Passing Of The Passion Torch

There is a strong tradition in many churches this time of year. The “Passion” is a semi-dramatic scripture reading of the events leading up to the death and resurrection of Christ and is usually done during Holy Week of the Easter season.

At St. James Episcopal (across from H-E-B) the moving play has been directed by its storied thespian and emeritus UT professor Dr. James Ayres––aka “Doc Ayres”–– for a number of years. But Doc Ayers, founder and guiding light of the famed Shakespeare Festival at Winedale, has moved on. He has spent the last few years comforting his wife JoAnn in Houston with her struggle with cancer that has proved fatal.

So, Doc has passed the baton to a younger but no less ambitious successor, La Grange native John Saunders. John has assumed important roles in St. James as Junior Warden of the vestry and choir member and reader among many others.

But his appointment by Doc as the director of the annual “Passion” of St. James is the most daunting. While Doc’s shoes are some quite large Shakespearian buskins to fill, fill them he does. “I have every confidence John will be as successful a director of the two Passions as he has been in many other key roles at St. James,” according to Joe Jameson the Senior Warden. “John’s leadership and success are bright lights in our church’s future.”

John has recruited players from the congregation––some novice actors, some experienced ones––to read during the Palm Sunday services (the Matthew Passion) and Good Friday (the John’s Passion). The two ten-minute versions both recount the actions of the disciples, Pontius Pilate, and other characters of the Jerusalem community leading up to the Crucifixion. John’s goal it would seem is to give the audience as vivid a rendition of the pivotal Christian narrative as possible. His hope is that the two dramatic readings of the familiar story give a new, perhaps deeper, meaning of the seminal story to the listener.

The “Passion according to Matthew,” the first reading, emphasizes the suffering of Jesus in His role described by scripture as the divine Messiah of Israel. Contrasting with the Gospel of John, Jesus’s final words include, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?”

The second reading, the “Passion according to John,” emphasizes the regality of Jesus and his reign. He is portrayed as the exalted Lamb of God, and this is the recounting of His completion of His mission on earth. It ends with Jesus starkly saying, “It is finished.”

On a lighter note, it is quite a hoot to watch Director John’s often abrupt change of roles. He may show up to direct a rehearsal with mud on his jeans still wearing the headlamp that, in his role of Junior Warden, he’d donned in order to inspect the underpinnings of the 143-year-old church––one of the few properties on the National Register of Historic Places in Fayette County. Those underpinnings include a rabbit warren of ducts, pipes, cables and, well, gutty works some of which have been in place since the building of the Queen Anne Revival structure in the late nineteenth century.

Both services welcome all who wish to explore and celebrate the profound spirituality of Holy Week, centered on Jesus’s journey of love, sacrifice, and redemption for humanity.

Come join us.

Palm Sunday, March 29th, 8 am, Rite I; 10:30, Rite II. And/or, for Good Friday, April 3rd, 12:00 pm, noon.; St. James, 156 N Monroe St., La Grange (across from H-E-B). Contact: 979 968-3910