By PAT NEWMAN
pnewman@thecitizennews.com

Palms swayed gently in the spring breeze as worshippers from the Catholic Church of St. Gabriel's and the Episcopal Church of the Nativity gathered Sunday for the traditional blessing of the palms by their respective pastors, the Rev. Tim Hepburn and the Rev. Robert Hudak.

Christian churches across the county prepared Sunday for the beginning of the most solemn time of the liturgical year, Holy Week. The distribution of palms recalls Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem before the Last Supper, his crucifixion and resurrection. “Many people spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut in the fields... “Mark 11:7-9.

The “Passion of Christ” also is read on Palm Sunday.

The day held special significance for the estimated 140 members of Church of the Nativity who gathered for the first time in their new church on Antioch Road in Fayetteville, next door to St. Gabriel's. A formal dedication ceremony is scheduled for sometime in June, Hudak said.

The mood was less joyful at St. Gabriel's following an announcement by Hepburn that he was being transferred to serve as chaplain at Blessed Trinity Catholic High School, north of Atlanta, effective mid-June. His successor is the Rev. Daniel Toof, former pastor of St. Mary's in Toccoa.