The Way of the Cross, Melbourne 2011

The Way of the Cross stops
outside St Patrick's Cathedral

Yesterday we had the pleasure of joining the Way of the Cross service in Melbourne as part of the Easter celebrations put on by the city churches. I had heard about the service in the past, but this was the first time that I was in the neighborhood and I thought it might be interesting to check out.

It is billed as an ecumenical devotion and it begins at St Francis' church on Lonsdale St while ending at St Paul's Cathedral on Flinders St. Along the way, the route weaves between significant CBD churches with each stopping point marking Christ's key moments from the last supper until his death on the cross. These moments have traditionally been called the stations of the cross and within Melbourne, these stations are marked by a series of 15 permanent sculptures, each residing in the grounds of the various urban churches.

One of the sculptures that mark
the stations of the cross

After hurriedly racing through the city, I managed to catch up with the progression out the front of St Patrick's Cathedral. Several impressions were immediately apparent. Firstly, the crowd of people attending the service was quite sizeable. I estimate about a thousand, but Channel 9 news who were covering the Easter march, reported hundreds. The demographics of the crowd was an interesting mix of nationalities and cultural backgrounds, with most age brackets represented, except for the youth/uni category who presumably are naturally under-represented in urban churches anyway.

Secondly, the organisers had rigged up a portable PA system which allowed the priests and ministers to pass around a wireless mic while two vans had four-way loudspeakers respectfully broadcasting the service to the outer-reaches of the throng. Usually one van would be slightly behind the crowd, while the other acted as the vanguard to the mobile service. The march had a police escort, consisting of several uniforms who walked the outer fringe and a couple of cop cars who blocked off the streets. At some moments, it felt like I should have been holding a placard and chanting some catchy three word sentence - particularly when the route passed Parliament by.

The organisers had a portable PA system to broadcast the service to the crowd

Ballieu had no need to be worried though. The service was equal parts funeral procession and proud proclamation, more reverent than demonstrative. Curious onlookers - once they saw the wooden cross and put-two-and-two together about the reason for their relaxing day off - didn't quite know how to handle such an obvious display of Christianness. Thankfully, no-one loudly vented their issues with the church or make offensive gestures, with most opting for a good old-fashioned gawk or shuffling of their shoes. The only real disturbance was the MFB who raced by and drowned out a poor minister in the middle of a prayer with sirens blaring.

Station 11: Collins Street Baptist Church

We followed a large wooden cross that acted as a heraldic standard for the walking mass. The holder of the cross changed hands at every station with seemingly random people chosen from the crowd, perhaps reflecting the way the ancient Romans selected individuals from the side-lines to help the condemned carry the cross. At each station, a mini service was held, which followed a strict liturgy that was neatly documented in a professional booklet that was freely available. These services included a brief catechism, bible reading, reflection on the bible reading in the form of a poem, common prayers, call-and-response prayers, and a hymn to finish off with.

Station 12: St Paul's Cathedral
Swanston St entrance

Generally everything was fairly straight-down-the-line theologically speaking, although the call-and-response prayers were heavily focused on social justice issues such as depression, homelessness, gender equality, prisoners, pimps, druggies, gangs, the abolition of the death penalty, terminally ill patients and funeral companies. While I agree that these concerns should be matters that the church should consider, I'm not convinced that Good Friday is the best time to address them. Conversely, their inclusion did demonstrate the relevance of the gospel to 21st century Australia.

As the service concluded on the steps of St Paul's and students from Melbourne Grammar handed out juice boxes and hot cross buns (donated by Brumby's bakeries), it was apparent that this was a very special Christian event to have participated in. It was fantastic to see such unity between the different denominations (Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, Baptist, Uniting, Church of Christ, etc) and to actually visit the steps of so many majestic places of worship. Melbourne truly is a great city and it was an honour to be part of the moving congregation, rubbing shoulders with random believers from different perspectives, and reflecting upon Christ's awesome sacrifice outdoors with the wind in your hair, sun on your face and trams reverberating past.