Friday – Palms on Broadway

To commemorate Palm Sunday, we have a tradition of a Palm walk. Before the Sunday service, our children, youth, and adults walk down Broadway waving palms. Confession time. When I first heard that this took place, my initial reaction is that they would be met with cold glares and heckling—after all, it’s New York! I didn’t think the secular city would welcome public displays of religiosity.  However, I’ve learned that something quite different occurs. I’m not sure if it’s because our children are so darn cute, or if it’s the spirit of the neighborhood, but shopkeepers and pedestrians ask for palm branches as the group passes by. It represents an opportunity to show mutual respect and share a spiritual moment in the life of a neighborhood church. It’s easy to think we’re factions within a community in competition with one another. But this represents what community can and should be if we are to appreciate and learn from the diversity in our midst.