Passion and Compassion

Ash Wednesday falls next week and there will be a Eucharist at 12.15pm and a Sung Eucharist at 8.00pm. It is the day which marks the beginning of Lent, a season of preparation and penitence in which we begin to look forward to Holy Week and Easter.

It is also a season during which the ancient Franciscan devotion of the Stations of the Cross takes place. At St Mary’s, we have always done something like this on Good Friday in the morning with a procession around the church. This year we will continue to do this, but there is more….

Drawing on the ancient spiritual devotion of the Stations of the Cross, we invite you to participate in a journey of reflection and discovery in the city of Oxford. We have developed website and a mobile application, which will enable you to weave your way around our ancient city, where key works of art can be found - in both religious and secular spaces, from churches to museums, and even city rooftops. Each of these fourteen works of art and artefacts draw their inspiration from the fourteen stations of the cross.

On this journey, you will be accompanied by leading academics, theologians and artists, contemplating the profound meaning of the Stations of the Cross through some of Oxford’s most impressive works of art. As we meditate on the events of Jesus’ passion, we are brought to reflect more deeply on God’s compassion for the world and our own capacity for empathy and compassion.

A linked exhibition of all 14 Stations of the Cross is in the Adam De Brome Chapel starting this Sunday until the end of Eastertide.

www.passionandcompassion.org

The Revd Dr William Lamb
Vicar of the University Church of St Mary the Virgin

You can read the whole epistle here.