The Passions by Bill Viola, is an exhibition of contemporary art — with a difference. You will not find canvasses mounted and framed and hanging on the walls. Instead, you will find a relatively small number of works that could properly be called video art. What Bill Viola has done is to capture on film people, and especially their faces and hands, then moving slowly — very slowly — he has laid bare not merely the movements which we all make, but the whole range of emotions — the delight, the desolation, the terror, the ecstasy of which we are capable.

The inspiration for much of the work is profoundly religious, drawing in many cases upon Christian paintings from earlier centuries as the starting point for his portrayal of ancient truths, traditional stories, universal aspirations and the power and complexity of human emotions in a new art form.

As I made my way around the exhibition — and some of the titles tell their own story: The Greeting, The Man of Sorrows, Dolorosa, The Crossing — I found four things that seem to me to be very important.

First, I found that I could not hurry. It was not possible simply to pause for thirty seconds or so and then move on. I had to stop, to watch, to observe every detail, to use my imagination if I was to begin to enter the meaning of what was being presented.

Secondly, I found that the individuals who were being presented were ordinary people, wearing the clothes that you and I might wear. The faces were not shrouded by a veil of piety. There was nothing stiff, remote, unyielding. Whatever the truth that was being portrayed, it was from our humanity, my humanity, from our world, my world.

Thirdly, I found that this extraordinarily sensitive and fluid medium had taken to itself stories, traditions of faith, aspirations, torments, emotions, feelings, possibilities. I was presented with narrative and interpretation. It managed to get behind the story, in between the gaps, exploring the depths.

Fourthly, I found that I could not merely be a passive observer. There was nothing static, fixed, ‘take it or leave it’, about this art form. Indeed, it could only speak to me if I allowed myself to enter all that was being presented and portrayed. Enter the passion. Find the meaning for yourself. This seemed to me to be the message.

From a sermon by the Dean of St Paul’s Cathedral London, Christmas Day 2003.