A community has come together to watch the first two episodes of the latest season of The Chosen in time for Holy Week.
Organiser Elie Jaajaa was shocked at how quickly the offer to see the show was taken up by his community as he says it took just three days to get nearly 150 people onboard.
The interest to see The Chosen reached far and wide, with archdiocesan vocations director Fr Daniele Russo, St Jerome’s Punchbowl parish priest Fr Joseph Gideon, and Master of Ceremonies at St Mary’s Cathedral Fr Ben Saliba among those in attendance.
Jaajaa said the event was not related to any other festive activities and was only coincidentally held on Palm Sunday.
“It was very fitting to watch it on Palm Sunday, but everyone was available to watch it at this time at 6.15pm,” he told The Catholic Weekly.
“Everyone went to Mass this morning and I just want to celebrate something that fitting for the season.”
He said the event was very spontaneous as he received an email from the cinema with session times for the special screening of the show and he sent them to others on social media, who responded enthusiastically.
“In a matter of three days, we sold 70 tickets, which was the small room, and I had to call the management team at Hoyts and say, ‘I think we need a bigger room,’” he said.
“We had to organise that and now we’ve sold 145 seats.”
Jaajaa says getting his community to attend the sold-out session required “no effort” on his part.
“It’s just that it was a simple message, and God did all the hard work for me,” he said.
Fr Gideon said the community were “all looking forward” to the event and watching the first two episodes of the new season, which will focus on the Last Supper.
He said he wanted to watch it due to interest in the show and liked the fact it was being shown on Palm Sunday and in cinemas simultaneously with the United States.
“It helps us enter into the Holy Week,” he said.