Sunday, April 5, 2009

Palm Sunday service goes eco-friendly


Nearly 2,000 years ago, an excited crowd welcomed Jesus by going green: spreading fresh-cut branches before him on his last, fateful trip into Jerusalem.

For Palm Sunday today, Second Presbyterian Church is going green, too, by displaying "eco-palm" fronds harvested in an environmentally friendly, economically sustainable way.

More than 640,000 eco-palm fronds will be waved today by 2,500 congregations, including seven in South Hampton Roads. The palms are marketed by the Center for Integrated Natural Resource and Agricultural Management at the University of Minnesota.

Waving and displaying palm branches is a tradition at many Protestant and Catholic churches on Palm Sunday, which starts the Holy Week devotions that culminate on Easter.

The practice commemorates Gospel accounts including John, chapter 12, saying Jesus' admirers "took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, shouting, 'Hosanna!' " as he rode into Jerusalem.

The Rest-

http://hamptonroads.com/2009/04/palm-sunday-service-goes-ecofriendly

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