On Sunday, November 30th Sarah, Magi, Callum, Laura, Noel and I went to the 7:30am service at Chamwino Mjini, also known as Chamwino Urban in the Carpenter’s Kids world to help differentiate it from Chamwino Maduma which is another of our parishes. Interestingly enough, I have now figured out why we call the parish Chamwino Urban in all of our files. Mjini literally means ‘in town’ in Swahili. The things you learn when you study a language.
Anyway, back to the story. The priest of Chamwino Mjini is the Reverend Canon Philemon Sudayi who is the father of Mmoti, our Carpenter’s Kids Program Administrator. We initially met Canon Sudayi in August when the Reverend Ellen O’Hara, the rector of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Pleasant Valley, NY which is linked with Chamwino Mjini, visited Dodoma as part of the ENDY pilgrimage group. Canon Sudayi is always happy to chat with Sarah and I whenever we see him in the Carpenter’s Kids office or around town. He’d invited us to attend a service at his church awhile ago and we were happy that we were able to find a date that was convenient for everyone.
Now of course we thought that we’d just come for the service, like you’d expect to do when you go visit a church, right? Not so much. Callum, Noel and I went out to see Canon Sudayi about a Carpenter’s Kids matter the week before and after we’d finished discussing that we talked about the Sunday service. Imagine our surprise when he said, “So, you will come to the service and you will do the readings, and you can sing and someone can preach.” Thankfully, Callum plays the piano and Laura sings, so the music part of that proposal was no problem. We figured that we could do the readings, but we didn’t know if anyone would want to preach. After a quick check with Magi and Sarah, we confirmed that no one in our group really wanted to preach, so we told Canon Sudayi that we could do a song and the readings.
We didn’t think to ask him when we were there at the church what the readings for the following Sunday would be-why I don’t know. I asked several people during the week but no one knew. Finally, on Saturday morning as we were driving toward Izava for a distribution, Noel looked at the chart in my prayer book and found the readings. It would be that easy. I tried to read part of the gospel lesson as we were in the car, but my stomach decided that reading while sitting sideways in a bumpy Land Cruiser was not the best use of my time. When we got back from our distribution, Magi told me that she had gotten the readings from Pastor Noah as well. It was nice to know that the chart in my prayer book was accurate. We’d also stopped by the church to confirm one last detail with Canon Sudayi when we’d first arrived back in town, and it turned out that we only needed to read 2 of the lessons for the day, the Old Testament reading and the Gospel. Since I’d already started to look at the reading from Matthew in the car, I volunteered to take that one. Foolish, foolish me. It was the longer of the two! Magi said she’d read the passage from Isaiah.
While Canon Sudayi said that we could do the readings in either English or Swahili, I thought it would be good to try to read in Swahili. Of course, when I first got that idea stuck in my head I’d thought I’d know what I would be reading sooner than the night before the service. Nonetheless, I decided that I was going to try to read the Gospel in Swahili. Why there are so many syllables in Swahili words, I’ll never know. There were so many long words in that passage! I think I read the passage in my head and out loud a good 10 times Saturday night. It sounded ok, by the time I finished practicing, but it was late and I was tired so maybe it really didn’t.
Sunday morning, we all piled into the car and made our way to Chamwino Mjini. I asked Noel to read the passage from Matthew aloud so I could hear how it was actually supposed to sound. He tried to read slowly, but it still sounded like it was coming at the speed of light to me! We arrived at the church and were warmly welcomed by Canon Sudayi and one of the church catechists and then shown to our seats, at the front of the church, of course. Noel and I went outside so I could practice reading again with him listening to correct my pronunciation. Canon Sudayi came outside to get us and told me that I could read it in English if I wanted to, but that people would appreciate me trying to read it in English even if I needed to stop and switch to English part way through.
The service was great. It was a traditional communion service complete with several choirs, including a great group of Carpenter’s Kids singing and dancing. Callum and Laura sang O Come, O Come Emmanuel to an appreciative audience. About a third of the way through the service, Canon Sudayi asked us to introduce ourselves to the congregation-in Swahili of course-and I was able to read a short note that I’d received from Ellen O’Hara to the congregation with Noel providing the Swahili translation. Everyone was very happy to hear from Ellen through us and was pleased that she remembered her visit to their church so fondly.
A short time after that, Magi read the passage from Isaiah in English and Noel went up with her and read it in Swahili. Then it was my turn. Thankfully, Noel went up with me and held the microphone for me. I was even more thankful that there was a podium that I could set the Bible on so that I didn’t have to hold it. Noel announced the reading in Swahili since I didn’t know how to do that. Then I started reading. I did ok for the first few sentences but then I started to get nervous. I made it all the way through the reading-I think it was about 11 verses long-but by the time I was done, I had started holding on the sides of the podium so people wouldn’t see how badly my hands were shaking. While my reading was not even close to resembling fluent Swahili reading, I think people were able to understand what I was saying and, if not, most people had their Bibles open and were following along so they could at least read it for themselves.
Canon Sudayi asked Magi to assist with communion and Sarah got some great pictures of her, which are on Magi’s computer so unfortunately I can’t show them to you. At the end of the service, Canon Sudayi asked us to say something to the congregation. I said something in Swahili, I honestly can’t remember what though. I think it was something along the lines of ‘Thank you very much for welcoming us. We are very happy to be here at Chamwino Mjini and see all of you today.’ It was much easier to say that than to read in Swahili! After we’d finished speaking, Canon Sudayi had us process out of the church with him and the catechist. Outside we shook hands with the two of them and then we shook hands with every other person in the church-about 200 people.
At the end of every service we’ve been to, with perhaps one exception, we go out the front doors of the church and shake hands. We do that back home too, but it’s different here. What happens is this: you leave the church and shake hands with the priest, the catechist, etc, then you get in line next to them so that the person behind you shakes the priest’s hand, the catechist’s hand and your hand before taking their place next to you in the line. So since I was the 4th person out the door, behind Canon Sudayi, the catechist and Magi, I shook hands with all 3 of them and then joined the line, with Callum, Laura and Noel following suit. Sarah was taking pictures so she missed out on the line. By the time the church was empty, there was a large line of people that curved its way around the parking lot in front of the church. It’s actually really nice, but you sure do shake a lot of hands!
After we’d finished shaking hands, Canon Sudayi invited us to tea at his house which is right next door to the church. We washed our hands before entering the sitting room and were then offered tea, coffee and hot chocolate as well as mandaazi and sambusas. Canon Sudayi was only able to stay long enough to thank us for coming and introduce us to his wife before he had to go back to the church for the second service of the morning. We were joined by Richard, the Carpenter’s Kids Communications Coordinator, who I believe may also be the Committee Chair, and several committee members. One of them looked very familiar, but I couldn’t figure out why. Then Magi introduced us to her. She’s Bishop Mhogolo’s sister! That’s why she looked familiar. They look a great deal alike. She was very nice and was quite taken with the song that Callum and Laura performed and asked them to sing it again so she could remember the melody. They did, and we all joined in so they didn’t have to sing alone, and then gave the Bishop’s sister the music and lyrics. We had a nice visit with everyone and took a group photo before heading home.
I’m sure we’ll go back and visit again. They have a very nice congregation and are very supportive of their Carpenter’s Kids.
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