Way of the Cross event takes new route through downtown
Good Friday tradition focuses on inner-city poverty this year
More than 200 people braved snow flurries and cold weather on Good Friday to walk through Edmonton’s downtown core in an annual Christian tradition.
“I am always just amazed that in weather like this people come ... to be part of this event,” said Way of the Cross organizer Linda Winski.
This year’s theme focused on inner-city poverty, with a twohour procession taking off from 100 Street and 105 Avenue before looping back to Hope Mission, located one block away.
“The reason we chose this (new) route is because the changing face of downtown means that in the inner city ... (the) agencies that serve the people most vulnerable in our midst are right up against Rogers Place,” Winski said, adding that the event focuses on social justice and faith.
“So the clash of the haves and the have-nots is so physically represented by that because it’s right across the street from Boyle Street Community Services.”
Participants listened to scripture, prayers and songs at all seven stations in the downtown core. Winski explained the outdoor procession is an adaptation of the Catholic tradition where churchgoers remember the last hours of Jesus Christ’s life, praying at 14 stations, ahead of Easter.
For three years, Christiane Cork has been attending the Way of the Cross with her husband and twin five-year-old sons.
“I never was so close to the arena, it changes the whole picture,” she said, noting that the Way of the Cross reminds her not to take her own blessings for granted. “It’s good to come here and remind ourselves, create an awareness we all live in this world together.”
Stops along the route included Boyle Street Community Services, where the crowd was encouraged to meditate on the importance of water as a natural resource after listening to an indigenous song. At MacEwan LRT Station, a University of Alberta chaplain told the crowd about how education can lead to a better future.
Senior citizens were also part of the procession.
“(Way of the Cross) is an expression of our unity and our diversity,” said 89-year-old Clarence Visser, who moved through the slush with a walker. He has attended Way of the Cross for the last 30 years and said he wouldn’t let the weather deter him.
“It lifts my spirit,” he said. “There are all kinds of people I’ve never met in the same mode of thinking, (focusing on) social justice and love of God.”