Palm Sunday Panorama 2006
For
some years now, the people of Saint Faith's have celebrated the
beginning of Holy Week by foregathering a short distance up the road in
the grounds of Merchant Taylors' School. There they are given their
palm crosses, they are sprinkled with holy water and, escorted by the
police, stop the tarffic on the busy A565 while they process behind
crucifer, servers, clergy and choir to join those who prefer to sit it
out in church for the great Solemn Eucharist of Palm Sunday, whose
highlight is the dramatised reading of the gospel story of the events
leading up to Christ's crucifixion.
In some years we have been able to get
hold of a real donkey, but the beasts are much in demand on Palm
Sundays, and instead this year the children carried their own
individual donkey heads on sticks! Our photos tell the story of the
assembly, the preparations, the readings, the blessing of palms, the
holy water (not really a rain dance, of course, but it clearly worked,
since the rain held off!), the Distribution of the Donkeys (not yet a
part of Common Worship), and the walk down to church, where the
beautfully arrayed Nave Altar waited for the service to begin. The
preacher for Palm Sunday and for Holy Week and Easter was Fr Aidan
Mayoss of the Community of the Resurrection, Mirfield, seen with our
clergy outside church near the end of this picture sequence.
