Parish of Llandudno North Wales, Rector's letter

September 2009

Among the items displayed at the ‘Wondrous Story’ event held in Holy Trinity Church during the August Bank Holiday weekend were our new Stations of the Cross plaques bought in memory of the late Sheila Crosby. We plan to bless these beautiful items at the Eucharist on Holy Cross Day, Monday 14th September.

The origins of the devotion known as the ‘Stations of the Cross’ are quite complicated. Pilgrimage to Jerusalem was an important aspect of medieval Christianity but of course only a select few could actually make the journey. So in some places copies of the holy sites associated with Our Lord were set up so that local Christians could at least make a spiritual pilgrimage to Jerusalem.

Out of this eventually grew the practice of erecting representations of the events of Christ’s Passion and walking from one to the other as a way of following the Lord’s way to Calvary. However, it took some time for the devotion to develop into the 14 ‘Stations’ (stopping places) which have become traditional today.

These 14 Stations begin with Christ being condemned to death by Pilate and end with the placing of his body in the new tomb. Many of them are based on incidents recorded in the Gospels, whilst others deal with events not actually in the Gospels but which were quite likely to have happened e.g. Jesus falling under the weight of the cross.

In addition there are several stations which are the product of ‘pious imagination’. One of these is ‘Veronica wipes the face of Jesus’ and is based on a legend that the aforementioned lady wiped the sweat from Jesus’ face as he passed and later found that the image of his face had been miraculously printed on her towel. Nowadays a 15th Station – the Resurrection – is often added.

What has this devotion got to offer? In modern parlance it is a ‘prayer walk’ which helps us to enter more deeply into the mystery of Our Lord’s passion and death and to see their relevance to our 21st century lives as we move around the church from station to station.

We have followed the Stations of the Cross at Holy Trinity for some years usually in Holy Week and up to now have had to make do with some temporary posters to represent the various ‘Stations’. As Sheila Crosby was particularly keen on this devotion it seemed right to use some of the money she left to the parish to buy some permanent plaques.

As Anglicans we see our churches not just as places in which to worship but as buildings which visibly embody the teachings of the Church in stained glass, works of art etc. The ‘Stations’ plaques will be a constant visible reminder to us of the passion of Our Lord even when we are not actually using them.

Holy Cross Day was an obvious choice for the dedication of the plaques. My original intention was that they should be blessed during the Eucharist and that then, after a break for refreshments, we would ‘inaugurate’ them by praying the ‘Stations’ together. Unfortunately it is probable that the current roofing work at Holy Trinity will still be in progress in mid-September and we may not actually have been able to place them in their permanent positions by then. If this is the case we will just bless them during the Eucharist and ‘inaugurate’ them at a later date. Whatever the actual itinerary turns out to be I do hope you will join us on Monday 14th – Holy Cross Day – if you possibly can.

Fr John

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