Good Friday (and Easter)

Though I went to church this Easter at First Presbyterian, what I want to talk about is Good Friday, one of the major Christian holidays. City Ministries of Petaluma, an association of 12 Petaluma chuches, sponsored a joint Good Friday service at Petaluma Valley Baptist Church, but jointly led both by it and St. John's Anglican Church, who focused on Stations of the Cross, a tradition familiar to Catholics, and some Anglicans, but not with most other Protestants.

The tradition of the Stations of the Cross originated in pilgrimages to Jerusalem, along the Via Dolorosa (the Way of Sorrows), but began as a chapel devotion with St. Francis of Assi, and expanded from there, especially in the Roman Catholic Church.

What I found interesting was observing this tradition in a Baptist church, with Christians from various denominations, or non-denominations. While the Anglicans were in the lead, the Baptist pastor of Valley Baptist, Tom Markum, joined in alternatively leading the readings, meditations, and other aspects of observing this tradition, and the Christians from several churches (and denominations) joined in observing it and in reciting the congregational responses as part of the liturgy in this tradition. It abode well for my spirit to observe and participate in this ecumenical observance of an old tradition of the church in a Protestant/Evangelical church, especially with Baptists, who usually do not observe any such traditions.

After the first hour of the stations of the Cross, the Anglicans continued the service for a second hour on the Message of the Cross, and then for a third hour on the Veneration of the Cross. I remained for all three hours. It was quite an experience in an old tradition of observing Good Friday.