Father Jonathan Rowe

It's Palm Sunday, so before anything else, I've cut a sprig of boxwood from the garden to wear on my lapel.

Check the Gospels and see: in three out of the four accounts of Jesus's entry into Jerusalem, there's no specific mention of palm branches. We're simply told that people cut *branches* from the trees. Only John says that they were specifically palm branches.

There were certainly plenty of palm trees around Jerusalem for the crowds to cut, but there also would have been olive trees and plenty of others. While many Christians celebrate with palm branches this morning, there are also traditions of using other branches, local to the congregation: instead of, or in addition to, the traditional palms. Perhaps the important part is not in the branches themselves, but in cutting something growing nearby in our eagerness to welcome Jesus.

However you celebrate, may this Holy Week be a blessing to you and yours. We'd love to welcome you to join us this morning at 10:30 at the Anglican Church of the Apostles on Bayers Road! 🌿