1

Church Unusual: Preparing for Palm Sunday - April 2020As Jesus entered Jerusalem, “a large crowd of people spread their cloaks on the road while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. The crowds walking in front of Jesus and those walking behind began to shout, “Praise to David's Son! God bless him who comes in the name of the Lord! Praise be to God!” (Matthew 21: 8-9)Usually at this time, we would be asking for palm branches and then collecting them to make ready for Palm Cross making on Saturday morning. Well, it’s a bit different this year but we can still make them and have them blessed when we gather on Sunday morning.I thought two things:

1. The text says trees and fabric (well, cloaks) …I think this means all sorts of organic material and we are free to be creative. Palm Sunday is a joyful day…a day of proclamation and recognition. We make and have our crosses blessed in this spirit. Jesus is strengthened by this welcome! It is the gift before the events which follow.

2. I am imagining making Ash next year. What a story that ash will tell of where we and the world have been this year! (This leads to a practical thought, as much as possible keep your crosses organic so we can indeed make ash.)

I share some ideas with you, but they are my no means exhaustive and we all look forward to seeing what emerges.If you want to follow the traditional method of making crosses and don’t remember, have a look on You Tube…this one is quite good.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oT-0Z6YSJoU and this is the other way… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBQk41VWkx8 They are both working with

2

Palm leaves but you absolutely don’t need to…I don’t have a Palm tree but these worked: If you don’t have a garden, you can use all sorts of paper…

And then, don’t be limited by the usual methods. We are learning lots of new and unexpected things: you can try other ideas.

3

4

Whether you are one or many, young or young in spirit, may your preparation for this Palm Sunday be prayerful, joyful, creative and held in God’s grace, just like the very centre of the cross. Diana