Sunday, April 13th, 2003

Picture it: An uncomfortably warm, capacity-filled congregation with restless patience-worn families sits for a typical 90 minute Palm Sunday mass. A closer look finds one family's children have made mincemeat out of their hand-held palms. Their teenage daughter is secretly reading a teen romance novel carefully propped up by her cradled hymnal while little Benjamin is begging to "get out of here." Their parents, though well rested, are stifling endless uncontrollable yawns while Grandpa, sitting at the far end of the pew, is fast asleep. Why the state of such ennui? The Passion is being read in its entirety with the usual groaning monotone delivery. Add cough-inducing incense and the all too familiar "Jesus died on the cross to save us from our sins" homily from a long-winded provincial pastor and sleeping Grandpa has now accidentally fallen out of the pew.

St. Joan's didn't use the Proclamation for a number of years. People kept falling asleep, too. It was long. It was tedious. A couple years ago, SJA decided to bring the reading back with a staged presentation involving rehearsed readers, musicians, the choir and a guest vocalist. Father George Wertin indicated that when presented with deeply invested meaning, the Passion is "not a historical document. It's a theological one. It presumes that we know Jesus." The fact that Jesus was understood is the very reason that he was crucified on the cross. That price is what he had to pay for challenging and confronting authority and for identifying with the poor and the sick.

Wertin feels that the Passion is a marvelous proclamation for everyone to enter into the compelling and dangerous story of Christ's execution, a clerical statement of who Jesus is and what he came to do on this earth. "He came as an itinerant teacher to make a difference. He held the purity codes as absurd, not what God is about. He came to recognize the injustices of the world. Jesus did not come to save us from our sins because we are already saved. He came to transform and heal the world from oppression caused by those who use war. His message is just as clear today as it was 2000 years ago," prophetically concluded Wertin.

The mighty SJA Choir opened Palm Sunday service with "Blessed In the City" an African hymn written by our past visiting friends, the Christian Explainers. They followed with a moving performance of the spiritual "Spirit of Life." The theme of this year's mass "the Choices of Discipleship" powerfully reflects in "Steal Away," magnificently performed by Gospel singing sensation Robert Robertson with our choir. To conclude the Passion reading, the choir joined forces with Robertson again on such a magnificent treatment of "Wondrous Day of Our God" that the audiences at both masses were standing with tear-filled ovations before the number was over. During communal service, a gloriously fitting rendition of "Now We Behold the Lamb" was performed with Robertson and the tightly cohesive sounding choir.

Looking out at the reactions from various faces in the crowd and from ones close, one sees how Robertson's voice palpably touches our senses: smiles of joy brightly beam, hair rises from the back of the neck, chills of awe tingle the body, men and women openly weep. What a privilege it has been year after year each Palm Sunday to have the brilliant Gospel talent of Robert Robertson share his blessed voice with us at St. Joan's.

This year's Passion reading, under the solid direction of Peter Rothstein, featured an accomplished core of performers: a persuasive Nancy Gormley as the Narrator, an evocative Bob Hanson as Jesus, a gripping Tinia Moulder as a Slave Girl along with stirring readings from JP Fitzgibbons as Peter, Matt Woodling as Judas, Michelle Jansen as Caiphas, Roger Dick as Pilot and Julie Madden and Rik Murray as numerous voices. SJA Choir Director Anna Vagle deftly showed virtuoso skills of wonder while single-handedly conducting the Choir and playing, with skilled aplomb, various percussion instruments along with her masterful recorder. At one point she simultaneously was cueing the choir while handling the cue of her rain stick.

Never a service of hallow ritual, St. Joan's Palm Sunday is truly a service of both meaning and healing.

Michael Reinbold, a continuing web reporter, freelances as a writer and banquet caterer. A passionate believer in SJA's mission of social justice and collaborative ministry, Michael is an SJA Choir member, mass reader, Team Oz AIDS rider and Grace House volunteer cook. With an extensive background in theater, photography and fundraising, he relishes all aspects of the arts, staying fit and inspiring and working with people.


Rick Spaulding is a photographer specializing in digital photography for the theater and works for National Camera Exchange. He is also an antique dealer and eBay afficianado who enjoys collecting marbles but his true joys in life are his two boys and his beautiful wife, Tinia.


Back