Local churches hold Stations of the Cross on Good Friday
BY MARY RUMORE life@starkvilledailynews.com
Jane Lusk celebrated her 100th birthday Wednesday afternoon at the Claiborne at Adelaide surrounded by family, friends and former students.
Jane Lesley Weygandt Lusk was born March 28, 1918, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In 1941, she received a bachelor of science from the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science and a master of science from Washington State University in 1947.
Lusk was a biology teacher at Starkville High School for 37 years from 1958 until 1995, and then she worked part-time until BY MARY RUMORE life@starkvilledailynews.com
In honor of Good Friday, local churches in the community will hold the Community Stations of the Cross.
The Stations of the Cross will begin at 9 a.m. at First United Methodist Church, and the route will visit First Baptist Church Starkville, Starkville Korean Church, Tinity Presbyterian Church, Aldersgate UMC, First Presbyterian, Ecumencial Group, Episcopal Church of the Resurrection, New Horizon Church, Life Church Starkville, First Presbyterian PCUSA, University Baptist Church and ending at St. Joseph Catholic Church at approximately 10 a.m.
“What we do is carry a cross from the front steps of First Methodist through town and end at St. Joseph Catholic Church and stop along the way and read portions of the Good Friday story,” First United Methodist Church pastor Giles Lindley said. “Those are the Stations of the Cross to represent the steps Jesus took going to the cross.”
Lindley said everyone was invited to join in the entire walk or stop at only certain stations.
Lindley said this is the fourth year that the churches have participated in the Stations of the Cross, and around 250 to 300 people are expected to partake in the event.
Lindley said the Stations
of the Cross in Starkville is meant to represent the same tradition in Jerusalem in honor of the holiday each year.
“There is a tradition in Jerusalem at the Via Dolorosa, which was the actual road that Jesus walked from where he was tried to the cross,” Lindley said. “Over history,
people travel this and stop at various places throughout the story.”
Lindley said each station will represent a part of the story of Good Friday, starting with Jesus in the Garden, his trial, his arrest, his time before Pilate and then his death on the cross.
“Each station offers a meditation on something that happened on his way in carrying his cross,” Associate Pastor of St. Joseph Catholic Church Rusty Vincent said. “Overall, its just us walking that same journey with him. He walked his way carrying his cross, and we walk with him now.”
Vincent said the Easter holidays begin on Thursday, where the church’s worship centers around the Last Supper and Christ giving up his body for us. Good Friday remembers Jesus’s death on the cross, and Easter celebrates his resurrection. “Easter itself, beginning with our Easter vigil on Saturday night, centers on the resurrection, the fact that he’s raised and achieved victory over sin and death, and hopefully ourselves rise up with him in that resurrection as well” Vincent said.