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Mar 31, 2014 | Kathy H. Culmer, DMin

St. James', Houston, Puts Creative Twist on Stations of the Cross

The scripture tellers arranged
themselves in the form of a cross

Observing the “Stations of the Cross,” a practice common in many churches during the Lenten season, was given new life in a storytelling, or scripture-telling version presented at St. James’ Episcopal Church in Houston on the third Sunday in Lent. The worship space at St. James’ was transformed into a Galilean road, and congregants became both eyewitnesses and fellow travelers with Jesus along the Via Dolorosa, or Way of Sorrows.
 

Images of each of the stations were projected onto overhead screens in the sanctuary, one at a time, while a storyteller told, by heart, the scripture passage depicted in the image. The art work was created by Lynne Kiefer Kobyleck¸ who has for the past 30 years dedicated herself to telling God’s story through the artful renderings of her hands. 

 

With no further props, 12 storytellers transported us in time and space to where the last events of our Lord’s life took place through their passionate and heartfelt telling of the scriptures, making more vivid each stop along the way–Gethsemane, the Praetorium, the place where Peter agonized over having denied his Lord, the Cross.

 

The teller who chose to tell of Peter’s denial admitted that he had chosen that portion of the story to tell because he had always wondered how Peter could do such a thing. His choice to tell that portion of the story and to become immersed in the text for the sake of gaining more insight for himself, resulted in a genuine and empathetic telling that likely brought others into deeper understanding.  
 

Between the scripture telling for each of the stations, listeners were given time to pause and reflect, then pray aloud in unison, before moving on to the next Station. Tellings were interspersed with choir and congregational singing, providing yet another opportunity to listeners to be participants in the events of the story.
 

Mark Praigg, who recently became a member of St. James’, shared, “I was really struck by how personal it all felt. Rather than being some historical retelling, it seemed to me that the approach used on Sunday made the story come alive and so much more pertinent to people living now.”
 

The storytellers ranged in age from elementary school-aged through mature adults. Carolyn Lindsay, a member of the congregation, shared that the variety in ages of the tellers was a reminder that, “This story is for everyone, not just adults. Jesus died for all of us.”

 

The beauty and the real gift of storytelling, in general, and in scripture telling in particular, is that there is something in it for everybody. While listeners get to see, hear, and experience the story in a way that simply reading the text could never provide, the tellers get to live it, to live with it, and to give it life.

 

The process of learning the story or scripture passage requires a knowing beyond simply committing the words to memory. The teller must make meaning and connection with the story in order to give a truthful “eye-witness” account of the event, although the event was not witnessed with the eyes. Only then, can the story be truthfully told. That was certainly the case for David Jones, a first time scripture teller, who told passages to accompany the three stations related to Pontius Pilate. David shared a Facebook posting later that day, which read, “It's still amazing to me how God can bless you through something that was intended to bless others.”