Month: January 2011

Merry Christmas!

Enough of this pre-Christmas and post-Christmas blogging; today is Orthodox Christmas.

Last night I stopped by the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church in Nairobi a few hours before Christmas mass, which I considered attending but was warned off from by a couple non-Amharic-speakers.

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Here’s a photo of the inside I took at the urging of a member of the congregation. The painting of the three bearded men depicts the Trinity. I was told that the TV screen, though not working at present, is intended to give people a view of what’s happening in the inner sanctuary when the curtain is closed.

I love watching people showing up for Ethiopian mass, the women in white packed into cars, emerging like circus clowns turning into butterflies.
Continue reading “Merry Christmas!”

508 #141: Conspiracy theories

508 is a show about Worcester. This week’s panel is Brendan Melican. We talk about The Pulse’s “Ones to Watch” list; last year we did an in-depth analysis. We revisit the “travel spending scandals” of city employees. Today is Orthodox Christmas. The weather in Nairobi is better than the weather in Worcester. There’s a Worcester Magazine article about the PharmaSphere phiasco; Bill Randell has some critical thoughts, as do we. (For more background than you probably want, watch our episode on the South Worcester Industrial Park.) The City of Worcester has a list of Social Media & Information Sharing resources; we recommend the police Twitter feed. Also, there was a Dianne Williamson column Brendan liked.

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Audio: mp3 link, other formats, feed

Friends Meeting, Nairobi

Last Sunday I stopped by the Quakers on Ngong Road in Nairobi for the mostly-silent “unprogrammed worship.” This is one of the few religious services where I feel obtrusive—it’s like sitting in at an AA meeting when you’re not part of that community.

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The unprogrammed worship didn’t go very long, so we walked over to another building where they hold, you guessed it, “programmed worship.” I had no idea such a thing existed. It’s similar to an evangelical service. (Though on the tamer side.)

One more surprising fact: Kenya has the most Quakers of any nation. I am told that the Ngong Road congregation is mostly Luhya.