Many will be aware of the Statue of the Sacred Heart, carved by the renowned Scottish Catholic sculptor, Hew Lorimer, and gifted to St John’s a few years ago by Hilary and Hugh Stafford Northcote, through the good offices of friends of Fr Jock, Kate and James Hamilton, both writers and artists. Last year, Kate and James gave Fr Jock a set of 15 Stations of the Cross (including one of the Resurrection), woodcuts by Peter Clare, a major contemporary religious artist ( http://www.peterclare.co.uk), wondering if either of our parishes might benefit from them. It was felt, after discussion at two St Mary Magdalene meetings – one a Pastoral Council, the other an Open Parish Meeting, that framed, they would blend well with the rather minimalist Stations in the main church there.  

Fr Jock duly organised their framing and on Thursday, with the help of his brother Robert and of Chris Vinestock, the Stations were duly ‘installed’ in St Mary Magdalene’s.  Do please go and look at them and pray them.  

The woodcuts were also collected in a book of the Stations. Grace Sheppard, wife of David Sheppard, the Anglican Bishop of Liverpool, wrote in the Foreword: ‘These stations provide us with a series of modern icons with a remarkable range of human expression and feeling. This is captured by an artist who has experienced the emotions he portrays. Despair, exhaustion and grief are balanced with tenderness and love. If Christ was God expressing himself in human form, then taking time to look at these woodcuts, one by one, and in a quiet place, will enrich our understanding of what God is like. Our faith will be strengthened. We will find him coming near and will want to worship him.’