The series begins in North America, situating the Garden of Gethsemane in the abundance of the Great Plains before the arrival of European settlers. The arrival of European colonialists in North America ushered in centuries of ethnic cleansing and the enslavement of Native peoples. After the formation of the United States, the federal government waged violent campaigns against many Native peoples, forcibly removed them from their ancestral lands, and subjected them to discriminatory government policies and treaties.

Today, more than one in four American Indians live in poverty. According to a report published by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights called Broken Promises: Evaluating the Native American Health Care System: “Native Americans die of diabetes, alcohol use disorder, tuberculosis, suicide, and other health conditions at shocking rates. Beyond disturbingly high mortality rates, Native Americans also suffer a significantly lower health status and disproportionate rates of disease compared with all other Americans.”

☩

God of mercy and consolation,

Your child came into the world to free us from death. Open our eyes to the pain of the past.

Grant us strength and courage to confront the parts of our history that shame us. Remind us of the power of your reconciling love poured out for us on the cross. Amen.

American Indian boarding schools were established in the United States from the mid-17th to the early 20th centuries with a primary objective of assimilating Native American children. These boarding schools were first established by Christian missionaries of various denominations. The missionaries were often approved by the federal government to start both missions and schools on reservations, especially in the lightly populated areas of the West. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has organized a truth-seeking and truth-telling initiative about the ELCA’s involvement in Indian residential schools in the U.S. You can learn more about it here.

Similarly, the Canadian Indian residential school system was a network of boarding schools for Indigenous children. It was funded by the Canadian government, but administered by Christian churches. Children were forcibly removed from their parents and enrolled in these schools. A national truth and reconciliation commission report in 2015 found that these institutions were a “form of cultural genocide.”

☩

Creator God,

We are made in your image, help us to see you and your love in the eyes of every person we meet. Help us to take the log out of our own eye, so that we may see more clearly. Strengthen us in our journey as we face our church’s complicity in hurting your beloved children. Amen.

For more than forty years Greenpeace and other environmental groups organized against seal hunting in the Arctic. These campaigns failed to distinguish between commercial and subsistence seal hunting and had the effect of cutting Inuit hunters out of the global economy. After the ban on seal products went into effect, the government of the Northwest Territories (Canada) estimated that 18 out of 20 Inuit villages lost almost 60% of their communities income.

☩

Justice-loving God,

We renounce the systems of this world which create injustice. Hold all people in the healing power of your love so that we may find the courage to do the work of confession and repentance. Strengthen our faith and embolden us in hope as we build up your beloved community. Amen.

The Shor people are indigenous to an area of Russia called the Kemerovo Oblast, located in southwestern Siberia, where the West Siberian Plain meets the South Siberian Mountains. Open pit coal mining began in the Kemerovo Oblast in the 1970s and has destroyed much of the land considered sacred to the Shors. Mining companies have razed entire villages.

Yana Tannagasheva, an Indigenous Shor activist who protested against coal mining on her people's ancestral lands in western Siberia, is pictured in the station holding a banner that says: 'We don't want to live in moonscapes,' This refers to the practice of blasting craters into mountains as part of open pit mining.

☩

God of all people,

Pour out on us your love of justice that we may never cease to work to bring about your beloved community. Grant us the gift of honesty that we may not fear to speak the truth even when difficult. Amen.

The Uyghurs are an ethnic group which have traditionally inhabited oases scattered across the Taklamakan Desert within the Tarim Basin in Northwestern China. Beginning in the tenth century, the group gradually converted to Islam which now plays a significant role in their culture and identity. They are recognized by the Chinese government as a regional minority.

Since 2014, the Chinese government has been accused of subjecting the Uyghur people to forced sterilization and forced labor. Scholars estimate that at least one million Uyghurs have been detained in internment camps and sixteen thousand mosques have been razed since 2017. Hundreds of thousands of children have been removed from their parents and sent to boarding schools. It is the largest mass internment of an ethnic-religious minority since World War II.

☩

Gracious God,

Open our hearts to the pain and suffering of our siblings far away. Strengthen the bonds of affection and empathy between Christians and Muslims. Your love redeems the whole world, fill us with your spirit that we may be liberators in your name. Amen

Manipur is a state in Northeast India that is resource rich and home to several indigenous groups living side-by-side. Some of these groups are officially recognized by the Indian government as “scheduled tribes” and others aren’t. There are contested land claims between the groups. After colonial rule ended, Indian lawmakers sought to assimilate the region while separate tribes sought autonomy as their own nation states. Violent clashes have continually broken out in the region for decades.

Today, the impact of heroin production and drug trafficking has further destabilized the region. Poppy farming is often the only economic option for people in the area. In May 2023, a riot broke out during a political demonstration and the violence has affected all communities in the state. According to human rights groups, around 200 people have been killed and more than 70,000 people have been displaced, including at least 10,000 children.

☩

Holy God,

Give us the patience to understand complicated situations and the fortitude to always be learning about people and places unknown to us. Help us bring light and justice wherever we go. Amen.

The Rohingya people are a stateless indigenous group that have predominantly resided in the Rakhine State in Myanmar. Before the start of the genocide 1.4 million Rohingya people lived in Myanmar. Since the start of the genocide in October 2016, more than 700.000 Rohingya have fled Myanmar. Many have fled to neighboring Bangladesh, while others have fled to places like Thailand, India, Malaysia, and other parts of Southeast Asia. The Kutupalong refugee camp in

Bangladesh is the largest in the world and Rohingya refugees make up much of the camp’s population of more than 700,000 people. Many Rohingya refugees make perilous journeys over water seeking to escape to other countries. Hundreds have died making these journeys. In 2023, 569 Rohingya refugees drowned while making sea crossings. Humanitarian aid groups have called the Andaman Sea and Bay of Bengal one of the deadliest stretches of water in the world.

☩

God of all people,

We pray for all of our Muslim siblings, especially those facing persecution, incarceration, and death for their beliefs. Grant us compassion for all people and the fire of your Spirit so that we may work to bring your justice to this broken world. Strengthen us for the journey. Amen.

“Stolen Generations” refers to the hundreds of thousands of Aboriginal Australian and Torres Strait Islanders who were “removed” from their families by the Australian government and church missions. The Aboriginal Protection Act of 1869 was the earliest legislation that authorized the kidnapping of Aboriginal children. The institutional church played a significant role in these kidnappings with many children placed in church-run boarding schools.

The Australian government-sponsored Bringing Them Home report estimates that between one and three and one in ten Aboriginal children were removed from their parents’ care. Today, Aboriginal Australians have the highest incarceration rate in the world. Although Aboriginal Australian and Torres Strait Islanders make up two percent of the Australian population, they make up 27% of the prison population.

On December 29, 2015, an Aboriginal man named David Dungay Jr. was killed while in prison custody. CCTV cameras recorded corrections officers choking him to death after he refused to stop eating biscuits. He repeated that he could not breathe twelve times before he died.

☩

Almighty and merciful God,

Grant us the courage to confront the painful truths of our church’s past. Pour out your spirit on us so that we might resist the temptation to turn away and journey with us as we work to bring reconciliation and recompense. Amen.

The Bedouin people are a nomadic tribe that has historically inhabited the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa, Iraq and the Levant. They have engaged in nomadic herding since 6,000 BCE. In 2005, Bedouin were estimated to make up ten percent of the Arab population in Israel. As of 2013, there are 40,000 Bedouin people residing in the West Bank.

Located in the Jordan Valley, Humsa Al Bqai’a is one of 38 Bedouin and herding communities partially or fully located within Israeli-declared ‘firing zones.’ These are some of the most vulnerable communities in the West Bank, with limited access to education and health services, and to water, sanitation and electricity infrastructure.

On November 3, 2020, 73 people, including 41 children, were displaced from Humsa Al Bqai’a when Israeli forces demolished their homes and destroyed their belongings. Three quarters of the settlement’s inhabitants lost their shelters, making it the largest displacement in more than four years.

☩

God of mercy and consolation,

Your child came into the world to free us from death. Pour out your healing spirit on all people in all places. Open our hearts to the pain and suffering of those far away. Grant that we may walk in the way of the cross and find it the way of peace. Amen.

The Central Kalahari Game Reserve is in the middle of Botswana and was created to protect the traditional territory of the 5,000 Gana, Gwi and Tsila Bushmen (and their neighbors the Bakgalagadi), and the game they depend on. The Kalahari is one of the last places on Earth where there are people who still survive by hunting with spears, bows and arrows.

The bushmen have been engaged in a decades-long legal battle to stay in their home. The 1980s brought diamond mining to the Kalahari and by the mid-1990s, open pit diamond mining had resulted in the eviction of the bushmen. The Botswana government evicted the bushmen saying that their residence in the reserve was a threat to wildlife conservation efforts while allowing for open pit and underground diamond mining as well as fracking.

☩

Almighty God,

We pray for all the worlds’ peoples, especially those whose survival is dependent on subsistence hunting and gathering. Grant us the power and strength to resist the powers of the world that value wealth over people. Help us to protect the most vulnerable people and places in your beautiful creation. Amen.

Venezuela is a resource rich country with high reserves of metals and minerals like gold, diamonds, nickel, coltan and uranium. Most of the gold mining that happens in the southern states, including Bolívar, is illegal, with much of the gold smuggled out of the country. The mines are operated by criminal syndicates that brutally oversee their operations. Human rights groups report that these organizations impose abusive working conditions and in the worst cases have dismembered and killed workers accused of theft and other offenses in front of other workers.

Illegal gold mining is the last resort for the economically marginalized and many of Venezuela’s indigenous people have been forced to work in illegal mines. While the practice is illegal in Venezuela, miners use mercury to extract the gold causing serious health problems among the workers.

☩

Healing God,

When the world is full of pain and suffering, you are with us. As Jesus entrusted his mother to his dearest disciple, you have entrusted us with the care of your earth and your people, our siblings. Guide our work, strengthen us for the journey, and be with us in our grief. Amen.

The red handprint is one of the symbols of the movement to find justice for missing and murdered indigenous women. Sometimes referred to as MMIW, missing and murdered indigenous women is a human rights crisis of violence against indigenous women in Canada and the United States. From 2001 to 2015, the homicide rate for indigenous women in Canada was almost six times higher than the homicide rate for other women. In the United States, Native women are more than twice as likely to experience violence than any other demographic.

A 2014 report by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, titled Missing and Murdered Aboriginal Women: A National Operational Overview found that more than 1,000 Indigenous women were murdered over a span of thirty years. In the United States, a Department of Justice study found that some counties have rates of murder against American Indian and Alaska Native women that are over ten times the national average.

☩

Eternal God,

Your Son was lifted up on the cross to draw all people to himself. Grant that we who call him our brother, may at all times find your mercy in him. Stay with us through the darkest night, walk alongside us as we work to bring your justice and healing to this hurting world. Amen.

Jesus’ condemnation by pilate is paired with the empty tomb, and while the Station of the Cross lifts up images of the devastating second wave of COVID in India, the Station of the Resurrection features images of the first COVID vaccinations. My hope is that by pairing these two artworks we’re able to hold together and in tension, the ongoing pandemic, the unequal distribution of the vaccine globally, and the joy and hope many of us felt - and still feel - seeing medically vulnerable people receive the protection against serious illness the vaccine provides.

This second diptych pairs Jesus accepting his cross with the resurrected Christ meeting Mary Magdalene. The Station of the Cross features images from U.S. meatpacking plants where exploitative labor practices fueled devastating and deadly COVID outbreaks. The Station of the Resurrection features images from the workers rights movement of the last year. I have found great hope in the ways Americans are re-thinking and re-configuring their work lives.

The third artwork in this series pairs Simon carrying the cross with Jesus on the road to Emmaus. The Station of the Cross depicts Simon carrying the cross in the midst of the shrine outside of Gold Spa in Atlanta where Asian women were brutally murdered. And the Station of the Resurrection lifts up images of hope and solidarity from the peaceful protests in Philadelphia in the wake of George Floyd’s murder.

These artworks depict moments of both despair and hope in the face of climate change. The Station of the Cross depicts the catastrophic fires in Greece in 2021 while the Station of the Resurrection pairs Jesus's appearance to the disciples in the upper room with a portrait of an climate change "visionary" Dana Tizya-Tramm, Chief of the Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation. He is a leading voice on climate change's impact in the Arctic.

Like all of my Stations projects, these stations are part of a constant engagement with world events. For more information about the wildfires in Greece, click here. And for the Washington Post profile on Chief Dana Tizya-Tramm, click here.

These two artworks pair moments of grief and hope in the midst of the violence in Palestine and Israel that broke out in 2021. The Station of the Cross depicts two children in the rubble of their bombed out apartment building and the Station of the Resurrection depicts a moment of joy between a group of young men.

These artworks pair Jesus being stripped of his garments and his ascension. The station of the cross depicts the brutality experienced by Haitian refugees at the Texas border. The station of the resurrection lifts up the resiliency and resistance of Haitian communities in the United States.

This pairing addresses the coup in Myanmar which began in early February 2021. The Station of the Cross depicts a group of protestors carrying an injured companion and the Station of the Resurrection depicts a nun kneeling before members of the military asking them to not be violent with protestors. Women have been at the forefront of the nonviolent movement for peace in Myanmar.

These two artworks address the fall of Afghanistan. The Station of the Cross is drawn from photographs of an Afghan family on the tarmac of the Kabul airport and the Station of the Resurrection a photograph of a pair of Afghan girls being welcomed with art-making at the Philadelphia airport.

Hope is the thing with feathers

A nurse rests for a few minutes on a COVID ward in Wuhan, China.

That perches in the soul

A mother and daughter reach out to each other through a glass window at the Life Care Center in Kirkland, Washington. The Seattle-area long-term care facility became ground zero for the West Coast's coronavirus outbreak.

And sings the tune

An opera singer performs "O Sole Mio" from his window in Paris on the tenth day of a strict lockdown in France.

Without the words

Worshipers of Legio Maria in Nairobi attend a prayer session

And never stops at all

A funeral home worker plays the violin as a deacon holds an umbrella before the cremation of a coronavirus victim at a cemetery in Bogota, Colombia.

And sweetest in the Gale is heard

A granddaughter and grandmother hug through a plastic drop cloth hung up on a homemade clothes line in Wantagh, N.Y. It was the first time they had contact since the pandemic began.

And sore must be the storm

A mortuary worker stands at the Nossa Senhora Aparecida cemetery where Covid-19 victims are buried daily in Manaus, Brazil.

That could abash the little bird

A woman holds a photo of a healthcare worker who died of COVID-19.

That kept so many warm

A maintenance worker sanitizes the handrails outside a homeless shelter.

I’ve heard it in the chillest land

A doctor provides care to an unhoused person.

And on the strangest sea

A wife weeps while hugging her husband in his final moments in a COVID-19 unit at St. Jude Medical Center in Fullerton, California.

Yet - never - in extremity

A Covid-19 patient, lies in her intensive care bed as family members attempt to communicate via video at Roseland Community Hospital on the South Side of Chicago

It asked a crumb

A doctor hugs and comforts a patient in the COVID-19 intensive care unit during Thanksgiving at the United Memorial Medical Center in Houston, Texas.

of me

A mortician shares photos of a COVID-19 victim with their family before cremation.