Palm Sunday

This morning, we joined Barbara and her four children (her husband had another commitment) to attend a very moving Palm Sunday service at St. Paul’s Cathedral which is close to Sanyu. It is the oldest and largest cathedral in Uganda with a capacity to seat 4000 people. It belongs to the Church of Uganda (Anglican) denomination.
Before we made the short drive up the hill, Barbara’s oldest son presented each of us with a fresh palm branch.  As we arrived for the 8:45 service, the first service was just finishing and the people were pouring out.
Then we were among those who began pouring in, each carrying a palm branch, and the church was soon filled to capacity. We took our seats and the service began. The hymns were familiar and are traditionally sung in Canada on Palm Sunday. What was not familiar was that as the hymns were sung, we all raised our palm branches and shook them. What an amazing sound those 4000 or so branches made.
I had never thought about the sound of the branches waved by the crowds as Jesus made His triumphal entry into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey just days before He went to the cross. But this morning as we heard the rustling branches...and upon seeing the sea of faces as we returned to our seats following communion, it made more real the words from John 12:12-13 - “The next day the great crowd that had come for the Feast heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem. They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting, ‘Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the King of Israel!’ ”