Palm Sunday

This year Palm Sunday also coincided with a blizzard. Since there are 3 churches within a 3 block radius of my building, we decided to try the one with the red doors that I love.

Why do many Episcopalian churches have red doors? A friend told me that they paint their doors red when the building is paid off and the church owns it. It’s apparently also a common tradition in the Episcopal church because red doors on a church used to be a symbol of sanctuary, where a soldier couldn’t pursue an enemy. Whatever the reason these doors are red, I like them.

I wanted to get some pictures of the inside of the church, but since I was already an Episcopalian outsider I didn’t want to draw more attention to myself.

The first part of the service was a “festival procession.” They said normally they do it outside but we were buried under 8 inches of snow so we did it in the church. Everyone got their palms blessed and they had a whole processional around the church a few times complete with music. It was pretty fancy.

There were more clergy members than church goers, but it was a beautiful church.

This Palm Sunday required boots. But I got my palms! And they had a basket full of palms that were folded into origami palm crosses, so I got one of those too!

Apparently this church has a labyrinth too, which is intriguing. I’ve never seen one done in a religious context so perhaps I will have to return.