Palm Sunday service goes eco-friendly

Nearly 2,000 years ago, an excited crowd welcomed Jesus by going green: spreading fresh-cut branches before him on his last, fateful trip into Jerusalem.

For Palm Sunday today, Second Presbyterian Church is going green, too, by displaying "eco-palm" fronds harvested in an environmentally friendly, economically sustainable way.

More than 640,000 eco-palm fronds will be waved today by 2,500 congregations, including seven in South Hampton Roads. The palms are marketed by the Center for Integrated Natural Resource and Agricultural Management at the University of Minnesota.

Waving and displaying palm branches is a tradition at many Protestant and Catholic churches on Palm Sunday, which starts the Holy Week devotions that culminate on Easter.

The practice commemorates Gospel accounts including John, chapter 12, saying Jesus' admirers "took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, shouting, 'Hosanna!' " as he rode into Jerusalem.

Displaying palms became traditional for Christians there, and spread to the rest of Christendom starting in the fourth century, said the Rev. Ron Byars, a preaching and worship professor at Union Theological Seminary in Richmond.

At Second Presbyterian, "on Palm Sunday, people like to engage physically in the Gospel, so we have a need for palms," the Rev. Kerry Westerwick said. The church has about 180 members.

Palm fronds are available from many florists. But this year, Second Presbyterian chose eco-palms for two reasons. First, they're harvested from Latin American forests that are managed in an ecologically sustainable way.

Second, a cash premium for eco-palms goes back to cooperatives whose member s gather fronds without hurting trees.

By buying eco-palms, Second Presbyterian is filling its Christian mandate to be a good steward of the Earth, Westerwick said. Additionally, "we're living out the Gospel by helping the poor," that is, agricultural workers who'd see less pay for clear-cut palm harvests, she said.

The seeds of the eco-palm movement were planted in 2000 when the Center for Integrated Natural Resources and Agricultural Management studied palm overharvesting.

Dean Current, the center's program director, said research showed a big jump in frond sales at Palm Sunday. That triggered a survey that showed churches would willingly pay more for sustainably grown palms.

"In 2005, we set up our first pilot sale and sold 5,000 stems" or fronds, mainly in North Dakota and Minnesota, Current said.

Sales hit 70,000 fronds in 2006, then 350,000 in 2007 and 580,000 last year. The biggest buyers have been Methodist, Presbyterian, Episcopal, Lutheran and Mennonite churches, Current said.

The sales allow workers in Guatemala and Mexico to pick just a few high-quality fronds from each tree, rather than stripping off all branches.

A premium of 5 cents per frond goes back to the workers' communities, usually to a cooperative or community group. Current said one group in Guatemala used the money for school scholarships for girls. Workers get the standard pay of one to two cents per frond.

The arrangement is reminiscent of other initiatives popular in and outside the faith community to sell coffee, chocolate and other products guaranteed to be made in worker- and eco-friendly ways.

Turning the palms into sustainable money-making resources gives Latin American land owners an incentive not to clear-cut the rainforest. "It adds value to the forest," Current said.

Local congregations buying the palms include Baylake United Methodist Church in Virginia Beach, St. John Lutheran Church in Norfolk, and the Norfolk Naval Station chapel.

"I'm always trying to be Earth-friendly," said Chaplain Steve Beyer, the base's command chaplain. He's ordered 500 eco-palms for the chapel's Protestant and Catholic services.

At Emanuel Episcopal Church in Virginia Beach, the flower guild spent about $120, including shipping costs, for something more than 300 fronds.

Every worshipper at today's services will get one, guild member Mary Jerauld said.

"They're blessed in the parish hall, then we walk into the sanctuary with palms," in a walk first seen back in Jerusalem. "It's the walk Jesus took before crucifixion."

Steven G. Vegh, (757) 446-2417, steven.vegh@pilotonline.com