Church

We’ve been attending Catholic services at St. Michael’s Cathedral in Kigali. There are several masses in a variety of languages. There’s a French mass, one in English and one in Kinyarwanda (the native language of most of Rwanda’s inhabitants). We’ve opted for the English mass which lasts typically about 2 hours. There’s a whole lot of singing, which is quite nice. The voices in the choir are just amazing and it’s truly a wonder what they’re able to accomplish with so few resources. Additionally, there’s a whole lot of incense at a number of intervals during the mass. We’ve noticed some interesting differences as well. For example, during the offertory not only are the bread and wine brought up as gifts, but there’s an entire procession of people carrying things like laundry detergent, toilet paper and fruits such as bunches of bananas and pineapples. I guess the priests have to have their clothes cleaned and need t.p. in the same way that their parishioners need these items. Such manufactured items tend to be very expensive because they’re usually imported, so I guess they are indeed viewed as a gift.

Something else we’ve also observed is that the congregation claps during the consecration. It’s a bit unsettling to hear “applause” when one would normally hear the tinkling of the bells and the solemn pronouncement, “The Body of Christ”, but it appears to be a well in-grained tradition here.

Homilies are fairly long and a bit difficult to follow given the accent, so the kids aren’t too happy that their parents “force” them to attend. Lately, they have really developed an appreciation for the atmosphere that Fr. Greg has been able to foster at Immaculate Conception of Lakeland. What is striking to me , though is the universality of the Catholic mass. I’ve attended mass in many places on this globe, often in languages I don’t understand (like Florence, Italy when I took the Catholic of PC kids on a European tour) and if one is remotely familiar with the order of the mass, it doesn’t take long to catch on and follow easily even in an unfamiliar language. We attended services a few Sundays ago at a non-denominational church that many ex-pats attend and it just didn’t have the same effect for us. The pastor and his wife were quite welcoming, but we just weren’t convinced about the service. It had the feel of being made up as we went along. Indeed, the congregants had to be cued as to what was to follow as the pastor would pronounce each time, “And now we’re going to…” Given that Catholicism is imbued with centuries of traditions and rituals and there’s never a question of what’s supposed to happen next because everybody already knows, it was interesting to observe the difference. It was definitely a good learning experience for the kids as well.