'Their responses... were completely unexpected and often deeply moving' 

Aware of the thriving arts community on its doorstep, Mitcham Lane Baptist Church organised a multimedia Stations of the Cross, commissioning artists within the church and beyond to use any medium they wanted. 

The results were eye catching, reports Francesca Collis 

If, like me, you have lots of friends and family members with no faith, you will recognize the challenges involved in encouraging them to engage with church. Christmas is easy. Everyone loves a carol service or a nativity play. But Easter…

In my experience, many ‘unchurched’ people are uncomfortable with Easter. If they actually know the story that is being celebrated (I’m constantly amazed at how many people have no idea what Easter signifies…), they are unconvinced that it is a reason for celebration.

And, unlike the appeal of a Christmas service, there are few crowd-pleasing songs that they recognise…

With this in mind, the pastor of Mitcham Lane Baptist Church (MLBC), Gemma Duggan decided to approach the challenge creatively.

A key part of community evangelism involves knowing your community. MLBC is situated in the heart of Furzedown, part of the vibrant and diverse district of Tooting in South London. Furzedown has a thriving arts community, including a dedicated arts space run by enthusiastic volunteers. Many of the members of MLBC are active in local arts.

We have, in the past, made good use of the talents within our congregation. For last Advent, we commissioned artworks from a handful of our more gifted members to illustrate the five Advent candle symbols (hope, peace, joy, love and light). Displaying the artworks in our church window was a way of sharing Christmas themes beyond the baby in the manger with our non-Christian neighbours.

The success of this inspired Gemma towards a more ambitious initiative for Easter: a Multimedia Stations of the Cross. The whole church would be transformed into an interactive art gallery. There would be the traditional 14 stations, but some stations would have more than one interpretation.

There were to be some radical differences from traditional church representations of this sacred depiction of Christ’s journey to the cross:

In most churches, all the stations would be created by one artist. While this gives a sense of continuity, by inviting a wide number of artists, we hoped that every stage of the journey would be a striking and involving experience for the onlooker. No chance of complacency or drifting through the story without engagement once the familiarity of the creative style became obvious.

And when Gemma decided that this would be a multimedia exhibition, she didn’t hold back! Artists were told they could use ANY medium they chose. Of course, there were some magnificent paintings and drawings, even though the application of these traditional media still produced unique visions that stopped and stunned onlookers on their journey.

But who would have anticipated that there would be submissions using the media of stop-motion film (using Lego), silk-screen printing, photography, music, flowers… and cake?

Some of the artists came from within MLBC, and some of those were new to the creation of art for public viewing. What also set this apart was commissioning artists outside our church and within the community, several of whom were not Christians. This proved to be key in attracting a wide audience, many of whom had never been inside our church and, from conversations, would never have found any reason to visit any church at Easter.

The exhibition was open to family and friends of the exhibitors on Maundy Thursday, then to the public on Good Friday and Easter Saturday. We offered refreshments, including hot cross buns, free of charge which added a sense of celebration to the occasion and offered our guests a chance to sit and reflect on what they’d just seen. Or just enjoy some company and conversation.

On Good Friday itself, a cold day, we had individuals, couples and families drifting in, many of whom were just looking for somewhere to go on a day when everything was closed. Because every station was eye-catching, they all felt compelled to follow and relate to the entire trail. Even the youngest children were captivated by the originality of the art on display.

And the conversations! We had church volunteers on hand throughout, just chatting to these visitors. Many had no faith, some had different faiths, but they were all attracted by the astonishing range of creativity within one room.

Their responses to individual works were completely unexpected and often deeply moving. I have never been involved in so many profound conversations about faith with people who had clearly never considered the life and death of Jesus having any relevance to their lives.

There was a huge amount of work in putting this project together. It was a gift to our community and we reaped rewards back aplenty from the warmth, the response and the sense that for every visitor, they had finally had a personal encounter with Jesus – on his holiest journey…

Francesca Collis is the secretary of Mitcham Lane Baptist Church