixion of Jesus Christ in London yesterday.

Cardinal Nichols yesterday joined thousands of people gather to watching 100 actors from the Wintershall players enact the Passion in Trafalgar Square.

He read the Lord's Prayer before the 90-minute production, after joining a 'Walk of Witness' involving leaders of the Anglican, Methodist and Catholic churches between Westminster Abbey, Methodist Central Hall and Westminster Cathedral along Victoria Street in central London.

The procession was led by a man carrying a cross symbolising Christ's journey to Calvary.

The Cardinal, preaching himself at the cathedral after the Passion play, said:  'Today, we come to venerate the Cross, in its stark cruelty and in its penetrating beauty.

'As we come forward, we may hand over to the Lord every burden of our sin, of our dismay at failure, of our broken hearts. We may place at the foot of the Cross every sorrow and suffering of our broken world, including that of his disciples who still today are being martyred.

'This Cross is the moment in which we see beyond the immense and relentless suffering in our world, which it represents.

'For on this Cross Jesus is raised up not only agony and pain, but also into glory; for his glory is to be, in his being, in his body, the unwavering total love of God for his creation.'

T