A friend asked the other day what I was giving up for Lent. I replied ‘nothing’ because I choose instead to take on something. This friend looked at me like I had just spoken in tongues, unable to fathom what any of this meant. When they pressed further about what it was I was taking on, I said graffiti street art inside the church. I have never seen someone laugh so hard in my life- I actually think they stopped breathing. This was the truth though. Together with Clare and artists from all over the Diocese we began a project at the beginning of lent which gave folks the space to physically write the wounded nature of their dark nights onto the cold stone of our heritage building.
Our wounded nature is a human nature we all share, something that for Christians is expressed over lent through the station’s of the Cross. This physical exploration of faith in light of Christ’s last actions on earth brings us to a deeper understanding of who and what we are in the midst of our common faith. Taking the fourteen biblical stations of the cross, Clare and I have invited participates to meditate on one of six common themes through which they write their icons. These stations are prayer, judgment, succor, crucified, relationship, death. The stations are being installed in order over a random schedule between now and Easter Sunday, with the final station of Christ’s burial and conquering over death being written into our Pascal candle. Each wound has a person at prayer as the tag or street identifier of the artist involved. These tags are the unifying images through which the whole project is brought together- we all pray our lives, especially our wounded lives. The images at prayer encompass people from all different religious backgrounds from Muslim to Buddhist and everything in between.
In order to engage with the community Clare and I have actively engaged social media through twitter and the blogosphere to post comments, reflections, pictures, and sermon tidbits. We can be found on twitter @Stpaulsartguild, come and check us out. To engage with the larger community outside the parish, we are also keeping the church open every Wednesday evening from 7:30-8:30 with live music and a space for prayer. This open house for prayer will continue every day over holy week from 7:30-8:30 with live spoken word on the street at 7:30-7:45, followed by live music in the church. Good Friday will see an adapted stations of the Cross take place starting at 6:30pm with silent prayers before the cross and the stations beginning at 7pm.
Our wounded nature is a human nature we all share, something that for Christians is expressed over lent through the station’s of the Cross. This physical exploration of faith in light of Christ’s last actions on earth brings us to a deeper understanding of who and what we are in the midst of our common faith. Taking the fourteen biblical stations of the cross, Clare and I have invited participates to meditate on one of six common themes through which they write their icons. These stations are prayer, judgment, succor, crucified, relationship, death. The stations are being installed in order over a random schedule between now and Easter Sunday, with the final station of Christ’s burial and conquering over death being written into our Pascal candle. Each wound has a person at prayer as the tag or street identifier of the artist involved. These tags are the unifying images through which the whole project is brought together- we all pray our lives, especially our wounded lives. The images at prayer encompass people from all different religious backgrounds from Muslim to Buddhist and everything in between.
In order to engage with the community Clare and I have actively engaged social media through twitter and the blogosphere to post comments, reflections, pictures, and sermon tidbits. We can be found on twitter @Stpaulsartguild, come and check us out. To engage with the larger community outside the parish, we are also keeping the church open every Wednesday evening from 7:30-8:30 with live music and a space for prayer. This open house for prayer will continue every day over holy week from 7:30-8:30 with live spoken word on the street at 7:30-7:45, followed by live music in the church. Good Friday will see an adapted stations of the Cross take place starting at 6:30pm with silent prayers before the cross and the stations beginning at 7pm.
So what are you taking on this Lent? Why not come and pray your life in all of its messy, creative, beauty, through the street art of Christ’s fourteen last moments on earth? Join us in person or online, you might just find something you’ve always been looking for.