Stations of the Cross in time of war in Gaza - prayers for peace

Churches and Christian organisations are responding with prayers and statements to the violence in Israel and Gaza. Resources on the Church of Scotland website can help guide your own prayers.

Palestinian Christians cry out to Christians worldwide, ‘Is it nothing to you who pass by?' Lamentations 1:12

Here are a new set of prayers, written by Rev Muriel Pearson, Associate Minister St Andrew's Jerusalem & Tiberias, alongside Scripture readings and the wonderful woodcuts ‘Ecce homo' by Margaret Adams Parker, who has graciously granted use of her work for this Stations of the Cross.

Stations of the Cross as a practice of Christian devotion began in the 14th century. Christian pilgrims to Jerusalem from 16th century onwards walked the Via Dolorosa, retracing the steps of Jesus as handed down by tradition. This year there will not be many pilgrims walking the well-worn path because of the ongoing war in Gaza. Yet many of all faiths are walking their own Via Dolorosa as the war brings great suffering.

How might you use this resource? You might pray the Stations personally during Holy Week, or use them in a small group setting. You could download the material and set up ‘stations' around the church or a church hall and allow people time to travel between them. You might use them in a Holy Week service with multiple readers and project the images in a PowerPoint presentation. You could print the woodcuts in A4, A3 or even take them to a printer to print A1. You might have a public facing space, or an outside space where you wish to display them.

Even if following the Stations of the Cross is not part of your tradition, I hope you will find this a useful aid to devotion and to prayer for all those suffering in conflict around the world and particularly in Israel-Palestine.