Today Emerson and I were surprised by being invited to come to the front of the church, where the priest introduced us and handed me the microphone so I could "say something more about myself" extemporaneously in front of about three hundred people. Even more surprisingly, after the service a number of people came up to me and thanked me for the work I was taking over for the youth ministry, and when should they bring their children by? So our journey of church-going in Uganda becomes even more exciting!
When I first decided to look for our local church, I was following some vague directions and ending up nowhere near a church. A young girl of ten or twelve offered shyly to walk me to "the church," and I agreed. I quickly guessed that she was leading us to the big Pentecostal church, which I already knew about, and not the Anglican Church I was searching for, but she was so earnest and pleased to be of help that we went together to the church and she showed me around. It was Saturday, and I decided vaguely to give up on the Anglican church for the week and just go to the Pentecostal church the next morning. Large, charismatic Pentecostal churches are very popular here, and I figured we would treat it as a Ugandan experience. But in the morning I quailed; I am not very modern and evangelical at the best of times, and I doubted my ability to appropriately shout "praise Jesus, oh yeah oh yeah, pah-RAISE the Lord!" for three hours surrounded by several hundred Ugandans. (Okay, I doubt they shout that for all three hours, but I have evidence of all three of those items being independently true!)
So we walked the other direction, and eventually encountered other people dressed for church and followed them to the Anglican church. At home, we are technically Episcopalians, and this is technically the Church of Uganda, but African English ignores all these petty ex-colonial subtleties and calls us all Anglicans. But this Anglican is a world away from being an Anglican in Eugene, Oregon!
There are resemblances. The people leading the services wear vestments, and there are sometimes prayer books, and some of the prayers talk about the same things, and the priest blesses the host and we all go forward and kneel and receive it. There is a sermon and singing and announcements, although those are not specifically Anglican.
The biggest difference is just the overall feeling of informality and enthusiasm. In America, Anglicans are stereotyped as being the buttoned-up, wealthy, reserved denomination, who sing ancient hymns to a full choir and organ and don't talk about impolite things like the blood of Jesus and the fires of hell. I don't think the casual critic would ever get that idea while attending St John's, Kawusu Parish, Bunga! I don't know if different churches around here are more High Church, but this is what it looks like in a village at the edge of Kampala.
First of all, it's a large church, and it's packed for the middle service, which is the one English service sandwiched between two Luganda services. I estimate that between three and four hundred people are there, up to the ushers pulling in plastic lawn chairs at the back and some men standing up at the edges. People all dress in true Sunday best, with all of the men in buttoned shirts and some suits, and the women in shimmery or long dresses or traditional gomesi. The building is some multi-sided shape like an octagon, so pews fill around most of the sides but the pews on the edge are right next to the front area. There is a school on the church grounds, and students from the school, in their uniforms, fill flanks of side benches. A robed choir is up in one corner, backed by instrumentalists on synthesizer piano, electric bass, and drumset. The front area is separated from the pews by a couple of steps, but I am not sure it could properly be called an alter area. The side opposite the choir has a nice solid wood table and chairs, like where you might hold a small meeting. A fancy carved pulpit is out in front of that, but no one even comes near it; whoever is making announcements or giving the sermon stands at a small lectern in front of the steps, holding a bulky microphone. There are simple vestments on the two main people leading the service (one is the priest and I'm not sure about the other; he gives announcements but isn't involved in Communion), but no acolytes or deacons or Lay Eucharistic Ministers or Bible-readers or candles or banners or anything else. At the wall directly behind the speaker in the center of the church, there is a simple cross on the wall, an altar (that looks like if the altarcloth were removed it would be transformed into a dining table) with a green altarcloth with the name of the church in gold letters. It usually has two white lumps on it, which are the bread and wine covered with plain white cloths. The altar is flanked by some large and impressive chairs, which contribute to the table-like effect. There are two large roll-up screens that come down from the ceiling flanking the main area, so the congregation on all sides of the octagon can read them, which display words and pictures during the hymns, and some small words about the state of the computer at other times. So that is the physical setting.
The music is striking. It is something like, but not exactly, modern-style hymns, and praise music, and gospel, all mixed together. The text is always a basic, strong, positive message, like "I rest myself in Jesus" or "I walk with Jesus on the sand" or "I love Jesus and he loves me even more" (and there is no shying away from Jesus' blood, either!). There are always several hymns as well as solos and anthems from the choir, and some of them are quite long, so a large part of the service is music. The words for the hymns comes up on the big screens and the choir starts singing, and people just join in when they get the hang of it. For the lively songs, the choir and congregation start clapping and bouncing and waving their arms and even dancing in the aisles -- and even shouting "hallelujah! praise Jesus!" If the congregation or the soloist is really getting into the music, the musicians keep repeating choruses and verses and going along. When "the congregation" sings, you must remember that this is several hundred voices, and at the most there might be three individuals who only feel up to humming or mouthing the words today. Everyone loves to sing, and even the littlest children can clap enthusiastically and rhythmically. During Communion today, there were two anthems, led by a group kind of like a barbershop quartet or a lead singer and his back-up ladies (one of each, for two songs). The lead singer murmured a couple lines about loving and putting our faith in the lord, and as he gradually gained momentum he added in "sing it evver-body" or "sing it out, brothers and sisters" and the whole congregation gently sang the ostinato. There were some verses that the singer and his back-ups sang, and then the intensity built as the congregation sang the lines over and over and the back-up singers (and perhaps the whole choir) added harmony and the lead singer sang the same words in a descant over and around everything else, with the instruments gaining strength in the background. It was quite powerful and lovely, and a very far cry from the music at an Anglican church at home!
The sermons are similar to the hymns: they are clear and direct and positive. The messages are along the lines of: God loves us like a father loves his little child, or Surrender yourself to the power of God. They make this point with clear examples, and no distractions like talking about historical context or current events or the current liturgical celebrations. (Well, it is the middle of Pentecost, which is not exactly the most compelling time to discuss the liturgical year.) The priest speaks calmly and fluidly with no notes.
There are prayerbooks for the English service only. The once we attended the Luganda service, there wasn't any equivalent, or any saying of group prayer. As it is, the prayer books are barely more than pamphlets, and the prayers included are a few incredibly straight-forward translations of the most common elements of the Anglican liturgy -- and our church barely uses them as it is. The books also include suggestions on how to use these prayers in your worship, as though they don't expect the reader to be familiar with them. The prayers are short and in the most basic language imaginable, which makes a certain amount of sense considering they are for Ugandans who speak English as a second language, except that many Ugandans actually use more complex and formal language on a regular basis than Americans do. I find it difficult to even speak along with the prayers because the rhythm of the Episcopalian translations is drummed into my head, and the prayers here don't have enough words to get into a rhythm. (Which I would think the Ugandans would enjoy, actually.) For instance, the whole Nicene Creed is about half the length that it is at home, and the entire final paragraph about the Holy Spirit is wrapped up in one sentence. I don't even recall that the sentence has dependent clauses; we might just say "we believe in the Holy Spirit"! The prayers when the priest blesses the host are also much shorter than what I am used to. So basically, the liturgy and the communal prayers are not a central or pivotal part of the church experience here.
We do usually have Communion, although one week there wasn't any. The congregation comes forward in a very general, floating way towards the front, and kneels anywhere all along the several sides of the front rail. There are no neat lines or circling back out of the way or ushers indicating who is allowed to proceed! However, although it is a very large congregation, there is no tangling or confusion; people just kind of come up when there is room and they feel like it, I guess. The priest is the only one giving out Communion, and he walks along the inside of the rails with a plate with the chalice on it, and a large pile of pre-dipped wafers next to the chalice, so he drops a couple in the waiting hands of each person as he passes, which keeps things moving quickly. People dip their heads to eat from their cupped hands. Emerson, of course, pops right up to the communion rail as soon as he can convince me to get out of my seat! He is the only young child who comes to the front, for communion or a blessing or anything, although some children around ten or so come and receive. I didn't know if the priest would allow it, but the first time he gave Emerson kind of a bemused look, and then provides him with a wafer that hasn't been dipped in wine. Which is just as well, because although the wine is blessed and I appreciate it as spiritual food, it is either vinegar or something very like it, and rather shocking on the physical tongue.
Then there are parts of the service which are not included in American-style services, which seem to me to intensify the focus on community-building. The other person in vestments leads most of these. Usually someone in particular comes up and talks at great length about some particular project that they are involved in and everyone is invited to. This person usually has a stronger accent and doesn't compensate for the sound system and the huge stone space by speaking more slowly and clearly, so I never have the slightest idea what their pet project is. Another interesting routine is that the leader encourages the congregation to "organize ourselves" and everyone stands up as their particular neighborhood is mentioned, and everyone looks around and claps at the people who are standing. One that is more surprising to American sensibilities is that the leader goes into detail about exactly how much was raised in donations in every category, from every group at each service, and then they add up all these numbers together exactly -- this exact number of hundreds and thousands of shillings, and one British pound and two US dollars.
There are announcements, when we are all encouraged at great length to come to this parish celebration and that funeral, but anyone involved in these announcements is brought forward and talked about and invited to talk -- like the way I was introduced this morning! A newly married couple was similarly pulled up and gently interviewed, or other people might be asked to stand for some reason -- no polite "you may stand and introduce yourself if you feel called, but you don't have to"! One week, I think after the married couple, a young man from the choir area was pulled forward, and generally teased, I believe about when he was going to get married. He ended up called three friends from the congregation, all well-dressed and confident young men, and they all stood there and people whooped and laughed, and were asked to announce the date -- again, I think it was of their marriages. The first one said "the second Sunday of August -- of next year." The second one couldn't think so fast on his feet, but joined in the general merriment, and said the Sunday after that, and the next fellow offered the Sunday following that one. The last man was more clever, and apologetically said that since that month was so busy, he would oblige by waiting until the following year entirely. Everyone laughed and clapped and they went back to their seats.
If that sounds like a lot, it is; the services are quite a bit longer than American services. Usually at about an hour and a half, the priest closes the program, but that's when the person is invited up to talk about their pet project, followed by some other announcements and a collection for something, and then more singing. I say "about" an hour and a half, but that is so vague because it is hard to tell exactly when the service starts. I have been told anything between 8:30 and 9:00 for the service which is listed at 8:45 on the board, but it seems like it really does start somewhere in that vicinity, and it depends on how much of the gathering quiet prayer and singing and greeting your neighbor and watching the processional you feel like calling "church time." If you arrive at 8:30, you can find something to occupy your spiritual self, but if you arrive closer to 9 you can decide that the other people have just been busy finding their seats!
(And as a post script, I still don't know what I have signed up to do with the church's children! The Father had offered to "show me around" on Tuesday, so I do have an appointment with him. And he said that my letter of introduction from my home church said that I had worked especially with the children of the church. And needless to say, a church this size has a youth program, which I promptly got invited to since I am also helping out with the children. So I guess I will figure out the details on Tuesday!)
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