Sunday 12 February 2012 Multi language worship and a disarming question…

There is a worrying trend in the start times of the church services I am attending…. Last week was 8am, this week was 7.30am! (I hope that it does not get much earlier)… So I rose early with Father Sydney to prepare for worship at St Michael’s Promosa, the township in which I have staying in his home for the last 6 days.

Some of the congregation at St Michael's

The worship was a remarkable mixture of formal and spontaneous… with a Holy Communion liturgy in the Anglo-catholic tradition, and vigorous singing & clapping with real gusto and delight.  All of this happening in an un-announced mixture of English, Afrikaans and Tswana.  Thinking about this, I expect that it gives speakers of all these languages of all these tongues, at least some part of the service in which they feel on “home ground.”  This would be a helpful approach to adopt in the UK in much of our wrestling with one another about formal or informal, organ or guitar, traditional and modern styles of worship.  If we can make sure that there is room for the needs of others who are not like us, then we may have a good starting point.

Opa, the Assistant Priest at St Michaels,
with his daughter Tshiamu

You may like to hear some of the worship at St Michaels… if so I have recorded a short clip for you to try … click on this link...
  St Michaels Promosa Worship clip 
(It opens in a new window)

I was asked to preach and it was a privilege to do so.  At the end of the service, I was greeting those who had come to worship.  There were many warm words given  which was lovely and people assuring me that they would pray for the church in England, as I had asked in the sermon, and also asking for our prayers for South Africa and the church here.

One lady though, asked me question which caught me off guard….
“Are you growing the church in England?”  I asked her to repeat the question… which she did.  I had heard here correctly.  For a short time which probably seemed longer  to me than her, I didn’t know how to take the question…. Did she mean, “is the church in England growing?” or “ Are you (Richard) growing the church in England?”  I opted for the first reading of the question and talked about how we are seeking to see the church grow, and how we are especially trying to reach young people.  I felt it was a cop out really… because the church in England is varied in the extent to which it is growing.  Effectively I had treated here question as a polite, “How are you?” and replied, “Fine thanks!”

To have taken her question personally, “How am I/we growing the church?” is a more disturbing question to consider. 

Later in the afternoon, after returning to Bishop Steve’s home I talked with his wife Brenda and him about the week I had experienced.  As we chatted, I heard more painful stories about forced removals, this time of rural communities, about some white people leaving churches when apartheid came to an end, and black leaders began to be appointed.

I began to realise that for the church in South Africa, “is the church growing?” is a complex question.  Certainly they are keen to reach out to the young in their communities and to grow in numbers.  But that is being a bit one dimensional.  Given all that has happened to several generations here, is not  the acceptance, love and forgiveness which is within so much of the church a sign of it’s growth?  For those who are trying, despite tensions to stay together in mixed race congregations- is that not a sign of maturity.

Perhaps the same principle should be applied to the question I was asked of the church in England.  We can and should talk about numbers… but we should also think about changes of heart and mind which count as growth and are harder to spot. Are we growing in love and acceptance of people not like us?  Are we growing in our discovery of God’s heart – in our desire to reach the lost, and serve the poor.  These are all features of health in the life  of a church, and perhaps if there is health here- a growth in heart- then we will see a growth in numbers too.   This is not a cop out.  It is about foundations.  Growing of the church means renewal of the church first of all.   So, we pray… Lord, here in South Africa and in the UK, renew us and grow your church in every way.  Amen.

Richard   PS I'm really looking forward to seeing my wife Rose and two of my children Andrew and Sam again on Tuesday.