Meditations on the Stations of the Cross

 

Tonight, we prayed the Stations of the Cross by Valerie Dean, which are temporarily at St Andrew's Wickford during Lent and Holy Week, using a new set of meditations that I have written specially for Valerie's images.

Valerie's Stations of the Cross have a very clear and intense focus on details which are evocative of the whole. They have previously been shown at St Martin-in-the-Fields and the Diocesan Offices of the Diocese of Chelmsford.

Valerie Dean returned to England in the summer of 2007 after living for 27 years in Belgium. There, she studied art for six years and had various exhibitions, in and around Brussels. On returning to England, she became involved in the Kent arts scene and exhibited, regularly, in the Francis Iles gallery, in Rochester. She also took part in the Canterbury Arts Festival and exhibitions in Whitstable.

She worked in acrylics and her technique was usually to put materials and colours on canvas or board, to see what emerged. It was a dialogue between the artist and her materials. Because of her background, this often consisted of figures around a religious theme. They just appeared! Very often, people seemed to want to appear in her paintings, a little like the pictures in the fire that she used to see in her childhood. At other times, she found that buildings and places she knew inspired her.

Valerie's Stations show us hands that heal and hands that harm. As we looked and thought and prayed together, we reflected on the many ways that our hands can be used to heal or to harm.

 

Station 1 - Jesus is condemned

The accusatory finger
Finger pointing
Pointing condemnation
From a washed hand
Seeking to avoid blame
While unaware there
Are four fingers
Pointing back
At the one
Condemning Jesus


Station 2 - Jesus takes up his cross

Hands that embrace
Embrace the rough wood
Embrace the weight of the cross
Embrace the purpose of suffering
Embrace the sin that is carried
Embrace the isolation that is entered
Embrace the death that awaits


Station 3 - Jesus falls for the first time

Hands grip tight
Wood held
Grip slipped
Feet stumble
Body crumples
And tumbles
Pinioned and winded
Under cruel cross
Fallen for the first time


Station 4 - Jesus meets his mother

Around your face and
in your eyes, we see
the accumulated aura
Of wisdom gained
Through contemplation,
Pondering in your heart,
The nativity, Incarnation,
and now, this crucifixion.
Questions also accumulate.
What has happened to
The child I once bore?
How will the promises
Prophesied about him
Be fulfilled?
You trust and follow.


Station 5 – Simon of Cyrene helps Jesus carry the cross

A handy helpmeet,
Whether prevailed upon
or not, chosen.
Chosen to be with Jesus
Walking in his footsteps
Handling his cross.
Simon, you are
All that we should become.


Station 6 - Veronica wipes the face of Jesus

What can one give
The suffering one?
How can one
Relieve pain,
Show care or love?
A simple cloth
Is handed over.
Sweat wiped from
Face and brow.
Relief, momentary
But meaningful.
A journey transformed.
A cloth transformed.


Station 7 - Jesus falls for the second time

Weak knees,
Weary legs,
An exhausted body
Flags and falls.
Hands outstretched
To break the fall
Are pounded,
Scratched and bruised
In seeking to protect
The body’s dive
Into hard unforgiving
Land, not
embracing Water.


Station 8 – Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem

Hands cradle faces
Faces convulse and sigh
Tears flood and flow
The Passion of these
Women of Jerusalem
Approaches, encroaches,
draws nigh


Station 9 - Jesus falls for the third time

Your fall is as
The second Adam.
Not falling into sin
But bearing all sin –
An unimaginable burden –
An unbearable weight
Bearing down
Upon your shoulders

And God laid on himself
the guilt,
the guilt and the sin
of
every
one
of
us.

If God forsakes himself
to be
for
us,
then who
can be
against us.


Station 10 - Jesus is stripped of his garments

Stripped of equality with God.
Stripped of glory.
Stripped of power.
Stripped of family.
Stripped of occupation.
Stripped of possessions.
Stripped of followers.
Stripped of respect.
Stripped of clothing.
Stripped naked.
Stripped raw.
Stripped to the bone.
Becoming nothing,
no one,
everyone.


Station 11 – Jesus is nailed to the cross

Nails driven through
The flesh, sinews, muscles
And bone of wrists
And ankles.
Hands, fingers, toes
Contort from the
Searing pain
Inflicted by
Unforgiving hammers.
Harmful hands
Hammer hurtful nails
Into hands
That heal.


Station 12 – Jesus dies on the cross

Death has been knocking on the door
Death has entered
Death is here
It is finished

Forgiveness achieved
Salvation complete
Mission accomplished
It is finished

Forgiveness for betrayal
Forgiveness for wrongful arrest
Forgiveness for abandonment
Forgiveness for denial
Forgiveness for a corrupt trial
Forgiveness for false witness
Forgiveness for mob rule
Forgiveness for legal capitulation
Forgiveness for condemnation of the innocent
Forgiveness for imprisonment
Forgiveness for beating
Forgiveness for mockery
Forgiveness for violence
Forgiveness for torture
Forgiveness for murder

All sin
All humanity
All held
All covered
All embraced
All forgiven


Station 13 – Jesus is taken down from the cross

The limp hand
Of a lifeless body
Is held by
The live hand
Of a disciple
Helping support
And carry
The dead Christ
Down from
The death
Instrument
To be held
And cradled
In the arms
Of his grieving
Mother.

Manhandled when
beaten, whipped,
nailed and pierced,
the body of God
is handled with care
as Jesus is taken
in the arms of those
who loved him.


Station 14 – Jesus is buried in the tomb

Buried, entombed
In a cave -
In your end
As in your
Beginning.

Sealed behind stone.
A barrier
Preventing entry.

From the gaps
Around its edges
The faint glimmer
And glimpse
Of resurrection light
Pertains, extends,
To be seen,
To be perceived,
Received.
You cannot be
Contained.

My other collections of meditations on the Stations of the Cross are Mark of the Cross and The Passion. These are collections of images, meditations and prayers by Henry Shelton and myself on the Stations. They provide helpful reflections and resources for Lent and Holy Week. These collections can both be found as downloads from theworshipcloud.

Mark of the Cross is a book of 20 poetic meditations on Christ’s journey to the cross and reactions to his resurrection and ascension. The meditations are complemented by a set of semi-abstract watercolours of the Stations of the Cross and the Resurrection created by Henry Shelton.

The Passion: Reflections and Prayers features minimal images with haiku-like poems and prayers that enable us to follow Jesus on his journey to the cross reflecting both on the significance and the pain of that journey as we do so. Henry and I have aimed in these reflections to pare down the images and words to their emotional and theological core. The mark making and imagery is minimal but, we hope, in a way that makes maximum impact.

Jesus dies on the cross

The sun is eclipsed, early nightfall,
darkness covers the surface of the deep,
the Spirit grieves over the waters.
On the formless, empty earth, God is dead.

Through the death of all we hold most dear, may we find life. Amen.

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Lizz Wright - Presence Of The Lord. 

Praying the Stations of the Cross

Today, the Basildon Chapter prayed the Stations of the Cross by Valerie Dean, which are temporarily at St Andrew's Wickford during Lent and Holy Week, using a set of meditations and prayers that I wrote and which are entitled The Passion.

Valerie's Stations of the Cross have a very clear and intense focus on details which are evocative of the whole. They have previously been shown at St Martin-in-the-Fields and the Diocesan Offices of the Diocese of Chelmsford.

Valerie Dean returned to England in the summer of 2007 after living for 27 years in Belgium. There, she studied art for six years and had various exhibitions, in and around Brussels. On returning to England, she became involved in the Kent arts scene and exhibited, regularly, in the Francis Iles gallery, in Rochester. She also took part in the Canterbury Arts Festival and exhibitions in Whitstable.

She worked in acrylics and her technique was usually to put materials and colours on canvas or board, to see what emerged. It was a dialogue between the artist and her materials. Because of her background, this often consisted of figures around a religious theme. They just appeared! Very often, people seemed to want to appear in her paintings, a little like the pictures in the fire that she used to see in her childhood. At other times, she found that buildings and places she knew inspired her.

Mark of the Cross and The Passion are collections of images, meditations and prayers by Henry Shelton and myself on The Stations of the Cross. They provide helpful reflections and resources for Lent and Holy Week. These collections can both be found as downloads from theworshipcloud.

Mark of the Cross is a book of 20 poetic meditations on Christ’s journey to the cross and reactions to his resurrection and ascension. The meditations are complemented by a set of semi-abstract watercolours of the Stations of the Cross and the Resurrection created by Henry Shelton.

The Passion: Reflections and Prayers features minimal images with haiku-like poems and prayers that enable us to follow Jesus on his journey to the cross reflecting both on the significance and the pain of that journey as we do so. Henry and I have aimed in these reflections to pare down the images and words to their emotional and theological core. The mark making and imagery is minimal but, we hope, in a way that makes maximum impact.

Jesus dies on the cross

The sun is eclipsed, early nightfall,
darkness covers the surface of the deep,
the Spirit grieves over the waters.
On the formless, empty earth, God is dead.

Through the death of all we hold most dear, may we find life. Amen.

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Mr Mister - Kyrie.

Church Times - Art review: Jean Lamb: An Urban Passion (St Marylebone Parish Church and then St Peter’s, Nottingham)

My latest exhibition review for Church Times is on 'Jean Lamb: An Urban Passion' (St Marylebone Parish Church and then St Peter’s, Nottingham):

'JEAN LAMB has a track record for reimagining the Stations of the Cross in new and challenging forms.

Her carved sculptural Stations of the Holocaust, besides illustrating the Passion narrative, included images from the Holocaust showing the Jewish people as they were forced into ghettos, humiliated, tortured, and executed. This thought-provoking set of Stations was described as being a brave work that offered fraught and disturbing links between Christianity and Judaism.

Her latest set of Stations — An Urban Passion — is essentially an act of protest.'

Other of my pieces for Church Times can be found here. My writing for ArtWay can be found here. My pieces for Artlyst are here, those for Seen & Unseen are here, and those for Art+Christianity are here.

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Josh Caterer - Hallelujah! He Is Risen. 

St Peter's Hutton: Stations of the Cross by Henry Shelton

This evening a set of Stations of the Cross at St Peter's Hutton created by Henry Shelton were dedicated by Bishop Guli Francis-Dehqani, Bishop of Chelmsford. Fr Andy Smith and Christine Thomas write: 'Henry's contemporary style, marked by its spare drawings and muted tones, complements the mid-20th-century design of St Peter's.' 

The Stations were prayed before being dedicated and a very special evening was rounded off by a reception at which Henry spoke about his work. A book of reflections and prayers to complement Henry's images is in preparation. Henry had previously created etched glass windows for St Peter's sister church, All Saints Hutton. 

This set of Stations also feature in Mark of the Cross, a book of 20 poetic meditations on Christ’s journey to the cross and reactions to his resurrection and ascension written by myself. The meditations are complemented by Henry's set of semi-abstract watercolours of the Stations of the Cross and the Resurrection.

Henry and I collaborated on two collections of images, meditations and prayers on The Stations of the Cross, Mark of the Cross and The Passion. These provide helpful reflections and resources for Lent and Holy Week. These collections can both be found as downloads from theworshipcloud.

The Passion: Reflections and Prayers features minimal images with haiku-like poems and prayers that enable us to follow Jesus on his journey to the cross reflecting both on the significance and the pain of that journey as we do so. Henry and I aimed in these reflections to pare down the images and words to their emotional and theological core. The mark making and imagery is minimal but, we hope, in a way that makes maximum impact. An example follows:

Jesus dies on the cross

The sun is eclipsed, early nightfall,
darkness covers the surface of the deep,
the Spirit grieves over the waters.
On the formless, empty earth, God is dead.

Through the death of all we hold most dear, may we find life. Amen.

All Saints Goodmayes, which has a set of Stations of the Cross by the artist Henry Shelton, has prepared a booklet of images, reflections and prayers based on these Stations. The reflections and prayers used are those that I wrote for 'The Passion'.

The set of Stations now at All Saints Goodmayes have previously been exhibited at York Minister, St stephen Walbrook, and Chelmsford Cathedral. The booklet comes with a Foreword by The Most Revd and Rt Hon. Stephen Cottrell, Archbishop of York: "At this most holy time, as we follow Jesus on His journey to the cross, Henry Shelton's contemporary images provide an evocative background against which we can place our deepest reflections as we contemplate the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, who by his death and resurrection delivered and saved the world."

Together, Henry and I formed commission4mission, an artist's collective that generated church commissions, exhibitions, events and resources. commission4mission was set up in 2009 and became a registered charity (Charity no. 1161109) in 2011. commission4mission ended its work at the end of March 2020. A summary of its work and achievements can be found here.

Henry Shelton was born and grew up in Stratford, East London. He joined West Ham church as a choir boy where he first became aware of the importance of Christian art. After leaving school he joined a London studio as an apprentice draughtsman developing his drawing skills in lettering and fine art. After 15 years of service he set up his own studio receiving many commissions to design for such clients as the Science Museum, Borough Councils, private and corporate bodies.

During this time he continued painting Christian art and after meeting Bishop Trevor Huddleston he completed a series of portraits of him which were exhibited in St Dunstan's Church, Stepney, where he was also confirmed by the Bishop.

Henry worked designing in studios across the world, including Hong Kong and the USA. His commissions include a large oil painting of the Ascension installed as an altarpiece in the Church of the Saviour, Chell Heath; the Millennium clock tower in Goodmayes, memorial etched glass windows in All Saints Goodmayes and All Saint's Hutton, paintings for the Chapel at Queen's Hospital Romford, Stations of the Crown of Thorns at St Paul's Goodmayes, and the Trinity Window at All Saints Goodmayes.

An interview that I undertook with Henry can be read here and here.

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When I Survey The Wondrous Cross.

All Saints Goodmayes: Stations of the Cross

All Saints Goodmayes, which has a set of Stations of the Cross by the artist Henry Shelton, has prepared a booklet of images, reflections and prayers based on these Stations. The reflections and prayers used are those that I wrote for an earlier collaboration with Henry called 'The Passion'.

The Passion: Reflections and Prayers features minimal images with haiku-like poems and prayers that enable us to follow Jesus on his journey to the cross reflecting both on the significance and the pain of that journey as we do so. Henry and I aimed in these reflections to pare down the images and words to their emotional and theological core. The mark making and imagery is minimal but, we hope, in a way that makes maximum impact. Here is an example of one of the reflections and prayers: 

Jesus dies on the cross

The sun is eclipsed, early nightfall,
darkness covers the surface of the deep,
the Spirit grieves over the waters.
On the formless, empty earth, God is dead.

Through the death of all we hold most dear, may we find life. Amen.

The set of Stations now at All Saints Goodmayes have previously been exhibited at York Minister, St stephen Walbrook, and Chelmsford Cathedral. The booklet comes with a Foreword by The Most Revd and Rt Hon. Stephen Cottrell, Archbishop of York:

"At this most holy time, as we follow Jesus on His journey to the cross, Henry Shelton's contemporary images provide an evocative background against which we can place our deepest reflections as we contemplate the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, who by his death and resurrection delivered and saved the world." 

Henry Shelton was born and grew up in Stratford, East London. He joined West Ham church as a choir boy where he first became aware of the importance of Christian art.

After leaving school he joined a London studio as an apprentice draughtsman developing his drawing skills in lettering and fine art. After 15 years of service he set up his own studio receiving many commissions to design for such clients as the Science Museum, Borough Councils, private and corporate bodies.

During this time he continued painting Christian art and after meeting Bishop Trevor Huddleston he completed a series of portraits of him which were exhibited in St Dunstan's Church, Stepney, where he was also confirmed by the Bishop.

Henry worked designing in studios across the world, including Hong Kong and the USA. Together, we formed commission4mission, an artist's collective that generated church commissions, exhibitions, events and resources. Henry's commissions include a large oil painting of the Ascension installed as an altarpiece in the Church of the Saviour, Chell Heath; the Millennium clock tower in Goodmayes, memorial etched glass windows in All Saints Goodmayes and All Saint's Hutton, paintings for the Chapel at Queen's Hospital Romford, Stations of the Crown of Thorns at St Paul's Goodmayes, and the Trinity Window at All Saints Goodmayes.

An interview that I undertook with Henry can be read here and here.

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Extreme - Peacemaker Die.

Stations of the Cross

 

This year the Ministry Team in the Wickford and Runwell Team Ministry have once again written our own Lent Course, which looks more deeply into the Stations of the Cross which we use during Holy Week, including images, readings, reflection and prayer.

These sessions will be offered on Tuesday evening and Thursday afternoon and evening, depending on numbers, starting the week of 19th February. We also have the opportunity to share these sessions with Christ Church, giving additional days and times (Tuesday mornings and Wednesday evenings).

Mark of the Cross and The Passion are collections of images, meditations and prayers by Henry Shelton and myself on The Stations of the Cross. They provide helpful reflections and resources for Lent and Holy Week. These collections can both be found as downloads from theworshipcloud.

Mark of the Cross is a book of 20 poetic meditations on Christ’s journey to the cross and reactions to his resurrection and ascension. The meditations are complemented by a set of semi-abstract watercolours of the Stations of the Cross and the Resurrection created by Henry Shelton.

The Passion: Reflections and Prayers features minimal images with haiku-like poems and prayers that enable us to follow Jesus on his journey to the cross reflecting both on the significance and the pain of that journey as we do so. Henry and I have aimed in these reflections to pare down the images and words to their emotional and theological core. The mark making and imagery is minimal but, we hope, in a way that makes maximum impact.

Jesus dies on the cross

The sun is eclipsed, early nightfall,
darkness covers the surface of the deep,
the Spirit grieves over the waters.
On the formless, empty earth, God is dead.

Through the death of all we hold most dear, may we find life. Amen.

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U2 - Windows In The Skies.

'Mark of the Cross' and 'The Passion'

Mark of the Cross and The Passion are collections of images, meditations and prayers by Henry Shelton and myself. These collections can both be found as downloads from theworshipcloud.

Mark of the Cross is a book of 20 poetic meditations on Christ’s journey to the cross and reactions to his resurrection and ascension. The meditations are complemented by a set of semi-abstract watercolours of the Stations of the Cross and the Resurrection created by Henry Shelton. 

The Passion: Reflections and Prayers features minimal images with haiku-like poems and prayers that enable us to follow Jesus on his journey to the cross reflecting both on the significance and the pain of that journey as we do so. Henry and I have aimed in these reflections to pare down the images and words to their emotional and theological core. The mark making and imagery is minimal but, we hope, in a way that makes maximum impact.

Jesus dies on the cross

The sun is eclipsed, early nightfall,
darkness covers the surface of the deep,
the Spirit grieves over the waters.
On the formless, empty earth, God is dead.

Through the death of all we hold most dear, may we find life. Amen.

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Adrian Snell - Golgotha.

Concrete crucifixions

For The Cross: designs & reflections exhibition by commission4mission in The Hostry at Norwich Cathedral I have visually reworked the poetic meditations I wrote for The Passion and those based on the Nine Lessons & Carols readings. Following the inspiration of concrete poetry, I have re-designed both meditations into cross shaped sequences which then explore the cross in content and design. 

The Passion: Reflections & prayers features pictures, poems and prayers by Henry Shelton and I which enable us to follow Jesus on his journey to the cross reflecting both on the significance and the pain of that journey as we do so and published as a double-sided A3 sheet with all the images, haiku-like meditations and prayers laid out in sequence for ease of devotional use.

My alternative Nine Lessons are poetic meditations drawing on the thinking of René Girard in interpreting the Bible readings traditionally used in services of Nine Lessons and Carols.

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Larry Norman - Be Careful What You Sign.