If you come to church on Palm Sunday (March 25) you will notice something quite different. This year, instead of using palms, we will be using local grasses. Why? Even though we have been using eco-friendly palms for the last few years, they are still imported from South America, which means their carbon footprint is pretty large. So we started looking around for alternatives and discovered (thanks to our arborist, Erik, at Hedgerows Tree Service) that there are some local ornamental grasses that fit the bill. They have a much lower carbon footprint and they were free!
But wait, Jesus didn’t use ornamental grasses, so is this legit? Yes! The people of Jerusalem used palms because they were handy–that’s what grew there. If ornamental grasses had been handy, they would have used them! So, this Palm Sunday, come to church and join the procession, proudly waving your eco-friendly grasses and singing “Hosanna”!