Artist Greg Judd made a generous gift to the diocese this Easter with a distinctive Stations of the Cross series. You can see more of Greg’s outstanding artwork on Instagram at gjuddart.
St Jude’s, Brighton, was blessed this year to have the opportunity to commission local Adelaide artist and faithful Anglican Greg Judd to work on a new Stations of the Cross series ready for Easter 2023.
The parish’s beloved old set of stations were faded photocopied images – 30 years old and tatty. That prompted us to look to Greg as a talented member of the parish to take on the task of providing something to inspire our faith journey during Holy Week for a new generation.
We have found our Holy Week stations service has become very popular with youngsters as they lead the readings. The brief was to come up with a set of 14 illustrations, that were contemporary, not pastiche, and that would be immediately understandable to children as well as adults.
Greg accepted the challenge but would not accept any payment. Even though he and his partner Sue moved house and out of the diocese, he kept up his work on the stations.
“Designing the Stations of the Cross was an interesting challenge,” Greg says.
“Combining a modern illustrative style while at the same time maintaining the serious nature of the topic gave food for thought on many levels, both spiritual and practical. Powerful strong colour gives a direct communication to viewers of all ages making it easy to follow the sequence of events in Jesus’ trials.”
On Maundy Thursday 6 April 2023, the parish gathered to walk the stations for the first time.
Sue Judd read the introduction, and parish children led the scripture to accompany each station. Many parish families as well as supporters of Greg’s work came to give God thanks and to walk the stations together.
It was the biggest turn-out in decades for the stations service as seen in the photograph at the top of this page of many of the attendees thanking Greg for his extraordinary gift.
We also heard that a couple who were in Orroroo over Easter, and could not get to church, used the booklet of Greg’s artworks as their devotions. This set of stations may have a new use in your setting we have not even thought of!
If your parish would like a full copy of these new Judd stations, please email the St Jude’s office: [email protected] We would be happy to send you high-resolution photographs of the stations for you to print, as well as booklet of the ‘Stations of the Light’ which has been adapted ready for any parish.
Thank you, Greg!
– the Ven. Sophie Relf-Christopher
