Brian Slattery Photo
“I ordered up some spring weather,” said the Rev. Alex Dyer, on the morning of Palm Sunday, from the steps of St. Paul and St. James on the corner of Olive and Chapel. “There must have been some miscommunication.”
His congregation was on the steps and sidewalk all around him, everyone smiling in the cold.
He did a short reading from the Gospel according to John. Then the band hit it, and the parade began.
The Episcopal Church of St. Paul and St. James is a progressive church with a history in New Haven going back to the 19th century. It runs an active food pantry and hosts 12-step programs. It also has a service with a live, and lively, jazz band every Sunday morning at 10:30.
On Palm Sunday, in the tradition of New Orleans second line parades, the church’s members took it to the street.
They started up Olive Street …
Then took a right onto Court Street …
And another right onto Academy Street, along Wooster Square Park.
Finally, the parade rounded the corner onto Chapel Street and ended back at the church steps.
With the sound of the band bouncing off the front of the church and out onto Chapel Street, everyone sang and clapped hands through the musicians’ last note.
“Let us pray,” Dyer said, and the congregants were quiet. He read again, briefly, and they all entered the church for services. And more music. Like they do every Sunday at St. Paul and St. James.