Worship at the Cathedral, Sunday

Worship at the Cathedral

Note: the internet is hit and miss here, so although I will write about our mission daily, I can only upload to the blog when we can get access. pati

Our primary American contact here in Tanzania is Barbara Robertson, who is originally from Washington state, and is employed here as an assistant to Bishop Jacob Mameo. Bishop Mameo is the head of the Tanzanian Diocese of the ELCA, which is a sister synod to our AR-OK synod. His home church is known as the Cathedral and is in Tanzania proper. Barbara transported us Tanzanian style to worship—all eleven of us piled into her Range Rover for the 10 minute drive to the cathedral.

The cathedral is a building that is hexagonal and about 400 people worship each Sunday. The roof is suspended above the walls but there is a gap of about 12 inches for open air flow and fans are mounted on the ceiling to fight the African heat. The doors are open and inviting, welcoming all to worship. Vivid green drapes behind the altar draw the eye as you enter, accenting a white neon cross suspended behind the drapes. Although mixed seating is not taboo, the slatted wooden benches were filled on the left with women and their older children only while the right was populated with men and only a handful of women sitting next to their husbands. The younger children are in Sunday School and do not join the congregation for worship until they are confirmed. We arranged ourselves in the back on two rows so all could hear Barbara translate from Swahili to English.

Worship began with several songs of praise sung by the “youth choir”, a group of about 30 ranging in age from 18 to 35 years old. We were all uplifted by the stirring African rhythms as Barbara translated the words for us. She continued to explain the service to us, which followed familiar liturgy set to African music, including confession, the Apostles Creed, Collect, Song of Praise and the Kyrie. The psalm was 125 and the Gospel was the part from Matthew about loving your neighbor. The Assistant to the Bishop was presiding and his message was very inspiring.

Offerings are much different here. There were three during the service, each for a different purpose—the pledge, building development and then a thanksgiving offering. During each offering, the youth choir is singing and the entire congregation gets up and processes to the front to place their offering in a large woven sisal basket. When the choir goes up, they continue singing as they perform a rhythmic unison dance procession.

Bishop Mameo invited us to the front of the congregation and introduced each one of us. We were made to feel welcome and invited to come back for any reason, after which every face was wreathed with smiles as they applauded us.

As is traditional here in Tanzania, service finished with a song, during which all processed outside and stood in a group. Once we were all assembled, an auction was held. At the auction, sometimes people who are too poor to make an offering will bring something to sell at the auction and the money gained is credited to them as their pledge. Other times, people will bring something and will designate that the proceeds go to a particular fund or person. And usually the buyer does not keep the item, but gives it to someone else. At this auction, two bundles of “machici”, a spinach-like vegetable, and a bag of meat pastries were auctioned off. The comments of the auctioneer garnered much hilarity from the congregation.

After church, we enjoyed brunch at “The New Acropol Hotel”, which is very unremarkable from the exterior, but adorned with placemats, linen napkins and other similar luxuries inside. This was quite a treat before our visit to the hospital for orientation.

Dr. Lucy Nkya is the benefactor of the hospital and also holds a position in the national government. She joined us at the hospital and spoke with us for quite a while about the hospital, the people of Tanzania, and what she hopes to accomplish to help the people. We were mesmerized by her testimony to the point that we opted to turn off our ceiling fan and endure heat so we would not miss a word.

The tour of the hospital was very short as it is so small. During the tour, a patient was brought down the hall from surgery. Because the quarters were too tight for the gurney to fit into the hospital room, it was parked in the hall and a crew lifted her by grabbing the corners of the blanket and shifting her into the room and on the bed. Such challenges are going to be an example of what we will be dealing with as we begin our work tomorrow.

It was a welcome change to take a walk to the orphanage after we got back to LJS. Our walk went through a village and we were eagerly greeted by the families, and especially the children, as we passed through. Many children were eager to have their pictures taken because they delight in seeing themselves in the camera afterward. At the orphanage, we played with children and held babies. There were many tears as we had to leave and the children clung to us, making for a wrenching separation.