Palm Sunday - from Palms to Crosses to Ashes

This morning our children and youth waved palms in celebration of Palm Sunday. This afternoon, I used some of those palms to make palm crosses (an instructional video can be seen below), which I put in small glass containers with rocks. At our evening service, which starts with dinner gathered around fellowship tables, these will be our centerpieces. We will be doing stations of the cross via power-point using images from painter Jonathan Hutchins with selected readings from the gospels. At the end, participants will be invited to carry the palm crosses with them throughout Holy Week. The palms that are not used will be burned and used for ashes for our next Ash Wednesday service.