Jeremy Morse
Shawville April 15, 2022
To commemorate Good Friday, Shawville’s churches participated in a walk of the cross.
At 2 p.m., community members gathered in the parking lot of New Hope Christian Fellowship.
New Hope’s pastor, Rev. Stuart Marples, led the first prayer, followed by a mass recital of the hymn Were You There.
A purple cloth was then wrapped . . .
around the cross and Rev. Marples placed a crown of thorns at its centre.
From there, Rev. Marples and Rev. Eric Morin from St. Paul’s Anglican Church carried the cross down Main Street towards St. Paul’s, where another set of prayers were read and Were You There was repeated with extended verses.
Pilate’s inscription was placed at the head of the cross and nails were hammered into each end.
Rick Valin, head of council for the Shawville United Church and council member Jacques Dicaires carried the cross to its final destination at the Shawville United Church. The Holy Sponge and the Holy Lance were placed at the cross.
Dicaires, also responsible for the placement of the Holy Lance, explained the ever-changing roles he plays for the church, from an impromptu worship leader to a shepherd entering Jerusalem for Psalm Sunday reenactment.
“The pleasure of working in a church environment is you get thrown all kinds of roles all the time, usually without any kind of preparation,” he said.
“I was not expecting to be holding the lance to pierce Jesus today,”
The event concluded with a silent prayer at the cross and refreshments in Shawville United’s recreational hall.
Shawville has held walks of the cross in the past, but this is the first one in recent years. Rev. Marples and Rev. Morin spearheaded this year’s event after two years of commemorating Good Friday online.
Rev. Marples explained the atmospheric contrast between Good Friday and Easter Sunday. “For me it’s always difficult because I know that Sunday’s coming,” he said.
“On this side, we know that all the doom and gloom of Good Friday is going to be replaced by the joy and celebration of Easter Sunday, but I try, at least for a couple of days, to put Easter Sunday out of my mind to focus on the depth of the sacrifice that Jesus made.”
Good Friday’s walk of the cross was one of Shawville’s many ecumenist events, where Christian unity prevails above denominational disagreements.
Rev. Morin explained the bond between the community’s mosaic of churches, especially on Good Friday.
“Each denomination has a different understanding and expression of it, but we all agree that it’s a very important transition point in the life of Jesus.”
A similar sentiment was echoed by Valin.
“It used to be really important which church you went to,” he said. “We didn’t have a service last night and we felt very comfortable going to New Hope and we would have been very comfortable going to the Pentecostal Church or St. Paul’s.”
Dicaires added, “As somebody who was born in Montreal and lived in Ottawa, it is quite a surprise to see so many churches in a small rural town, but it’s always very pleasant to see them come together and touch the common points.”
