St.Philip's -a Xhosa speaking community in Fingo location. Outside the Church was a typical location with the poorly built houses+animals wandering around freely such as donkeys. However,inside was similar to UK Churches,with a golden lectern+chalices,etc. The service started late+the Church was full. Everyone was wearing very smart clothes (myself included as I had been for warned about this!)+many women were in the M.U.'s uniform here of purple jackets+black woollen hats. The service followed the,now familiar,S.A. Anglican Prayer Book (APB). However the Church didnt provide these or hymns books,which is obv. due to cost. The service included many hymns+lasted over 2hours. Following which was 40mins of notices!!..all of which in an unfamiliar language.
St.Michael+St.George's Cathedral -They usually have a straight forward Eucharist from the APB said in English with an organ+piano accompanying the hymns +marimbas accompanying the Xhosa Eucharistic setting. BUT it was Valentine's Day so as well as this they had the renewal of wedding vows for the whole congregation! I was not keen on this as it excluded a significant part of the congregation,i.e. children,single people,widowed people,people there without their spouse,the nuns who were there,+even married people there who actually didnt want to renew their vows for whatever reason. Indeed,there was no recognition that marriage isnt always wonderful,apart from 1sentence about acknowledging that some have difficult marriages,followed with "but we're not talking about that today"!
St.Augustine's -Another Xhosa speaking community in a location. This was similar to St.Philip's in several ways,though was different as about 30people were robed,many of which were lay ministers,+the majority did nothing! The service started at 9:20 when there were about 30people there,by 10:00 the place was full with over 100people.
St.Clement's -This is just outside of the town center+is a poor Church but is not in a location+so I doubt it is as poor as those Churches. They had an interesting Cross with the blood of Jesus on rather than His body.As you can imagine,I liked it! Their service is in English+we were told there was a vestry meeting (the Churches AGM)+assumed this was at the end,but no!It was in the middle of the service instead of the sermon,Creed+ prayers!! I didnt like that as it completely broke up the service. Interestingly though,everyone raved about how organised the Priest (who is English) was but Dom+I didn't think she was any more organised than anyone we know+even less organised than some! I dread to think what other vestry meetings are like here then!
Christ Church -Hang on,am I in England or South Africa?! This was the only congregation which was predominately white,the service followed the English Book of Common Prayer,the hymns were accompanied by an organ,+it was the only place that offered refreshments afterwards. In fact,I had an Earl Grey tea!-which I dont actually like but felt I had to have as it reminded me of England! This Church was,however,the first which not only wasn't full,but was less than half full.
St. Philip's is a great church, I deaconed the Sunday Mass there exactly a year ago and sang the Gospel (in English I might add), although did all the other deacon bits in Xhosa, somehow!
ReplyDeleteA few years ago we attended a midweek Mass at St. Clement's under the previous Rector Melany Adonis, and I remember the cross and the transparent chalices. As you probably noticed S. Clement's is a coloured church whereas the township churches (at least in GHT) are black churches.
Have you had a chance yet to get to know Noluthando, the curate at the cathedral? She is a wonderful lady, we studied together.
Good for you doing it in Xhosa!
ReplyDeleteThe see-through chalices are still there are St.Clement's+so it looks just like wine glasses which I found somewhat ammusing!
Not got to know her I'm afraid as only made it into the Cathedral once. -there's just to much to do+to little time!