Good Friday

The first service of Good Friday at Christ Church Cathedral is designed to tell the story of Christ’s passion to children, engaging their imaginations, their empathy, and their senses as we move around the Cathedral.  This year,  Dean Paul Kennington led us from the supper table to the garden to the cross, where everyone wrote (or drew) their concerns or hopes on cards and attached them to the cross in prayer.  The choir walked with us, leading us in quiet song as we moved from place to place and as we prayed.

Paul talked about friends – about loving them and helping them and being let down by them.  He talked about Jesus, the friend who can always be relied on.  He acknowledged the sadness of the day in a way that children could understand but not in a way that would scare them or weigh them down.  This is a tricky balance to achieve, especially on Good Friday when we do not want to move to proclaiming the resurrection quite yet.  Instead, Paul helped the children enter the story in a safe place with a trusted guide and pointed to the promise of Jesus’ resurrection by making the cross a place of prayer rather than of desolation.

carrying the cross with Jesus

preparing our prayers

praying with the cross