Thought for the Week beginning 18th February, 2024.

Stations of the Cross

Every Friday during Lent at 6.00 pm there is a special service featuring  the Stations of the Cross. This year, as for the last several years, St.  Albright's is sharing with St. Teresa's Roman Catholic church in Clairmont Road. We will be alternating so that the first, on 16th February, is at St. Albright's and the following will be at St. Teresa's, and so on. But what are the Stations of the Cross?

Very simply they are a series of 14 or 15 images arranged in numbered order around the church depicting Jesus Christ on the day of his crucifixion, each "station" showing a particular event of that day from his condemnation by Pilate to his being placed in the tomb. At the service worshippers, usually in a group, move from one to the other, stopping at each station to reflect on the event and to say prayers. The service usually takes place during Lent and Holy Week as we think about the suffering and agony that our Lord went through on that first Good Friday. They are sometimes known as the Way of the Cross (the Via Crucis) or the Way of Sorrows, and many Western Christian churches have them. At St. Albright's our stations, which are temporarily placed in the church from Ash Wednesday to Pentecost, were painted by  nuns of the Order of St Benedict at Turvey Abbey.

The use of the word "Way" belies its origin. From the early days of Christianity pilgrims would travel to Jerusalem to see the places where Jesus walked (one of whom was St. Helena of Colchester in about 326 CE) and the practice developped  of imitating that final journey that he made, saying prayers and singing. It still exists today as the Via Dolorosa or Way of Sorrows. When it became difficult to get to the city, Franciscan friars promoted the idea of recreating that journey in local churches throughout Europe, and so the idea of pictoral representations as stations became widespread.

There is something very poignant about physically moving from one place to another, stopping to look, pray and meditate, and then moving on.  It can help in one's appreciation and understanding of what the events were like and what they mean. Lent, Holy Week and Easter are particular times when this physical aspect of devotion is most obvious - the Palm Sunday procession, the washing of feet and vigil on Maundy Thursday, the Walk of Witness on Good Friday, the Easter Vigil. Stations of the Cross are all part of this. We can be  stirred, and our understanding of God broadened, by these practices in a way that merely reading about them or hearing about them cannot do. Passion Plays, such as the one at Oberammergau, remain hugely popular.

The meditations at each station do not just dwell on past events either. They are very much set in the here and now as each moment of Christ's agony has resonance with our tragedy and loss, sadness and difficulty, challenge and despair that we experience today. Jesus Christ knows what it is to suffer and he understands what we go through.

Rev. Tony.