Easter 2009 - Thirteen Stations in Northwood!

You will have seen over Palm Sunday & Holy Week the evocative transformation of our North Porch into the tomb of Jesus - entering the church through the darkness, with the scene-of-crime fingerprints reminding of what Jesus carried with him in his death, and the extra 'tombstones' made by the School art club leading the way up through the churchyard. - - - This was all designed by Alice Simpson (our artist-in-residence as well as youth work assistant) for the final station of a new initiative this year: a pilgrimage trail for Holy Week all round Northwood & Northwood Hills. Some of us followed it together on Holy Week Tuesday and found it really special & meaningful. Thirteen Stations of the Cross had been prepared, combining poems by Jonathan Evens, whom we were lucky enough to meet as we were walking round, and all kinds of art work, giving us lots to think about. An enhancing dimension was that, as well as the churches, community groups were involved too - schools, libraries, some shops & the station foyer! - so many will have seen some of the items even if not following all round. Especially moving were Miriam Kendrick's painting of Christ crucified - for real - while a girl sits with her back to him, looking just at a Christ-less cross on TV, and an amazing Crown of Thorns, made by the Sunshine School out of discarded medical bits, gold painted and hanging in the bookshop window. If you didn't get to see everything this time, clamour for a repeat - and make a particular note to follow such an inspirational Easter pilgrimage next time around.

Ann Kentfield

Read the Jonathan Evens meditations here: Stations of the Cross

See pictures from the Northwood / Northwood Hills stations at: Jonathan Evens blog