03/26/2026
A message from Father Bob about Palm Sunday:
Holy Week might look a little different than it has in previous years. I will walk us through more in next week’s newsletter, but for now, I’d like to talk about Palm Sunday.
First, because of actions in the Middle East, it has been difficult to source palms for folks to wave at our worship on Sunday. As such, we are asking people to bring in greens or sticks from their homes to wave. The more I think about this, the more I like it as a practice, as it connects us not only with Jesus in First Century Palestine, but Christ present in our own area, in our own contexts.
Second, Palm Sunday will be Palm Sunday. By this I mean that we will not hear the Passion Narrative until Good Friday’s liturgy. The Liturgical Movement of the 1960s and 1970s gave us many great things, but one way I feel that movement under-estimated the people of God was moving the Passion to Palm Sunday. For centuries, Palm Sunday had stood on it own, but that liturgy was combined with the Passion in our Book of Common Prayer 1979, potentially because the framers of that book did not expect people to be in worship on Good Friday, or perhaps for Holy Week altogether. Well, I know that the faithful people of St. John’s in the Mountains can step into Holy Week to walk with Jesus through all of the stories of the season. It helps that all of our Holy Week worship services will be online. Thank you for coming into this season with an open mind and a willingness to be moved by what the Holy Spirit is doing in our midst now.
If you would like to be a part of the Good Friday Passion Narrative or serve at the Easter Vigil, or if you have any questions about the general shape of Holy Week, please call, text, or email me.
Yours in Christ, Bob+
