Good Friday

We invite you to pray the Stations of the Cross with us as we make our way south today.....

First Station (Seattle)
Jesus is condemned to Die
Our world is governed by fear rather than love.
We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you:
Because by your holy cross you have redeemed the world.
"Pilate,​determined to make people happy, released Barabbas to Jesus and delivered him to be flogged and crucified."​Mark 15:15

Meditation
In Jesus’ time he was scorned because he was from Galilee. He was delivered to his death because he lived among the poor and the outcasts and spoke up for their basic human dignity. He healed the sick and raised the dead – violating his society’s ideas of who was worthy. Here in this airport we have just come through a security checkpoint in which we were judged on our looks, our race and our religious beliefs. Let us remember all those who cannot pass through this checkpoint because their skin is dark or their accent is different, or they are not dressed the right way. Let us remember those who pass with fear through these gates and all those whose human dignity is not respected. Let us try to understand what it feels like to be different and unwelcome. To be condemned by prejudice, fear and hatred.
As people of faith, we must find concrete ways of transforming these unjust realities.

Prayer

Lord Jesus, you ​knew the bitterness of discrimination and hatred, give us a sense of solidarity with those who suffer for their faith and for the right to express their cultural customs. Cleanse us of our prejudices and fears.



Second Station

Jesus carries the Cross to Calvary
The immigrant leaves out of necessity: an Exodus from the countryside to the city for lack of land and opportunities or an exile to a foreign country.
​
"They took him, and he​went out carrying the cross himself, to a place called The Skull, in Hebrew, Golgotha."​John 19:17



Meditation
Our brother and sister immigrants seeking work and a better future for themselves and​their families are forced to journey to​other lands to simply put food on the table. Most of the time the immigrant is not welcome in​a new land, much like Jesus was not welcomed by many here on earth.​The lack of an​
equitable distribution of land assets, leads thousands of people to despair. Whether in internal displacement or immigration abroad, the immigrant is forced to carry the cross of abuse, loneliness, discrimination, racism, xenophobia, exploitation and restrictive immigration policies and laws.

Prayer
Jesus, with our immigrant brothers, we ​carry this cross with love, remembering that one day we​ will be with you in paradise. ​



Fifth Station

Simon of Cyrene Helps Jesus Carry the Cross
Globalizing Solidarity with Immigrants

"Outside they found a man from Cyrene, named Simon,​and forced him​to carry the cross."
Matthew 27:32

Meditation
Jesus is present ​in every migrant who is forced to carry the cross of unjust immigration ​laws, and listed as a criminal for seeking a better future. Jesus is present in the young man who has left his home for the first time in his life to try to work for money to send home to his parents and grandparents and little brothers and sisters who are hungry at home. Jesus is present in the young woman who right now as we speak is trying to cross the desert to join her husband or her brother to make a better life. Jesus is present in the field worker who is paid very little or not paid at all after doing back-breaking stoop labor to put food on our tables. Across our churches we see communities and agencies working to empower immigrants and help them to become part of the great tapestry that is woven of Americans who have come here from all over the world. The burdens that immigrants bear if they are alone is too much to carry for one person. But with the solidarity of each and every one of us, those burdens can become bearable.
We all​need to help immigrants just as Simon helped Jesus.​

Prayer
Lord Jesus Christ, allow​that in the bottom of our hearts we can be a loving presence to our immigrant brothers and sisters as they carry their crosses. May your spirit help us meet the needs of our neighbors and to sacrifice our time to meet the needs of immigrants with love.


Eighth Station

Jesus speaks to the faithful women
Even in his last moments Jesus reached out to the doubly discriminated


“Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children.”
Luke 23:27-28
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Meditation
Human trafficking is a great and hidden problem today. Immigrant women from all around the world are brought to this country on the promise of a good job with good pay. Instead upon arrival here they are forced into prostitution or their families are forced to pay huge amounts of money to buy their daughter’s or mother’s or wife’s freedom.
Women who come to this country with their families face more than double discrimination. They are bound by sex-role restriction from their country of origin and paid less here for their labor. Many immigrant women have not received any formal education before coming here and do not speak English or perhaps even Spanish. The men in the household will speak enough to get by and to get a job but often the women are isolated by not being able to comprehend or interact with the world around them in which English is the dominant language.
Women suffer from their own experiences of isolation and discrimination but they also suffer from the effects of being uprooted on their children. They weep like the women Jesus encounters as their children become involved in gang violence and may face prison or death. Women suffer as their children grow away from them, growing up in this alien culture which does not respect parents and does not value family as much as it values material goods.

Prayer

Lord, we ask for your intercession of each woman, each mother. Give them strength and courage to be survivors and to reach out to other women for their own empowerment. Console them in their losses. Grant them the wisdom and the love to hold their families together as you call them to do.


Tenth Station

Jesus is stripped of his garments
We strip the dignity from immigrants, workers, and those in underdeveloped countries


When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his clothes and divided them into four parts, one for each soldier. They also took his tunic; now the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece from the top. So they said to one another, “Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it to see who will get it.” This was to fulfill what the scripture says, “They divided my clothes among themselves, and for my clothing they cast lots.” John 19: 23-24

Meditation

The people we go to visit today have been stripped of much. They were stripped of their land before the civil war and now today are working to make the land that has been given to them produce and feed them. They have been stripped of their self-sufficient economy and have been forced to become a country of cheap labor where foreign companies import basic goods, create their product with cheap Salvadoran labor and sell that product abroad with no benefit for either the workers or for the country
by paying taxes. They have been stripped of national autonomy by being subject to multi-national foreign companies who have privatized their national resources. They have lost even their own national currency. Their families have been ripped apart by forced immigration.
But they have not been stripped of their human dignity or their ability to love and be generous.

Prayer

Lord, help us to give as much as we receive in this journey of accompaniment of your suffering people, the people of El Salvador. Help us to see their dignity and worth although they stand before us stripped of so much. Help us to be ministers of your love.


Eleventh Station

Jesus is nailed to the Cross
Jesus accompanies his people in their suffering and death and offers forgiveness and reconciliation to the whole world.

When they came to the place that is called The Skull, they crucified Jesus there with the criminals, one on his right and one on his left. Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.”
Luke 23:33-34

Meditation
Jesus stretched his arms out on the cross, giving finally all of himself for us. In his last minute he asks for forgiveness for all those that have brought about his crucifixion. As we make this journey we may become overwhelmed with the injustice that permeates our world. We may become angry. We may be overwhelmed with our own culpability in systems of oppression and discrimination. Help us to be more like Jesus. To give of ourselves for the sake of others. Let us be filled with joy at the generosity and humility of our Salvadoran brothers and sisters. Let us be filled with love for them and let that love carry us into action for the welfare of our whole world.

Prayer
Lord, Jesus, you gave your great love for us and you offered us your forgiveness. Transform, we pray, those who are criminals and thieves, those who try to rob the poor of their human dignity, that they may learn of your never-ending love. Help us who journey to forgive ourselves for our past apathy and silent collaboration in the suffering of others. We give you thanks for your death that raises us all into new life.


Twelfth Station

Jesus dies on the Cross
Jesus calls us to love one another.

Standing near the cross of Jesus were his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing beside her, he said to his mother, “Woman, here is your son.” Then he said to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” And from that hour the disciple took her into his own home. John 19: 25-27

Then Jesus, crying with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.” Having said this, he breathed his last. When the centurion saw what had taken place, he praised God and said, “Certainly this man was innocent.” Luke 23: 46-47

Meditation
At the moment of his death we hear Jesus’ message once again. Love each other, as mother and son, as brothers and sisters. We see that through Jesus’ self-offering his true nature is revealed. The immigrants in our home community and the people of El Salvador are bound to us in love, as beloved members of the one family of God. Let us offer our hearts in love to all we encounter on this journey. Let our eyes be opened to the suffering and to the love that these our brothers and sisters offer to us.

Prayer
Lord, we give you thanks for your endless sacrifice for us. Teach us how to give to others. Fill us with your love. Show us how to love the brothers and sisters we have in you.


Fourteenth Station (Nueva Esperanza)

Jesus is laid in the tomb
Building the Reign of God


Now there was a good and righteous man named Joseph. He came from the Jewish town of Arimathea, and he was waiting expectantly for the kingdom of God. This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then he took it down, wrapped it in a linen cloth, and laid it in a rock-hewn tomb where no one had ever been laid. It was the day of Preparation, and the Sabbath was beginning. The women who had come with him from Galilee followed, and they saw the tomb and how his body was laid. Then they returned, and prepared spices and ointments. Luke 23: 50-55

Meditation
Here we learn about Joseph of Arimathea who takes a risk and honors the man who was condemned to death. He remembers him as a friend and as the man who taught him about God’s Reign. We also have the women who prepared his body with spices and ointments. All of them acted on faith. Faith in God and faith in this man Jesus who had showed them a glimpse of that Reign. They had a faith that, in spite of the awful things that had happened in the last days of Jesus’ life, still called them to live in a different way, a new way, a way of love and justice and equality and humility and peace. The immigrants who flee from violence and economic oppression and suffering and the Salvadorans who live in circumstances which barely have room for human dignity - these people are Jesus in our day. These people are Joseph and Mary and Mary Magdalene. We are called to imitate them in our steadfast faith. We are called to imitate the saints and martyrs and prophets as we live out our baptismal vows to seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving our neighbor as ourselves, and to strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being.

Prayer
O God, your blessed Son was laid in a tomb in a garden, and rested on the Sabbath day. Grant that we who have been buried with him in the waters of baptism may find our perfect rest in Him.

We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you:
Because by your holy cross you have redeemed the world.

Let us pray.
We thank you, heavenly Father, that you have delivered us from sin and death and brought us into the Reign of your Son; and we pray that, as by his death he has recalled each and all of us to life, so by his love may he raise us all into the fulfillment of his Reign of Justice and Joy, here in this Life and in the Life to come. In the name of He who died for us we pray. Amen.

In the Beginning.....

On Good Friday nine members of the Growing in Grace youth group will be traveling to El Salvador. A few summers ago the group explored the relationship of faith to environmental stewardship during our annual vacation bible school. We received matching grant funds from the Diocese of Olympia’s Commission for the Church in the World to support a new water pump for the village of El Carmen, Usulután Province, El Salvador. We rolled up our sleeves and got to work raising money for the pump.  With support from our two church communities, Christ Episcopal Church and Celebration Lutheran, we potted and sold plants at the Anacortes Farmer’s Market, held spaghetti dinners and car washes and before we knew it we had reached our goal! 

Selling our potted plants at the Farmer's Market

The pump project was coordinated by the Foundation Cristosal (http://www.cristosal.org/ )a faith-based organization of Anglican roots dedicated to human rights and community development work in El Salvador.

Water Pump in El Carmen

Bishop of El Salvador, Martin Barahona was visiting the Northwest that fall and accepted an invitation to meet our group.  He was so happy with our work that he invited us to visit El Salvador to continue to build our relationship with the Salvadoran people.  More than three years later we are ready to go!

Bishop Martin Barahona visits us.

    Thanks to everyone who supports us in this journey…spaghetti makers, pancake flippers, blackberry jam makers and eaters, check writers… and above all those who continue to hold us in their prayers and in their hearts…