They took up their cross to follow Jesus' path to the cross at St. Thomas Episcopal Church last week.

A band of 30 hardy souls braved the aftermath of Wednesday's snow to circle three times around the sanctuary, observing an ancient Lenten practice known as Stations of the Cross.

People took turns carrying a heavy wooden cross along the route past 14 sculptures representing key moments in the passion of Christ.

The Rev. Bill Eberle, rector of St. Thomas, led participants through a guidebook of devotions and song. As they walked past stations, many reached up to touch the sculptures — Jesus' wrist with the impress of a nail, a head crowned with thorns, feet shrouded in a gravecloth.

St. Thomas will observe Stations of the Cross each Wednesday during Lent.

In doing so, the Manheim Township congregation is joining a growing number of Protestant churches that have been reclaiming Lenten traditions once rejected after the Protestant Reformation as too Catholic.

Lent is the period of 40 days, not counting Sundays, from Ash Wednesday to Easter Sunday, when Christians celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Easter this year is April 8.

The trend toward Lenten observance by Protestant churches isn't brand-new. It has been boosted in the last few years, though, by the "emerging church" movement, which increasingly looks to the ancient church as a pattern for the future.

Too, more Protestants are turning to spiritual disciplines, another tradition once viewed as "Catholic," to deepen their faith at a time when contemporary megachurches are being accused of producing shallow Christianity.

At Hempfield United Methodist Church, senior pastor Greg Hill said the church is "using ancient resources for a modern ministry."

"It really is a reclaiming of the senses, of the body, of the sacramental nature of life," said Dr. Bruce Epperly, professor of practical theology at Lancaster Theological Seminary, "as well as the spoken word which was at the heart of Reformation Protestantism."

The first station: Jesus is condemned to death
The couple carrying the cross leaned it against the wall as the procession — a cross-section of sexes and generations — paused.

"We are in a courtroom," Eberly told the worshipers at the first of sculptor Virginia Maksymowicz' Stations. "Can you feel the stuffiness of bodies close together, the anger, the fear, Jesus' reasonableness?"

Eberle wrote his Stations of the Cross dialogue for children at a church he served in San Jose, Calif., in 1984. He later revised it for adults.

St. Thomas has held Stations on Good Friday since 1999 and on Palm/Passion Sunday, the week before Easter, for the last two years. This year's weekly Stations is an expansion of the practice.

Last Wednesday, Eberle led participants through an introduction of Stations before forming the procession.

"It has a very long history," he explained, noting that as early as the third century, pilgrims in Jerusalem may have been retracing Jesus' path to Golgotha.

"Some people think of this as being a devotion that belongs exclusively to the Catholic Church centered at Rome."

The Franciscans, the religious order founded by St. Francis of Assisi, seem to have popularized Stations in European churches during the Middle Ages, according to the Catholic Encyclopedia.

But after the 16th-century Reformation, Protestants rejected Stations as a Catholic practice. Indeed, all of Lent — originally a time of preparation for converts who would be baptized at the Easter vigil and later a church-wide season of penitence — was viewed with suspicion. Theologian John Calvin called Lent a "superstitious observance."

Some more liturgical Protestant churches, including Episcopalians and Lutherans, have retained Lenten disciplines and similar traditions.

"The Episcopal Book of Occasional Services includes a more formal Stations of the Cross," Eberle noted. "More liturgical Episcopal churches have used this over the years."

Even churches oriented to contemporary worship, which tends to cut ties with traditional forms, are moving in that direction.

The Rev. Hill, Hempfield's pastor since July, noted that in a small church, observance of seasons such as Advent and Lent "becomes imprinted on the DNA of this little church. They don't know they're doing something unusual.

"In a large church like Hempfield ... with a real push toward those who are unchurched or de-churched, prayer has to be taught more than caught."

The ninth station: Jesus falls a third time
Before the procession began, Eberle asked for a volunteer to carry a box of tissues. "There are emotions involved," he warned.

At Station Nine, he read, "It is as if someone clubbed him from behind in mid-stagger or swept his feet from beneath him as he falls flat to the ground with a crunch and a thud that turns the stomach."

Eberle explained earlier that he wrote the guidebook to focus not so much on Jesus' suffering but on the love that led him to the cross.

Still, reliving the passion brought tears. It is, one woman said later, a powerful experience.

For many Protestants who didn't grow up with Lenten traditions, walking through Stations, or fasting, or washing each other's feet on Maundy Thursday, puts their faith in a new light.

"Since Vatican II in the mid-'60s, both Catholics and Protestants have been reviving old rituals in new ways," Epperly said.

"The liturgical movement among both groups of the '60s and beyond in mainstream Christianity involved the re-appropriation of ancient practices for a modern time," so most mainline churches recite confessions of faith like the Apostles' Creed and observe church seasons of Advent, Epiphany, Lent, Holy Week, Easter and Pentecost.

In a 2006 Lent story, Slate magazine pointed out that "Observing Lent is also part of a Protestant move in the last generation toward more classical forms of spiritual discipline.

"The hugely influential 1978 book 'Celebration of Discipline,' by Quaker theologian Richard J. Foster, encouraged churchgoers to rediscover fasting and meditation in 'answer to a hollow world' and as a way to turn toward God."

Hempfield recently adopted a new vision statement calling on members to deepen their spiritual attentiveness and discernment as part of an effort to refocus on ministry to the community.

As part of the vision, the church — one of the largest Methodist congregations in eastern Pennsylvania — is emphasizing spiritual formation and disciplines. A "covenant group" is being formed to begin training in spiritual direction, which enables group members to help guide others.

"It's not enough to go to Sunday-school class," Hill said.

The 12th station: Jesus dies on the cross
"Fluid fills his lungs as he suffocates," Eberle said. "He pushes up with all his strength against all three nails, just to breathe. Yet each breath is more shallow."

One woman knelt on the tiled floor.

Earlier, Eberle remembered walking the Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem: "Some people spit on us. Some threw rocks at us.

"... It would be like going to Park City shopping center" to walk the way of the cross.

But such a procession at Park City actually might be effective at reaching younger people, who are increasingly drawn to ancient spirituality.

Epperly said the "emerging church movement," primarily among Generation X and the Millennials, "claims the ancient rituals because of their 'sensory nature.' They embody the faith as well as talk about it."

Hempfield, for instance, has placed a candle-covered Communion table at the front of the platform where the praise band and the pastor stand. Baptisms, sometimes done on Sunday afternoons rather than during the morning worship, have been restored to the service, Hill said.

It's an intentional symbolism to connect 21st-century Christians with the most potent sacraments of the faith.

At St. Thomas, by the 14th station — Jesus is laid in the tomb — sniffles were audible as Eberle read the narration.

Finally, worshipers closed Stations with this: "We go now, Lord, to take up your cross and to find your way."

Stations of the Cross at St. Thomas Episcopal Church, 301 St. Thomas Road, will be held at 7:30 p.m. each Wednesday through March. Call 569-3241, or visit the Web site, www.stthomaslancaster.org .

Contact Helen Colwell Adams at hcolwell@lnpnews.com.