Symbolic journey in West Central to honor Jesus
With each step, they walk a symbolic journey – through agony, through sorrow, through a sacrifice that Christians believe redeemed the world.
Every year during Lent, people throughout the world commemorate the crucifixion and death of Jesus Christ by taking part in the Stations of the Cross, a devotional exercise that centers on Jesus’ final hours. While traditionally a Roman Catholic ritual, the Stations of the Cross in recent years have become a powerful means of worship for Christians of various denominations.
On Good Friday, dozens of people in Spokane’s West Central neighborhood will be part of a quarter-mile procession to honor Jesus’ sacrifice. The crowd will be led by individuals carrying a life-size wooden cross and will stop for prayer, reflection and short presentations at each of the 14 stations.
“Literally walking and using our feet allows us to immerse ourselves in the symbolic experience of Christ’s suffering,” said Jan Martinez, director of Christ Kitchen, a West Central-based ministry that helps women in poverty. “It’s a way to honor the Lord.”
It’s been more than five years since Spokane experienced its last public observance of Jesus’ Passion. In the late 1990s, a loose-knit ecumenical group known as the Lenten Fridays Remembrance Guild staged the stations at churches, women’s centers and other sites throughout the city. In 1995, the ceremony was observed at spots including a homeless shelter, an area outside the Spokane County Jail and the place where a woman was murdered earlier in the year. The weekly gathering usually concluded on Good Friday at Riverfront Park, where the guild re-enacted Jesus’ trial and crucifixion, culminating with his burial at the base of the park’s clock tower.
“It extends a quiet invitation for folks to come and see, to bear public witness to a faith and a story that’s 2,000 years old,” said Patrick Copeland-Malone, a member of the old Lenten guild, who launched this latest effort to host the stations in West Central.
This isn’t an evangelistic outreach, he said. Rather, the goal is to bring together the neighborhood’s diverse Christian ministries and congregations.
“One of the things that Christian churches in America really need to do is find common ground,” said Copeland-Malone, a founder of the West Central Shared Housing Cooperative, which provides affordable housing to people committed to sharing a house, meals, prayer and worship. “It’s important to have a presence in a public space that doesn’t condemn or point fingers.”
Friday’s Stations of the Cross will begin with a 5 p.m. gathering at 1848 W. Bridge Ave. From there, the crowd will loop around the neighborhood, stopping for three to five minutes at each of the 14 stations. The stations – which depict various scenes from Jesus’ trial to the moment when his body is laid in the tomb – will focus on the problems that affect Spokane-area neighborhoods and communities. The first station, in which Jesus is condemned, will look at the issue of imprisonment. Station six, “Jesus Meets Veronica,” will explore prejudice and discrimination. “Jesus is Nailed to the Cross,” the subject of Station 12, will delve into the topic of death.
Neighborhood churches and ministries have sponsored each of the stations and will use dramatic readings, music, short speeches and other creative means to discuss the various social ills while connecting them to Jesus’ suffering on the cross.
Martinez and the women of Christ Kitchen have been studying the significance of the word “anointment” as they put together a presentation for Station 13, “Jesus is Taken from the Cross.”
Although she has never participated in such a public display of the stations, Martinez says she hopes the experience will help her and others grasp the meaning of Easter and God’s gift to the world. Powerful things happen when people come together as “a body of believers,” she said.
“I think it’s a beautiful, symbolic way of remembering Jesus’ sacrifice.”