On Sunday morning I got up before 6 am – showered and headed out the door (by myself) to begin the 20 minute drive to St. John the Baptist Anglican Church in Pinetown where I would be preaching at the 7 am and 9 am worship service. As I drove the full moon lie directly in front of me – nearly at the horizon. It was bright and yellow and stunning. I wished that I had gone outside a few more times before 6, than I have!
I found my way to the church and waited for the priests to get there and open up. My friend (and one of the priests here) Sue Britton was the first to arrive. The church is a small complex – with many open spaces (like many places here in the tropics). A cemetery stretches out in front of the building – but within the gated security walls.
I am given an alb to wear and shown the order of worship and introduced to some of the stewards who will be joining us in leading worship. By the time worship starts there is a good crowd of 75 or so gathered in the congregation. We proceed through the liturgy, I preach, and a healing service takes part in the side chapel – during the prayers and continuing as we move through the Eucharist (I help serve the wine at this worship service – which means that at the end of communion, I must empty the chalice of all the remaining wine – and I’ve never much enjoyed wine – I think – if this happens at both services I may need some help getting home – these chalices are quite large!).
After worship and greeting the parishioners I am swept into an office and they put down some granola (called “muesli” here) and some milk for breakfast. And Sue goes off to fetch Kathy and the boys. At the 9 am worship the crowd is larger and I offer a bit of a different sermon this time – and instead of only the organ music at the first service this worship service involves, acoustic and electric guitar, piano and a drum set. Songs are in both English and Zulu. The congregation is quite diverse.
One very unusual thing at this service is a testimony offered at the beginning of this service. One of the congregation, who is leading the liturgy, comes to the lectern and shares his story of being “hi-jacked” this week (which is car-jacked in our lexicon). He offers reflections from a biblical perspective of his response to this experience – and avoids laying out some of the gory details (thank goodness). I am again struck by the South African focus on crime in people’s conversations. When he rises to speak – he says, “I know you all have had this happen or know someone who this has happened to…”
During the peace I reach for a woman’s hand, and am a little surprised when she doesn’t reach for mine, even as I say “the peace of Christ be with you.” Later, at the door after worship she says to me “I wasn’t snubbing you. I’m blind.” (aah, and so was I dear sister, I thought)
At the time of Eucharist the rector invites me to share in leading the liturgy. Afterwards I am given the bread to offer. So I don’t have to polish off the wine again.
Then we greet people outside again and then Sue leads us to a small nature and bird reserve called New Germany. We walk for about an hour around the small reserve. As we do, Sue tells us stories of her involvement with the freedom struggle here in South Africa. She was a leader in the “end conscription” campaign here which she believes was so instrumental in bringing an end to apartheid. Why? Because it is engaged the white folks at the point of their own self-interest. She said, many in the white community had felt that the apartheid system was unfair to blacks here but that did not engage the large swaths of their population in direct action. But when so many of their sons and brothers and lovers began to serve their mandatory time in the military and started turning up dead in fights in Namibia and Angola. And when the government insisted that they not open the body bags, but when they did and discovered that their dead sons were painted black so that when they fought in villages the reports would come that it was black on black violence that was happening – the end conscription campaign began to pick up steam among the white community. Then the government said, “if you don’t serve in the military for 2 years, you must spend 8 years in prison” that was the last straw. She said there was a famous political cartoon that showed two prisoners – the first saying “I got four years for assault with a deadly weapon and robbery – what about you?” “I got 8 years for refusing to fight.” At the end of the walk we strolled through a small aviary. There were a whole lot of the odd basket like nets made by the beautifully colored weaver birds here. Their wings are yellow and as we watch they several begin to gather – each under her or his own nest and begin to flap their wings until there is a cacophony of the whirring of wings and they start to squawk as they seem to be picking at their nests. We couldn’t figure out what was going on – but felt that we were being treated to something special.
We left there and went to the home of the rector’s family – Andrew and Alyson Warmback and their son (12) Dominick. Dominick and Jordan immediately hit it off and headed to play table tennis. The rest of us Kathy, Andrew, Alyson, Sue, Conor and one of the other priests from the parish, Carolyn Beech (just returned from three months documenting human rights violations in Palestine and Israel). We spend the next 2 1/2 hours eating and talking and telling stories. They are quite a delightful group. And even Jordan like the food (especially the ice cream dessert – that the rest of us enjoyed with apple crumble cake).
At 4 we gathered back at the church where Andrew was making a presentation to coincide with the Social Justice Season on Ecology and Economic Development. One of the more interesting things he told us was about a bishop in the Anglican Church around Umtata (where we had stayed on the way to Durban) who had brought together the priests and lay people from all across the diocese and together they had made a plan about how all the church properties could be used for sustainable economic development and how they could do it all in as “green” a way as possible. Those churches now each have gardens on their property. The new cathedral is made all of stone that is indigenous to the area and is roofless! Why spend money on a roof for a building in an area where it only rarely rains? (As one who pastors a church that has to spend quite a bit of money on roofs – this was something – as they say here in South Africa – quite brilliant) The stone baptismal and altar are certainly not damaged – and on those rare occasions when it is needed they can quickly provide a temporary cover.
At the end of the presentation and the discussion that followed – one of the church members got up and asked how they might move ahead and have such discussions in their diocese.
Later we would go stop at the Pavillion shopping mall for dinner and a round of adventure (miniature) golf, before heading back to St. Phil’s and bed. I thought of those weaver birds again – and the way in which they seem to signify the industriousness and the creativity of the people of this country and that includes the people of the churches in this country. I was glad to see it all. Quite a blessed day.
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