LYNN – One cannot help but be drawn to “The Way of the Salvation,” a seven-part traveling art installation that fills the main sanctuary at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church on North Common Street and will remain there through Easter, which is Sunday.”It belongs to God and whoever puts it up,” said the artist and ordained Episcopalian Deacon Gay Cox, of Amesbury.The sprawling piece is made up of about 39 large canvases that run down both sides of the sanctuary. More banners, ribbons and “heavenly faces” hang from on high around the altar. The piece, which started out as a personal spiritual exercise, takes viewers through Jesus’ last days on earth and into paradise.”It’s exciting,” said Rev. Dorothella Littlepage, urban assistant at St. Stephen’s. “Some were really resistant to it, but as it’s gone along ? it’s interesting watching people during worship and seeing what part they are staring at.”Viewers start in what Cox calls “Earthly Judgment.” Hung to form a small room each of the dozen images depict an attitude, criticism or accusation that would humiliate a person in life. Part II contains the 14 Stations of the Cross, panels that recount Jesus trial, journey to the cross, his crucifixion and his entombment. Each panel, roughly six-feet-by-six-feet in size, depict a single face with singular emotions, with the exception of one. The final Station of the Cross, the entombment, includes the faces of three woman sobbing.There is also a depiction of a fragment of the Temple Curtain that is filled with the faces of seraphim and cherubim as Cox sees them, and a series of what she calls battle banners celebrating the final victory of God’s angels.The last part of the project consists of the sharing tables, which include objects representing the 14 stations of the cross. Cox said all the items were provided by 14 women who prayed for her while she worked on the installation. There is a small vessel that in Jesus’ day would have been used to catch the tears of someone grieving, strips of linen and blocks of Jerusalem sandstone. There is also a crown of thorns, a small box containing teeth and what appeared to be a dish of freshly shorn wool.The objects on the table, like the paintings, are meant to be touched, held and felt.”This is very different, it’s not meant to just be seen,” Cox said. “I had to decide, ‘am I willing to have this destroyed by letting people touch it?'”The answer was unequivocally yes, and it led to Cox adding things like pieces of knotted rope and sand so people could “feel the physicality of the crucifixion.”A group of St. Stephen’s teens toured the installation with Cox Friday morning.”It was definitely an interesting experience,” said 17-year-old Brian Ocascio. “I liked seeing her interpretations and how she reflected them in art.”Ironically, the piece that has now been installed in eight different locations was nearly left unfinished after Cox ran out of room and resources.”It had come to a grinding halt, and I thought ‘God, if this is just a spiritual exercise I’m done,'” she said.Then an unexpected financial gift came her way from someone who had been praying for her piece for eight years and she finished it.”I didn’t know what to expect,” she said, referring to the completed piece. “I knew I had to do what I felt God was requiring of me ? I didn’t know if it would ever go anywhere, but what struck me right away is that it made sense. It was as I had envisioned it. It was a spiritual journey.”Chris Stevens can be reached at [email protected] you go “The Way of the Salvation” may be seen at the 7:30 p.m. service Saturday and at 8 and 10 a.m. on Sunday at St. Stephens St. Stephen’s Memorial Episcopal Church, 74 South Common St., Call 781-599-4220 or go to http://www.ststephenslynn.org.