Palm Sunday in Buninyong: A Ballarat South Uniting Church Story

The maple and olive branches stayed right where the children left them.

Most Sundays, the children sit still for about three minutes before someone starts wriggling. This Sunday was different.

It was Palm Sunday, 29 March. Pastor Andrew Shearer-Cox's very first service at Ballarat South. The church was ready. Flowers on the altar, a purple cloth draped over the lectern, and branches piled at the front waiting for small hands to pick them up.

There was just one detail. There were no palms.

This is Ballarat. So, Pastor Andrew did what any resourceful new pastor would do. He went into his own garden and cut what he had. Maple branches and olive sprigs. It was either that or the rose bushes, and nobody wants thorns on Palm Sunday.

No palms. And sadly, no donkey either. The church did have one once, a couple of years back. This year the garden had maple trees but no donkeys. Though if Palm Sunday falls on the second or fourth Sunday, Andrew now knows who to call. Marcia might be able to help with that.

Anna makes her important announcement about the oak maple leaf.

The children took it all very seriously. Anna held her maple branch up and studied it carefully. "It's an oak maple leaf!" she announced with full confidence. Nobody corrected her. Then someone spotted an actual olive still attached to one of the sprigs. Small, green, and very much real. The children gathered around for a closer look.

Pastor Andrew crouched down, microphone in hand, talking with the children rather than at them. Sara, standing to the side, was already smiling before anyone said anything funny.

Once the children had done their part, they headed to the back room where a platter of jelly, marshmallows, and cereal was waiting. The task was to build something. The oldest took it seriously. The youngest mostly ate the marshmallows. Neve, the littlest, skipped the whole thing and coloured quietly. She had her own work to do.

The back room gets to work

Back in the church, the branches stayed where the children had left them, stretched down the middle of the aisle all the way to the front. Nobody rushed to move them. No palms, no donkey, one disputed leaf. But the children were happy, the marshmallows were gone, and the new pastor survived his first Sunday.

That is a pretty good start.