Smells and Bells and Car Washes!

20th July 2014.

All Saints Khuma.

We arrived at All saints Khuma for the 8:30am start with our hostess Ruth. We entered to the sound of harmonised singing from the small congregation that had made it on time. We had been warned congregation numbers dropped during winter but finding only three ladys and four preists was a surprise to us. Never the less the service did start on time, with a full procession of acolytes and incense with what seemed like more priests. The style of the service followed the Anglican book of Prayer from the ANglican church here in SOuth AFrica. The church followed a familiar pattern and was recongisable altholugh in a variety of languages. As the service progressed and we drew closer to communion and the congvregation size grew and grew till we reached a point where the church was bursting at the seams. We then reached the sermon where the two of us recived our own short summary of what Father Leslie was going to preach on. His sermon was on the topic of the Holy Spirit and what it does and how it effects our lives. The sermon then continued in simulatanious seamless translation, in two African languages with variying degrees of enthusiasm and volume with much gesturing there were clear responses from the congregation at the bits they liked. We then moved on to the collection which in this paticular situation was done by groups of the church i.e Youth, women and the men were called out to the front to place their offerings on a plate which was then gathered togheter and counted for each indivudal group and then at the end of the service the totals for each group were announced wth some sense of competition. This transparency is something we were not used to in England. From the sermon onwards the style of the worship changed to a much more lively and upbeat style. We were greeted with drums and an old fire bell which gave an upbeat tempo which included faboulous dancing and beautiful harmonies. Songs began by memebers starting to sing from wherever they were in the Church normally representatives of the different guilds within the church. Then came the peace which was started by finishing one song off with us all holding hands and then praying togheter before the priest declared the peace, to which we then began moving round the church shaking peoples hands, hugging and just sharin g the warmth and fellowship within the church. This went on for some time and Gareth and I seemed to be singled out for particular hugging!

The service came to an end at 11am and all filed out where we gathered outside in the mid morning sun for tea, coffee and cake. Gareth and I made our way through more of the congregation being greeted by many as if we were family who had just been a way for a while. We were approached by members of the youth fellowship there who were selling towels embroided with the church logo on to them, they were rasising funds for the Church and its youth ministry.

After a few pictures with members of the congregation we then went off to lunch with our hostesses family who lived within the township of Khuma. They were very hosiptable with enough food to feed five thousand. We were greeted with more love and welcomed into their home as if we were part of the familly. The meal included things like Lamb, Chicken and pumpkin. We then spent time with the priest of All Saints Khuma and the church wardens and talked about the way churches do things in South Africa. This was very helpful for us and also it seemed for them as well, which was one of the reasons we came here to learn from each other.