York: How movies help us walk the Way of the Cross

York Minster's Lent Course series for 2015 will discuss how movies such as Love Actually (2003), The Railway Man (2013), The King's Speech (2010) and Calvary (2014), can help us to reflect on the reality of loss and suffering and, perhaps help us to relate to Jesus' ultimate sacrifice: his suffering and death on the cross.

Running for four Thursdays from 26 February in the Minster's North Transept, the Lent Course, 'Love Actually: How movies help us walk the Way of the Cross', will be presented by the film critic Stephen Brown, who will discuss his conviction that movies can have a transformative effect on our emotions and can be used in the context of Christian enquiry and debate.

The four sessions will cover the following themes:

Thursday 26 February - Sacrifice

This session will look at examples of sacrifice in the movies. Stephen will invite the audience to deconstruct each example and to try and assess whether the sacrifice of the key characters is heartfelt, genuine and selfless or a useless, empty or even wasteful gesture.

Thursday 5 March - The Ethics of Atonement

The focus for this session will be atonement, what it means and how it enriches others. Stephen's own forthright views on the movie Atonement (2007), will provide the starting point for this discussion.

Thursday 19 March - The Cross I have to bear?

The film the King's Speech will be one of the movies that Stephen will use to open up a discussion about overcoming suffering and sacrifice and how these films can lead into thinking about the Way of the Cross and Jesus' suffering,
his forgiveness and his love.

Thursday 26 March - The Way of the Cross

The final session in this year's Lent Course will look at biblical epics and depictions of Jesus' suffering, death and resurrection, as portrayed in films such as Passolini's Gospel According to St Matthew (1964) and Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ (2004).

Currently a movie critic for Church Times, Stephen Brown, has also reviewed movies for Sight and Sound magazine, the Yorkshire Post, and for BBC local and national radio including a regular slot on BBC Radio 2's Good Morning Sunday show presented by Aled Jones.

York Minster's Lent Course 2015 will be hosted by the Reverend Canon Dr Christopher Collingwood, the Chancellor of York Minster. Commenting on the Lent Course, Chris said:

"The idea that a popular art form like cinema can enrich the Christian understanding of faith and sacrifice, may be new and perhaps controversial for some people. This Lent Course will hopefully introduce the audience to a new way of engaging with faith and the story of Jesus in the period leading up to Easter. We also hope that it will generate some passionate debate, disagreement and great humour."

The Lent Course - Love Actually: How movies help us walk the Way of the Cross will take place in the North Transept at York Minster on the following dates:

Thursday 26 February, 7.30pm

Thursday 5 March, 7.30pm

Thursday 19 March, 7.30pm

Thursday 26 March, 7.30pm.

Each session will last until approx 8.45pm and will be followed by a short service of Compline sung by the Ebor Singers in the Quire. The Ebor Singers regularly sing in York Minster and are acclaimed as one of the most outstanding amateur choirs in the country.

The Lent Course is a free event.