PALM SUNDAY . . . OY

Well, at the very least I can say that we celebrated Palm Sunday and God was glorified. I keep telling myself that, but sometimes it's hard.

A couple of weeks ago I had copied the Passion Gospel and made highlighter marks so the congregation could participate. Parts were there for Jesus, Pilate, Peter, priests, soldiers, the three people who accused Peter, the two criminals and the centurian. I went through and made sure parts were highlighted and each script was labeled. So that was done.

Ordos and the psalm for the Liturgy of the Palms were printed out. Palms were put in place. We were all ready to go.

Oops #1: I really need to get the people out of the parish hall BEFORE we start reciting the psalm. Otherwise we get this long, drawn out line that is just not conducive to unison psalm reading.

Oops #2: I would really like it if my reader for the day would take the time to look at the lectionary book ahead of time. Especially on big days. She had three readings, all in a different place. She got lost and after watching her fumble for a bit (and hoping she'd figure it out), I finally had to get up, walk over to the lectern, and say, "You read this one."

Oops #3: Apparently having highlighted sections in the script isn't enough. I need to explicitly tell people, "You read what's highlighted." One person decided to read ALL of the parts in the script (except for Jesus and Pilate), thereby negating everyone else's part. Where two or three people were to read together, they thought they were stepping on somone's part, so quit reading.

It took me most of the way up to VC to get over being annoyed.

Oops #4: People really don't like to process in the snow. Not that we were tramping through several inches, but by the time we were ready to leave the parish hall, we walked out into a mini-blizzard. Consequently, nobody waited until the rest of the people gathered to begin the procession -- simply made a beeline for the front door.

Oops #5: No matter how much the local cat wants into the church, tell him, "Not this time." While normally pretty good about such things, the cat decided this would be a good time to lounge on the altar. Almost knocked the chalice over rubbing his face against the veil & burse, and left quite the clump of fur, pine needles and muddy paw prints on the fair linen. George was less than enthused.

On the positive side, we had 23 people at the first service, along with a couple of newcomers who might be back. And the second service was followed by a house blessing and brunch. And it's quit snowing . . . for now. And, really, we worshipped; and that's as important as it gets.

One down, four more to go.