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New Stations of the Cross mark timeless Lenten message for Cambridge church
CAMBRIDGE, Neb. -- Stations of the Cross are featured in Catholic churches to help Christians meditate on the Christ’s journey from Pilate’s court to the cross and grave. In 2016 Fr. Kenneth Wehrs became pastor of St. John the Baptist Church in Cambridge, and quickly observed that the existing wood-carved Stations were insufficient to fulfill their important role. The carvings were small and muted in color, all but fading into the dark wood upper walls of the church. However, changing the Stations of the Cross would be a significant alteration to the look of the church interior, and was not to be rushed into.
Almost four years later, in early 2020, Fr. Wehrs approached parishioner Sondra Jonson of S. L. Jonson Studios about adding mosaic glass backgrounds to the existing Stations. Jonson immediately began exploring designs for a project that would come to absorb most of her waking hours from March through December of 2020.
Jonson’s design work involved trial and error. She presented several concepts, prototypes and color schemes to Pastor Wehrs as they explored possibilities that would enhance the current Stations without distracting from the peaceful atmosphere of the church. Ultimately, Jonson designed for each Station a background of an arch-shaped panel, covered with a field of ivory glass tiles, accented by a dark green vine winding around the margins, and an uneven red line threading through the vine. Each panel is framed by an edge of red tiles against an inner border of gold mirror glass. Jonson used the classic “Andamento” mosaic technique to place the ivory tiles in flowing curves and patterns of their own. The arched shape of the panels reflects several arched niches in the church and also suggests the clerestory windows of traditional churches. The green vine symbolizes Jesus as the source of Life (“I Am the Vine, you are the branches”), and the red line signifies His saving blood. A 24 K gold cross and red Roman numeral embellish the top of each panel.
More than half of the panels display additional symbols to illustrate the particular Station’s theme. The water of Pilate’s hand-washing overflows in a falling stream of blue glass. Jesus meets His mother and two red intertwined hearts appear. Below Veronica’s veil Jesus’s face emerges. Water and blood in red and blue glass flow from Jesus’s side in the 12th Station. In the descent from the Cross, Mary and Jesus are framed by two broken hearts. And in the last Station, the Lord’s burial is silhouetted against a second archway filled with shimmering silver mirror tiles. The reflective composition of the mosaic glass causes a shine and glitter in the new Stations, changing with alterations of light and the viewer’s perspective.
Approximately 2,000 tile pieces make up each background and took 50 to 60 hours to create. The tiles were sourced from four outlets in the U.S. and one in the Netherlands. After initiating the contract in late April, the first panel was completed 3 weeks later on May 21, the Feast of the Ascension. The last panel was installed on December 12, the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. During the course of creating the mosaic Station panels, Brian Gnuse of NTV visited Cambridge to air a feature story on the project and the Nebraska Arts Council invited Jonson to create a documentary of the project to air this month on the NAC website’s “Studio Clips” feature, https://bit.ly/3s24Ii3
The mosaic Stations are not Jonson’s first experience in large liturgical mosaic commissions. Previously, she created a 6-foot diameter octagonal mosaic interior for the baptism font at St. James Church in Kearney, Neb., a 4- foot high free-standing mosaic baptism font for St. Joseph’s Hospital in Denver, a mosaic and resin Holy Family sculpture for the chapel at Mercy Villa in Omaha and a similar sculpture for Prince of Peach Church in Kearney, Neb.
She has been assisted in this work by Brenda Webb of Cambridge. The wood panels for the Stations were made by Gil Koeppen of Bench Built in Cambridge. Primarily known for her three-dimensional art, Jonson’s large sculpture installations number well over 100 throughout the U.S. and in Canada.
Although her studio during 2020 was overwhelmed with mosaic glass tiles and shards, she is now busy with several new clay sculpture commissions, both life-size and miniatures.