Stations of the Cross for children

We did the following service at 10 a.m. on Good Friday this year.  We had a small group of children - the youngest was 5, the oldest was 12.  At different points, each one of them was intently focused on the worship; this goes to show that there is no need to "dumb down" our liturgical tradition for children, nor to constantly fill it with gimmicks, loud music, and bright colours.  This service is serious, solemn, and contemplative, and it worked.

The new verses of the Improperia are written partly by me and partly by my sister, the Rev. Grace Pritchard Burson.  Much of them focus on New Testament works of salvation, to counter the charges of anti-Semitism that have sometimes been laid on the Improperia, with its focus only on God's love for the Chosen People and their seeming "ingratitude" at Christ's death.  These new verses ensure that the blame for the death of Christ is on the sinfulness of humanity as a whole, not on any one group of people.

Set-Up and Preparation:

1. Stations of the cross in the church somewhere.  We use laminated posters of painting made by the nuns at Tunvey Abbey, which are only present from Palm Sunday to Pentecost - so you don't have to have permanent stations as part of your church building in order for this service to work.

2. An Easter garden.

3. Chairs and a lit candle at each station that you use (the service is set up for four stations, plus some time at the font at the beginning and some time at the Easter Garden at the end, which takes about half an hour).

4. At the fourth station, you need flowers in pots, and a figure of Jesus wrapped in grave bands.  We used the detachable figure of Jesus from the "4-in-1 Easter Storytelling doll," (available from Articles of Faith, among others).

5. If you are not using live musicians, you need a CD player with batteries (i.e., one that can be carried in procession with you, not tied to a wall by a cord) at the fourth station as well.  The music we used was the Bulgarian Orthodox chant of "The Noble Joseph," from a CD entitled "Lamentations: Orthodox Chants for Holy Week" by Archangel Voices.  It's available for download at Amazon - the one we used was Track 23.

6. In Sunday School on Palm Sunday, I had the children act out the Passion Story and draw their own Stations of the Cross.  Some of these were hung in the church below their corresponding Tunvey Abbey station.  This gave us an opportunity to compare two different interpretations of the same scene in our wondering questions - for example, the child had included Mary and John at the foot of the cross, while the Tunvey Abbey station left them out.  I haven't included these wondering questions in the text below, to keep it simple, but this is a good way to include the children even more in the service if you have the time to prepare for it.


STATIONS OF THE CROSS FOR CHILDREN:

We gather in the chairs by the font.

HYMN:

Were you there when they crucified my Lord? (x 2)

Oh, sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble.

Were you there when they crucified my Lord?

Were you there when they nailed him to the tree? (x 2)

Oh, sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble.

Were you there when they nailed him to the tree?

Reading:

So Pilate whipped Jesus, and delivered him to be crucified. And the soldiers led him away.  And they clothed him in a purple cloak, and put a crown of thorns on him.  And they began to salute him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!”

And they struck his head with a reed, and spat upon him, and they knelt down in homage to him.  And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the purple cloak, and put his own clothes on him. And they led him out to crucify him.

And they brought him to the place called Gol'gotha (which means the place of a skull).  And they crucified him.

And those who passed by made fun of him, and teased him, saying, “he saved others; he cannot save himself!  Let the Christ, the King of the Jews, come down now from the cross, that we may see and believe!!”

THE FIRST STATION: Jesus meets his mother

We process to the first station, singing:

O sacred head, sore wounded,
defiled and put to scorn;
O kingly head surrounded
with mocking crown of thorn:
What sorrow mars thy grandeur?
Can death thy bloom deflower?
O countenance whose splendor
the hosts of heaven adore!

We look at the pictures and wonder about them.  These were our wondering questions - feel free to change or adapt them for your own congregation:

I wonder what you can see in this picture.

I wonder how Jesus is feeling.

I wonder if you've ever seen a crowd picking on someone.  What did you do?  How does it feel when everyone is against you? 

PRAYERS: My people, what have I done to you?  How have I offended you?  I led you out of Egypt, from slavery to freedom, but you led your Saviour to the cross.

All: Holy God, Holy and Mighty, Holy Immortal One, Have Mercy Upon Us.

A child is invited to blow out the first candle.

We go to the second station, singing:

Thy beauty, long-desirèd,
hath vanished from our sight;
thy power is all expirèd,
and quenched the light of light.
Ah me! for whom thou diest,
hide not so far thy grace:
show me, O Love most highest,
the brightness of thy face.

In thy most bitter passion
my heart to share doth cry,
with thee for my salvation
upon the cross to die.
Ah, keep my heart thus moved
to stand thy cross beneath,
to mourn thee, well-beloved,
yet thank thee for thy death.

THE SECOND STATION: Jesus is nailed to the cross

It is Friday.
And I stand at the foot of the cross.

Nothing can be said, nothing can be done.
I can hold the other's hands and weep, but I cannot be comforted.

It is Friday
And I stand at the foot of the cross.

The air is heavy still with waiting and longing.
Waiting for the inevitable, longing for the impossible.
Can this cup pass from me?
I look around me – all the colours are muted.
Dusty browns and greys – Cold and metallic.
Rolling black clouds cover the brilliant blue of the sky
As my soul is occluded by pain.
All that remains is the red of the blood
Running down the weathered wood of the cross.

It is Friday
And I stand at the foot of the cross.

I reach out and touch the raised grain of the wood.
It is rough against my fingertips.
I hear the laboured breathing from the cross.
Death is near.

It is Friday
And I stand at the foot of the cross.

Remember Him!
Remember Him as the silver cord is severed, as the golden bowl is broken.
Remember Him as the pitcher is shattered at the spring and the wheel broken at the well.
Remember Him as the dust returns to the ground it came from and
His spirit returns to the God who gave it.

It is Friday
And I stand at the foot of the cross.

-          By The Rev. Theresa Coleman

We look at the pictures and wonder about them.

I wonder what colours you can see in this picture.

I wonder how those colours make you feel.

I wonder how this picture is different from the last one.

I wonder what Mary and John are feeling.

PRAYER: My people, what have I done to you?  How have I offended you? 

I placed you in an abundant garden,

And you have laid hold of me in the garden of Gethsemane.

 I became flesh as part of my earthly creation,

and you have nailed that flesh to the cross.

All: Holy God, holy and mighty,

Holy Immortal One, have mercy upon us.

A child blows out the second candle.

We go to the third station, singing:

My days are few, O fail not,
with thine immortal power,
to hold me that I quail not
in death's most fearful hour;
that I may fight befriended,
and see in my last strife
to me thine arms extended
upon the cross of life.

THE THIRD STATION: Jesus dies.

And when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?“   And he uttered a loud cry, and breathed his last.

We look at the pictures and wonder about them.

I wonder why Jesus had to die.

I wonder how Jesus' friends felt when he died.  Have you ever felt that way?

We are silent for a minute.

PRAYER:

Leader: My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? *

and are so far from my cry

and from the words of my distress?

All: O my God, I cry in the daytime, but you do not answer;*

by night as well, but I find no rest.

Leader: Yet you are the Holy One, *

enthroned upon the praises of Israel.

All: Our forefathers put their trust in you; *

they trusted, and you delivered them.

Leader: They cried out to you and were delivered; *

they trusted in you and were not put to shame.

All: But as for me, I am a worm and no man, *

scorned by all and despised by the people.

Leader: All who see me laugh me to scorn; *

they curl their lips and wag their heads, saying,

All: “He trusted in the LORD; let him deliver him; *

let him rescue him, if he delights in him."

Leader: Yet you are he who took me out of the womb, *

and kept me safe upon my mother's breast.

All: I have been entrusted to you ever since I was born; *

you were my God when I was still in my mother's womb.

Leader: Be not far from me, for trouble is near, *

and there is none to help.

A child blows out the third candle.

We process to the fourth station, singing:

Were you there when they laid him in the tomb? (x 2)

Oh, sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble.

Were you there when they laid him in the tomb?

THE FOURTH STATION: Jesus is laid in the tomb

There were also women looking on from afar, among whom were Mary Mag'dalene, and Mary the mother of Jesus. And when evening had come, Joseph of Arimathe'a, a respected member of the council, who was also himself looking for the kingdom of God, took courage and went to Pilate, and asked for the body of Jesus. And Pilate granted the body to Joseph. And he bought a linen shroud, and taking him down, wrapped him in the linen shroud, and laid him in a tomb which had been hewn out of the rock; and he rolled a stone against the door of the tomb. Mary Mag'dalene and Mary the mother of Jesus saw where he was laid.

A child blows out the fourth candle.

Each of the children is given a plant in a pot.  One child is given the Jesus figure, wrapped in gravebands.  We process to the Easter Garden as music plays.  We place our plants around the tomb and a child places the stone across the door of the tomb.

When the music is finished, we close with the following prayer:

Leader: My people, what have I done to you?  How have I offended you?

To lead you from slavery to freedom,

I parted the waters of the Red Sea,

But you have taken me captive

And parted my side with a spear.

All: Holy God, Holy and Mighty, Holy Immortal One, Have Mercy Upon Us.

Leader: I was born out of the darkness of my mother’s womb

To be the light of the world

And you have extinguished that light

And placed me in the darkness of the grave.

All: Holy God, Holy and Mighty, Holy Immortal One, Have Mercy Upon Us.

We leave the church in silence.