Editor's Note

The Stations Project

For some time now I’ve had in mind a special project for a Lenten issue of NC Catholics. Like more than one project – I hope I’m not the only one who can say this – I’ve not completed it. My first idea was simple: When I noticed that I was traveling to churches all over the Diocese with my camera in tow, I decided to take photos of the Stations of the Cross in each parish, then publish a photo feature with stations from fourteen different churches. I mentioned this idea a couple of years ago to Fr. Arturo Cabra, pastor of Mother of Mercy Catholic Church in Washington, NC, and he suggested a way to make such a feature more valuable: Include a brief reflection on each station.

During this season of Lent, when many of you are praying the Way of the Cross, I’m hoping that readers can help make this idea a reality in Lent 2010. Is there one Station of the fourteen that speaks to you in a special way? Write me and tell me why. There’s no word limit on what you write, but I expect the versions chosen for the magazine will be edited to 50 words or fewer. You need not send your name if you prefer that it not be published; just identify your parish. (The photos of the Stations and the reflections next to them won’t necessarily be from the same parish.)

I already have many photographs, and I’ll be taking more this year, but there are several I already hope to include. In the Tileston Center at St. Mary in Wilmington, there are Stations from the former St. Thomas Church, the first Catholic church in Wilmington. At the New Hill rectory where the Triangle Korean Catholic Community meets for Mass, the Stations are nailed to trees along a path on the property.

I hope a lot of North Carolina Catholics will want to participate in this feature! You can write me at 715 Nazareth Street, Raleigh, NC 27613, or reece@raldioc.org.