Mar 30 | Writing the Dark Night Via Dolorosa

Hi, everyone!

As you all may or may not know, two years ago a friend and I put together a special art installation in a small urban parish for Lent and Holy Week. We called the project “Writing the Dark Nights of our Lives,” and, taking inspiration from graffiti artist Banksy, commissioned several artists inside and outside the parish to create six paintings and six accompanying figures for a stripped down version of the Stations of the Cross. The pieces were added over a period of several weeks, stuck right to the walls of the church as though they had been spray-painted there. All of this was accompanied by a blog and Twitter feed as well as accompanying sermons.

My main job was to co-ordinate, manage the blog, contribute to the Twitter feed, and help host “Writing the Dark Night Wednesdays,” where we opened up the church after Wednesday evening Eucharist and invited anyone who wished to come in, explore the art, and listen to music I provided. I also wrote six reflections for the stations, which were posted when each station was added, and then combined to create a liturgy where we actually walked these Stations of the Cross on Good Friday 2013.

The response from the parish was amazing, more than we ever could have asked or imagined. We had expected push-back, maybe even a little offense, but instead were met with deeply prayerful engagement.

My friend left that year shortly after the project finished to complete seminary training in Ontario. This year he has been emailing me to let me know that he has been sharing the liturgy with churches he has been working with. Apparently the response has been good – even former Primate Michael Peers called it “spectacular”!

Since we’ve had such a good response, I decided I would post the text I wrote with the Stations, along with photos of the paintings. There are six so we’ll have just enough time if I post one for each day of Holy Week.

Enjoy!

-Clarity