Palm Sunday: Our First Fully Interactive Hybrid Service
With gratitude for the work of so many among us, we gathered together both in person and virtually in our new sanctuary at New Branches on Palm Sunday.
With gratitude for the work of so many among us, we gathered together with joy and celebration both in person and virtually in our new sanctuary at New Branches on Palm Sunday.
It was great to sing together at the start of Holy Week…
Palm Sunday Hybrid Worship Service, with some folks in person and others online, all interactive
It was meaningful to serve communion in person and virtually too…
Palm Sunday communion service, with Jill Zats (L) and Pastor Rachael Keefe (R)
After more than two years of being a church fully online, it was awesome to gather in person and on Zoom and be able to include everyone. I contemplate the amount of work that went into getting us into our new sanctuary and it is overwhelming. However, almost all of us were involved in one way or another and it was good to raise our palm branches in celebration.
We continued our theme of the “Seven Greek Words for Love” with pragma which grows out of commitment and long-term relationship. It was the perfect word for Palm Sunday in terms of Jesus’ story. It was also the perfect word for this community as we celebrated being together even as we acknowledged the loss of several members in recent years. Pragma is a deep, abiding kind of love that holds people together and adds vitality to relationships, and sometimes adds purpose as well. I felt it on Sunday and I hope you did as well.
We also talked about the parade of Palm Sunday having three different purposes – celebration, political protest, and funeral procession. Our gathering had elements of these three things. We celebrated the day and our gathering together. Our community, our worship, is an act of resistance that is desperately needed in the world and so a bit of political protest was ours as well. And we named the ones whose presence we miss, honoring their memory much like a funeral procession.
As this Holy Week continues, we are invited to continue on the journey through betrayal, violence, and death before we arrive at Easter morning to celebrate once more.
In closing, I would like to thank the many hands and hearts that made the move to New Branches possible. Over the last few years there have been people serving on teams, laboring in the building, packing and unpacking the “blue box,” setting up the sanctuary with the new equipment, and learning how it all works. So many of you contributed your time and your labors. I look forward to the bright future God has in store for this amazing community of faithful people.
Palm Sunday Hybrid Worship – View from the Tech Deck that Makes it all Possible
About Rachael Keefe
Rev. Dr. Rachael Keefe is the pastor of Living Table United Church of Christ. She was called to Living Table in 2015 after serving in many varied ministry settings since her ordination in 1992. She holds graduate degrees from Princeton Theological Seminary and Andover Newton Seminary at Yale (formerly Andover Newton Theological School). Her ministry and leadership often center around advocacy and accessibility. Her writing has been published by Chalice Press, The Christian Century, Red Letter Christians, Working Preacher, RevGalBlogPals, and others. She is grateful to be in ministry with Living Table today.
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