Happy Palm Sunday, one and all! The choir sang for two services today, so we had double the fun. Those of you who live up north are really missing a treat—real, whole palm branches, and all the better if you whacked yours off one of the palms in your backyard last night, as we did. :) We started the service outdoors, and then the whole congregation processed around the church singing All Glory, Laud and Honor (Episcopal Hymnal chorus/verse version), led by the rector with his guitar, and through some miracle and a little help from modern technology we were actually together and in the same key as the piano and organ when we entered the church.
The rest of the service was good, though not quite what I would have liked. I prefer Palm Sunday to be Palm Sunday, but often, as it was today, it is celebrated as Palm/Passion Sunday, because so many people don't attend the midweek Holy Week services. Doing that, you pass from the Triumphal Entry to the Resurrection without having passed through the Last Supper, Gesthemene, and the Crucifixion, which is a rather significant omission. So we give Palm Sunday short shrift as a concession to the reality of modern living. Sigh. But it was good, anyway, and although the framework was the same in both services, they were different enough to keep the second from feeling like a repeat: one was Rite I, the other Rite II, and there were even two different sermons.
I hope your experiences today were as good!You also wouldn't have started outside if you were in this part of the country! A Palm Sunday procession in the snow just doesn't feel quite right. :)
for the first time ever this year, we started outside and processed inside (not at ascension...we're up the river now in a small episcopal church). and i LOVED that.
advent, palm sunday, and easter hymns just do me in. :)
