In the video below Revd Wendy introduces the liturgy of Palm Sunday in conversation with Revd Dr Tom Wilson, interfaith advisor to the Bishop of Leicester and Director of the St Philip's Centre.

Palm Sunday is the day that marks the beginning of Holy Week, possibly the most significant time of the church year as we journey with Jesus through his betrayal, arrest and crucifixion, to the darkness of the tomb and on into the light of the resurrection. In preparation for the services that are to come through Holy Week, Palm Sunday sets the scene by, after recalling the triumphal entry into Jerusalem we hear the full acocunt of the Passion of Christ.

This dramatic reading, taken this year from the Gospel of Matthew, is an invitation to place ourselves in to this moment. To be with the crowds who cry Hosanna and with them as they cry Crucify. However, as Tom and Wendy discuss there is a dark legacy to this reading and in particular the words of Matthew 27.25:

Then the people as a whole answered, "His blood be on us and on our children!"

These words have been used to justify the violent persecution of Jewish people down through the centuries and on in to our own modern time.

What are we do then with this reading and how might we approach the liturgy of Palm Sunday? Listen to this brief introduction and if you would like to know more, a synopsis of Tom's recent publication is available here.