Organisers of a graphic crucifixion re-enactment in Victoria, which made children cry and was shut down by police, have vowed to tone down the event next year.
Children were sobbing in distress at the sight of a man covered in fake blood who appeared to be nailed to a cross in the middle of a Geelong shopping precinct on Saturday afternoon, local police say...read more.
But Heaven on Earth pastor Sarah Kenneally, who helped organise the event, said she saw no distressed children and police compromised freedom of religion by shutting down the re-enactment.
"When the police stopped it I looked behind me and there were about eight children... watching it and none of them looked distressed," she told AAP on Monday.
"I think it was pretty sad that a Christian group couldn't express what Easter was truly about for one hour - it wasn't like we were trying to take over the city or tell everyone they were going to hell."
A Geelong police spokesman said passersby were concerned about the re-enactment in Malop Street, particularly by the man posing as Jesus covered in blood.
The re-enactment was shut down for breaching the peace, he said.
"Kids were particularly upset and crying," the spokesman told AAP.
"It was causing a bit of a ruckus... the parents of these kids who had a six-year-old child that's screaming at someone who is covered in blood and bawling and is crying out loud, they (the police) decided that they would ask them to stop it and move them on.
"If they want to do that sort of thing they are quite welcome to do it in a place where it's not going to disturb anyone and where people are going there for that specific reason and know what they are getting themselves into."
The group moved on without any trouble, the spokesman said.
Ms Kenneally defended the decision to stage the re-enactment in a public thoroughfare, packed with children and unsuspecting shoppers, rather than in a church.
She said it was a silent display and the group did not preach to people.
"We're not doing it just so Christians can come and have a look at it, we're doing it to get the message out, that's what this is about.
"The Bible tells us to go and tell the world about Jesus.
"It doesn't say to stay in a church and hope that everyone will turn up there because they won't."
Ms Kenneally said if the church conducts the same re-enactment next year it would consider cutting out the fake blood element.
"We would probably modify that a bit," she said.
"We don't want to, but if that's what the public are saying, we would if we needed to."
The Heaven on Earth in Norlane, a suburb of Geelong, has about 60 people attending its services, and a further 40 associated with the church, Ms Kenneally said.
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