IN THE sixth of our series of monthly worship videos, our online service will mark Palm Sunday in preparation for Easter with a modern reflection on the Stations of the Cross, led by our Trustee Augustine Tanner-Ihm and Co-Chair Sarah Hobbs.
The video will be live on Sunday 28th March, which many Christians celebrate as Palm Sunday, remembering Jesus’ arrival in Jerusalem for the final days of his ministry before he died on the cross and rose to new life. Palm Sunday is the first day of Holy Week, the week before Easter, in which we are encouraged to reflect on the stories of this important time in Jesus’ life and our faith.
To illustrate our Stations of the Cross reflections, we will use a series of striking images from artist Mary Button, who has created many versions of this popular devotion. The theme of this series is ‘The Struggle for LGBT Equality. In her introduction to this series she writes:
“I believe that we can only begin to understand the meaning of the crucifixion when we take away our polished and shiny crosses and look for the cross in our own time, in our own landscape.”
OTN Trustee Augustine Tanner-Ihm & Co-Chair Sarah Hobbs will lead our reflection on who are the crucified among us today. They include LGBTQIA+ Christians who still experience judgement from the churches. Just this month we have seen harmful statements from the Vatican on blessing same-sex couples, and the Evangelical Alliance on conversion therapy.
These monthly videos are now possible thanks to the grant we have received from the National Lottery Community Fund, to support our efforts to reach more Isolated members of our communities, and connect with our Open Table communities which have been unable to meet in recent months.