In 2021, Virginia Theological Seminary produced a 40-minute video, The Way of the Cross (El Vía Crucis), that was made available free of charge for Lenten worship in English as well as Spanish. A year later, even with in-person worship available in many places, parishes are exploring creative ways to use this resource in both virtual and hybrid settings.
The Way of the Cross
The devotion known as the Way of the Cross is an adaptation to local usage of a custom widely observed by pilgrims to Jerusalem. The offering of prayer at a series of places in that city traditionally associated with Jesus’ passion and death, the stations provide an orderly way of meditating on the Lord’s passion.
New Ideas for Using This Video
Adding Movement
Physically moving about the stations provides a full body engagement in the meditation. How can we incorporate movement in a video offering? Lisa Amspacher Work is a postulant for holy orders from the Diocese of Central Pennsylvania. She developed a walking path for Stations of the Cross at St. John Episcopal Church in York, Pennsylvania.
“After navigating over a year of worship online during the pandemic, I wanted to develop an interactive Stations of the Cross experience both for our congregation and the community. When I discovered the video that combined Dr. Marty Wheeler Burnett’s music and the artwork of Stations of the Cross by Margaret Adams Parker, I was excited. I requested permission to divide the video into smaller videos of each station, laminated an image for each station along with a QR code, and attached it to a 5-foot stake. Each station was strategically placed on the front lawn of our church. People would use their phones to scan the QR code at each station, taking them to the video to listen to the station and view the artwork. The interactive Stations of the Cross were available to the community on the church property from Good Friday until Easter morning.”
A playlist with fourteen separate videos, one for each station, can be found here.
Sharing Online
Brother Luis Enrique Hernández Rivas CFC provided the Spanish language translation for El Vía Crucis. He shared this reflection on the video’s effectiveness.
“While the ability to meet in person was limited, congregations used this resource as a way to meditate together – through live online experiences, or individually through private viewing. The Office of Latino/Hispanic Ministries hosted an online Stations of the Cross event on the first Friday of Lent using this resource (over 700 views).”
Permission Granted!
Permission to stream the video is automatically included, so parishes and schools may use the video for Lenten programming at no cost. A guide for reflection and further study is available here.
How can we invite the wider community to engage in prayer and reflection during this holy season? How might you creatively use this video resource? We hope you will join us on the Lenten pilgrimage using The Way of the Cross/El Vía Crucis in 2022.
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