With a focus on the joy and worship of Palm Sunday when Jesus rode into Jerusalem to the applause and waving palms of thousands, we looked at how fickle humanity can be. It took less than a week for the people to turn on Jesus and demand he be put to death.

Our liturgy in the outdoors took us through this journey, looking at how we fulfill the Covenant made with Abraham and renewed through Christ. We acknowledged the original custodians of the land on which we gathered this day and acknowledged the Spirit amongst us, before reading from scripture and bringing ‘Jesus’ out to the arena on a donkey. Jesus, the apostles and the donkey took a journey throughout our crowd waving palms so we could place ourselves there. As each part of the stations were read and re-enacted, we were asked to place ourself in the situation – have you ever betrayed anyone for your own purpose? Have we ever rejected Jesus in front of others? Have we sought to be sorry for our wrongs?

The crowd responded at various times in the story, and we prayed for ourselves, our community and our world that we may fulfill the promise Christ delivered for us through his resurrection at Easter. Dr Lavorato delivered a message connecting her story to the readings of the day and we concluded by burning the sacrifices and fasts we committed to on Ash Wednesday, in order to start life anew this term. The final part of our liturgy took us back to where we started – the praise and worship of Jesus on Palm Sunday, a foreshadowing of the joy of Easter.