Stations of the Cross: A Pandemic Year.

 

The following stations reimagine Jesus' journey to the cross and the tomb through events that have taken place in the UK (mainly England) since the start of the Pandemic in January 2020. You're free to use in church services and adapt them as you see fit. Please credit me if you use my prayers and other writing. May God continue to be with us all during this Lententide and upcoming Passiontide. 

~ Jayne Manfredi, February 15th 2021.  

1. Jesus is condemned to death. 

Peter Attwood is the first person in the UK to die of COVID-19, on January 30th 2020. His death was originally recorded as pneumonia but testing of his lung tissue confirms the presence of the virus. His daughter Jane Buckland recalls the last time she saw him alive in hospital: ‘The last thing he said was, “Go on, off you go...’ and I said, “Love you, see you tomorrow...” and that was it.’ 

 

2. Jesus Accepts the Cross

By March 2020, confirmed cases in the UK exceed 100 and England’s Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty tells M.Ps that the UK’s response to COVID-19 has moved on to the second stage: from “containment” to “delay.” Thousands of retired doctors and nurses are recruited to assist an already overburdened NHS. 

3. Jesus falls for the first time. 

24th March 2020: Boris Johnson announces a National Lockdown for the first time. School buildings are closed to the majority of pupils. Non-essential shops, cafes, pubs and gyms also close. 

4. Jesus meets his mother. 

People see their relatives in care homes through the windows but aren't allowed inside due to Covid restrictions. 

5. Simon of Cyrene carries the cross

Footballer Marcus Rashford instigates and leads a national campaign to end child food poverty by asking the government to provide lunches to children from low-income families during the holidays. 

6. Veronica wipes the face of Jesus

Professor Sarah Gilbert designs the Oxford vaccine, which by late November 2020, trials suggests is at least 70% effective at preventing Covid-19 symptoms and 90% effective with a second dose. To date more than 18 million people in the UK have received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine - part of the biggest inoculation programme the country has ever launched. 

7. Jesus falls for the second time

 On October 31st Boris Johnson announces a second National Lockdown for England to prevent a "medical and moral disaster" for the NHS. 

8. Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem. 

Campaigners call on NHS Trusts to allow pregnant women to have their partners with them to appointments and scans, after it was revealed three quarters of NHS Trusts had banned them from attending, leading to women experiencing traumas like miscarriage without partner support. 

9. Jesus falls for the third time. 

January 5th: A third lockdown is announced for England. Similar restrictions are imposed for Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. School buildings are closed to the majority of children and young people, with some (but by no means all) offering live online lessons. Anne Longfield, The Children's Commissioner for England, publishes a report which indicates that the damage to children's mental health caused by the pandemic, could last for years. 

10. Jesus is stripped of his garments. 

By late January there are twice as many patients in hospital with Covid than there were at the peak during the first lockdown. 

11. Jesus is nailed to the cross. 

Mental health charity Mencap receives reports from people with learning disabilities that they had been told they would not be resuscitated if they were taken ill with Covid. 

12. Jesus dies.

 

The UK death rate surpasses 100,000. 

 13. Jesus' body is removed. 

As the death rate increases, temporary morgues are set up to cope with the dead. 

14. Jesus is laid in the tomb. 

Information card from a funeral: Throughout the pandemic relatives have had to mourn the dead without being able to receive physical comfort from the living. 

Lord have mercy. 

Christ have mercy.

Lord have mercy. 

A Prayer of Promise to the Lord

Lord Jesus, we once again journey with you to the cross and we pledge to not look away from your suffering as you have not looked away from ours, during this painful pandemic year. 

We will keep watch with you in Gethsemane, as you have kept watch with the doctors and nurses in the small dark hours, when they were bent with exhaustion and fatigue, and afterwards when they wept in the car on the way home. As you sat beside the dying, in their gasping for breath or quietly slipping away, without the comfort of loved ones to ease their passing. You were there. You did not leave them. Your spirit was willing, when their flesh was weak from covid. 

We will not turn our faces away when you take up your cross, as you did not turn away from us when our legs buckled under the many burdens of this past year. You helped us carry them, for some of us all the way to the very depths of Golgotha. When we cried "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" You answered, "I am here child. I never left you. Did you forget I said I will be with you until the end of the age?"

We will not look away when you stumble, because you were beside us every time we fell and when we were convinced we couldn't get up anymore. 

We carried on together. 

We will not look away when they put you on the cross, as you did not abandon us when terrible things happened; when the scourge of loneliness stung and ravaged our souls, when the pain of loss felt like nails driven into hearts, you did not turn your face away. 

You were steadfast. 

You were constant. 

You were our one true North, our one point of consistency and predictability in an unfamiliar and frequently shifting landscape.  

You did not abandon us and we will not abandon you. 

We will keep watch with you Jesus. 

Every step of the way.

To the very foot of the cross. 

Until it is finished. 

Amen. 

Another Stations of the Cross with more of a global focus can be found here.

(Images: To the best of my knowledge the images are attributed to Getty Images. Please do let me know if this is not the case or if an image belongs to you and you’d like it removed.)