The celebration of the Lord’s Passion in the São Paulo Apóstolo parish church in Santa Teresa embodied the neighborhood’s struggle for its citizens’ rights, still suffering the consequences of the suspension of the trolley service, vital for the commercial and tourist undertakings of the residents, following a fatal August 27, 2011 accident.
The liturgical rite was comprised of 15 Stations of the Cross along the route from the church building to the trolley parking lot and back. Translated by the Rev. Daniel Cabral Jr. and adapted by the Rev. Luiz Caetano Grecco Teixeira from a liturgy by the St. George’s College of the Episcopal Church of Jerusalem and the Middle East, the rite sought to embody the situation of anguish and suffering of the families of the six persons who died in the trolley accident, the effects of the lack of the trolley service – decrease in commercial activity, reduction of public transportation, loss of neighborhood identity, sociability crisis, firing of trolley employees, and the state government's project seeking to foment tourism – that have brought distress to the residents.
The residents of Santa Teresa, along with members of different Christian churches and of other religions, took part in the liturgical remembrance through the responses and prayers for those presently suffering, all identifying themselves with the Lord’s own trials. The imprisoned, the violent, the sick, the starving, parents and mothers, and all who see in the disfigured face of Christ’s those who suffer from mental and spiritual fatigue, the children and elderly of the streets, the indigent and the dying were all lifted up. Following the Stations of the Cross, the participants were anointed in preparation for the Easter Vigil.
The reception of the Good Friday commemoration by the neighborhood was surprising. In addition to the members of the neighborhood Association of Residents, the trolley employees and the relatives of the victims of last years’ accident, there were those who watched from the windows of their homes, or sitting down in bars along the way, or who happened to be visiting with friends, all making up the dozens of people that " forget their passion so as to live that of the Lord,” as sings Milton Nascimento.
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