Palm Sunday Peace March returns on Sunday

On Sunday, 25 May, the 2024 Palm Sunday Peace Rally takes place with events in Sydney and Canberra.  

This year’s rallies call for the Australian Government to approve visas for all asylum seekers detained in offshore detention. 

The Palm Sunday March dates back to the Vietnam moratorium marches and the anti-nuclear movement of the 1970s. In 2020, the rallies moved online due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with the rallies returning to the streets in more recent years.  

The event is based on the account of Jesus’ procession into Jerusalem. Recorded in all four gospels, the narrative sees Jesus enter the city on a donkey, an action that several theologians view as being political in intent. According to Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan, the procession was a piece of anti-imperial political theatre, demonstration designed to mock the obscene pomp of the Roman empire. 
 
Christians commemorate the event with the movable feast Palm Sunday. 

In a statement released before the 2017 rally, then-Uniting Church president Stuart McMillan called for members to attend their local rally. 

“The Uniting Church in Australia has since its inception spoken out about justice and the rights of refugees and people seeking asylum,” he said. “Palm Sunday is time to walk that talk.” 

“It is a time when Christians can march alongside people of all faiths and no faith with the common purpose of compassion for others and passion for justice.” 

The Sydney Palm Sunday Rally takes place at Belmore Park from 2pm. The Canberra rally takes place at Garema Place from 1pm.