The first place I produced an image for what would become my personal project “Faith and Ritual” was St. Edward the Confessor Catholic Church, a predominantly-Filipino house of worship. I’d heard that they had a unique and traditional celebration for Easter Morning, and the images I produced from that event stuck with me beyond what I initially thought would be a one-off feature photo.
It was fitting, then, that an event at that same church brought me back for an event that’s connected to the Easter season. The observance of Ash Wednesday was held this past week and my nagging guilt at neglecting this project the past year or so brought me out into the winter chill to a packed cathedral.
Years of daily newspaper work honed a sense in me when I’m experiencing a moment where meaningful photographs are to be found. That feeling immediately returned to me as I stood among hundreds of faithful and the creative muscle-memory of this project returned to me.
Ash Wednesday is the start of the season of Lent in the Christian calendar, and by chance this year it also coincided with the Islamic observance of Ramadan. I hope to visit a mosque or other place of community to produce new images showing this ritual, which shares a spirit with Lent of humility, introspection and quiet devotion.
Easter
An Easter rebirth
This has been posted here before, but several years ago I started a project about faith rituals - I was just interested in how across all different kinds of cultures, religions, time periods and geographic areas people somehow felt the need to perform various rituals and actions as an expression of faith.
I photographed more variety than I thought possible in a mid-sized Canadian city, but the past year or so it’s been dormant.
Fittingly, in the season of Easter a rebirth of sorts occurred with 2 events connected to the Christian holiday. The festival of Salubong, a procession of religious statues held by the local Filipino community, was held on Easter Sunday morning and the 35th annual Way of the Cross procession was held by the local Catholic archdiocese on the morning of Good Friday.
Salubong was especially gratifying to photograph, as it was the first ritual I photographed in 2018 when I first conceived of this project.
From now, I hope to continue where I left off with this project and pursue other rituals in a variety of faiths. I’m as interested in the regular commonly held ritual - aspects of the everyday like a Christian baptism or candles in a Hindu puja or prayers in a Jewish or Muslim service - as I am in special events or rarer holidays.
If you have a suggestion for this project, please use the Contact form on my website to send me an email, or message me via my Instagram account if you prefer.
A congregant at St. Edwards the Confessor Catholic Church takes part in a procession early Sunday morning as part of the church’s Salubong event.
The sunrise shines over the cross marched on a procession in the 35th annual Way of the Cross Event, Friday morning at the University of Manitoba campus.
Hundreds of people walk quietly in the Way of the Cross event, on Good Friday morning, the only sound moving over the crowd a repeated prayer chant.
The cool twilight of the early Easter morning is punctuated by the warmth of a candle held by an adult chaperoning a children's choir in the city’s North End during the Salubong event.
Canada geese waddle away from a procession of hundreds quietly marching behind a wooden cross on Good Friday.
One of the stations of the cross marks a pause in the 35th annual Way of the Cross, Good Friday morning.
A children’s choir ascends the steps of St. Edwards the Confessor church on Easter Sunday morning.
Salubong event, Easter Sunday morning.
Salubong procession, Easter Sunday morning.