Christmas and Boxing Day

We go to church a lot here. In case you ever need to know, "mamatu" means "let us pray," and "Lu mbara para" means "Almighty God." I figured those out myself because I have heard them so much and observed what happens after them. And when you turn toward the altar and stand up and talk, whether you realize it or not you are participating in the Apostle's Creed. The order of service is different from the American BCP, but it's starting to become clear.

Christmas Eve church at the cathedral was simple and short, considering. It was communion and didn't start till midnight. We were all so tired we could hardly stay awake. Electrical lights and media must play a huge part in our usual ability to stay up late!

Yesterday, on Christmas Day, Emily and I went to Lui Parish. We got a ride down there but were lucky enough to walk back. When we arrived, we sat in a grass payat and visited with Sylvester, the pastor in charge, Festus, the archdeacon for Lui archdeaconry, Mama Margaret, who went to translate for Emily's sermon, and Repent, another of the parish's priests. The three men recorded greetings for St. Timothy's then gave us a tour of their 50-acre plant. They have the foundation dug and bricks poured for a new, cruciform, church with office space and a "vestry," which means place to robe, not group of parish deciders. We went to church, which was morning prayer. The church was packed and the service joyous. I got to give a long greeting from St. Tim's, with a presentation of a piece of Christmas stained glass made by Emil Frei, and talk a bit about what we value (I said we value liturgy, catechesis and Bible study, community gatherings, pastoral care, and outreach; I hope that's a fair representation, St. Timmers...) Emily preached a dynamite sermon on the lenses we see through, mentioning the piece of window glass but focusing on the birth of Jesus and the gospel she chose, John 1:1 ff. After that, we sat in the payat some more, drank orange drink, ate a great lunch of beef, goat, chicken, rice, bread, and linya. We finished with something completely new to both of us: steaming fresh sweet milk. It was fabulous. Emily and I had just been plotting a way to make hot cocoa when the milk arrived -- a lot of things in Lui are serendipitous like that. Then we returned to the church, where we were presented with gifts and very kind speeches, and we were supposed to show the videos from St. Timothy's but the laptop's battery had died. So I have to/get to go back to Lui Parish Sunday.

Today we went to the longest service in recorded history, we think. It was a four-hour ordination. The good news is that much of it was translated into Arabic, so I got some listening practice. But the thing about Arabic is that whenever you start to sneak up on it and understand, it turns around and bites you: The translator (the chancellor of the diocese) spoke so fast that it took a long time before I even realized it was Arabic, and longer before I started teasing out some of what he said. But the sermon translator (sermon kudos to Robert, who has a wonderful "voice" for Lui) spoke more slowly and I had fun evaluating the way he translated words like "polity" and "servanthood." We were all entranced by the role the chancellor played in carrying out the canonical aspects of ordination. With luck, Joe is right now across the room from me writing about the ordination, because I spent four hours there and don't want to think about it anymore right now.

Something I left out about yesterday: We walked past Mama Margaret's compound, and she invited us in to sit down. She is a very generous hostess; she fed us the first candy we've had here except for the sesame halawa I bought in the market and also some dates. Her brother Peter, a retired university plant science professor, told us a lot about the history of the Moru people. Did you know that the Dinka and Moru peoples used to be one Episcopal diocese, the Diocese of Rumbek? (Well, we think it was Rumbek, but you should google it to be sure before quoting me!) He also told us a bit about the conflicts among tribes. Then last night, when we sat in a big circle in the dark, under the glorious stars of Lui, Bishop Bullen had us asking him some other questions, and we got the opinions of him and some other officials from Juba about a variety of things like the upcoming census.

So... upcoming things to be excited about: a walk to Luinjini school tomorrow, our first formal Moru lesson tomorrow, Lui parish Sunday, and a trip to Juba Monday! Emily, Joe, Robert, Nancy, and Tammy are starting home via Juba Monday, and Vasco and I are going to accompany them so I can get a little taste of Juba too. (That's where my Arabic could conceivably be really helpful, but don't hold your breath.) We are all staying in a hotel overnight, and then Vasco and I are taking a bus back to Lui!! If you have ever been to Lui, you can imagine how daily bus service to Juba changes it. And after that, who knows?

Christmas didn't feel like Christmas, and I have to admit I miss my family a lot. But with our team split up yesterday in four different parishes for Christmas, my family at about the same time at the cathedral in St. Louis, and my parish community at St. Timothy's, I have never felt more strongly the impact of the words before the sanctus in the eucharist -- with angels and archangels and all the company of heaven -- or the image of Christians as the body of Christ.