Many churches go green for Palm Sunday

COLUMBUS (AP) — Christian churches are turning over a new leaf for Palm Sunday.

About 2,500 congregations from every major denomination this weekend will use fair-trade palm fronds in their annual celebration of Jesus’ arrival in Jerusalem in the days before his crucifixion. They say it’s the Christian thing to do.

“We believe that God created the Earth, and it’s our job to preserve it the best we can,” said Laura Hudson, the administrator at Columbus’ Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, where about 300 fronds were delivered Wednesday and placed amid hanging robes in a chilled storage office.

According to tradition, Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey as followers spread palm branches in his path, indicating that a dignitary was arriving in triumph. Today, Christians often burn the palms used in Palm Sunday services and preserve the ashes for use in the following year’s celebration of Ash Wednesday, marking the beginning of Lent.

The University of Minnesota’s Eco-Palms program ensures the leaves were harvested in Mexico and Guatemala in an environmentally sensitive manner by workers getting paid a fair price, and organizers say they’re getting more orders than ever.

Today when Christians begin Holy Week celebrations, about 640,000 of the palm fronds will be passed around in about a dozen denominations.

That’s a steep increase from the 5,000 stems ordered by 22 churches in 2005, said Dean Current, who directs the program at the university’s Center for Integrated Natural Resources and Agricultural Management.

The project grew from a 2001 study on the effects of the North American Free Trade Agreement to a 2005 pilot project that today has become a $4.5 million business.

The project ensures workers get a higher wage for picking only the highest-quality fronds from palm trees growing wild in the rainforests of northern Guatemala and southern Mexico’s Chiapas state, a practice that allows the plants to continue growing.

Organizers believe that the poor villagers who harvest the fronds — many of whom live on less than $2 a day — would otherwise cut down the rainforest to establish farms, Current said.

And communities also benefit through an annual rebate. The program this year, for example, will send about $32,000 to 10 communities in Guatemala.