Once again, approximately 2,000 Christian worshippers joined the annual solemn Good Friday procession known as the Way of the Cross, which started with the first Station of the Cross inside the Cathedral-Basilica of St. James, 250 Cathedral Place.
The marchers then crossed the Brooklyn Bridge to City Hall Park and stopped at Manhattan’s St. Andrew Church, at Cardinal Hayes Place just off Reade Street. Along the way, there were choral hymns, Gospel readings, reflections and meditation.
The ceremonial march commemorates the crucifixion and death of Jesus Christ on a cross in biblical Jerusalem.
Before the procession, Timothy Cardinal Dolan, the archbishop of New York, and Bishop Robert Brennan, head of the Brooklyn Diocese, participated in the prayer service at the Brooklyn cathedral.
The program was sponsored by the Catholic group Communion and Liberation. CL Choir Director Christopher Vath is the former organist and music director of Bay Ridge’s St. Patrick’s Church.
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As first vice president of the Society of Old Brooklynites, we had the opportunity to chair the society’s April meeting at Brooklyn Borough Hall. Our guest speaker was organ curator Keith Bigger, who showed a film and discussed the 200-year anniversary of the first Baptist church in Brooklyn.
The Baptist Temple building, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, is located at 360 Schermerhorn Street at Third Avenue. Bigger is a member of the American Institute of Organ Builders.
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