Pie and Coffee 
Itinerant Communicant
Hope all the P&C readers out there had a good Christmas.
I’m sure there’s a technical term for how the viewer separates the artwork from the background. I love taking creche photos in part because the background is so often completely inappropriate, and occasionally accidentally appropriate. Here, NO TRESPASSING and BEWARE OF THE DOG are a “No room at the inn” for our time.
The day before Holy Week began, I attended a wedding at St. Columba’s United Reformed Church in Oxford, UK. St. Columba’s is down an alley near some of the Oxford colleges. It’s a normal sort of church inside, with a vestibule and facade that make it look like an office building.
Most churches stand out. St. Columba’s is hidden. Attending church there was like going to a house mass—nobody walking past suspects you’re going to a sacred gathering.
(Best wishes to the bride and groom—your lovely wedding is an auspicious start to your lives together.)
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Today, at the invitation of a friend of a friend, I went to worship with the Salvation Army in the Kibera neighborhood. Read the rest of this entry »
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.
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.
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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.
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.
As predicted, we welcomed Christmas on the road, but within a few hours were in the arms of family, and had a very lovely Christmas day.
We celebrated the Feast of the Holy Family at St. Austin’s Parish in Nairobi, Kenya, where the church was packed, the music lovely, and the homily namechecked Facebook.
No photographs of the church, I’m sorry to say, but continuing my long-running “quirky creche” series, here are a couple of nativity scenes that caught my eye this week.
The household nativity scene above is pretty standard, except for the Godzilla-sized sheep lurking behind it. “You should see the shepherds….”"
This one is at the Mwangaza Jesuit Centre. There are several pieces of fantastic religious sculpture there, but our subject today is nativity scenes, so here it is. I like that the shepherd is playing some sort of bagpipes, and also that the background decor is made of gift wrapping paper and Christmas lights. Nice touches, which I’ll keep in mind next time I help make a creche.
I went to Mass in Stockholm Cathedral midday today. It was presided by Eva Brunne, Bishop of Stockholm. I was pleased to affirm her ministry in this way. Incidentally, I am now under the pastoral care of Irja Askola, Bishop of Helsinki.
As I mentioned earlier in the context of the Metal Mass, parish council elections in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland is coming next month (November). I am surprised that (it seems to me) some members of political parties participate explicitly as candidate lists in these elections. For example, the Centre Party tendency has the “Church Amidst” (Kirkko keskelle arkea) list; National Coalition supporters have “Right On” (Oikealla asialla); and the Social Democrats organize the “Come All” (Tulkaa kaikki) list. Some even publish their manifestos: for example, the Greens (list name ”Green Pastures” Vihreät niityt, a pun at Psalm 23) in the Lutheran fashion post their Green parish election theses. This is almost unthinkable either in Britain or in North America.
I went to Metal Mass (Metallimessu) in my church this evening.
It was a plug for the upcoming church elections to encourage youth to participate. It attracted about 200 people – about half of which were younger than I. The hymns were straight out of the Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Church’s hymnbook (Virsikirja): 205, 125, 77, 15, 226 (12th-century Latin hymn Jesu dulcis memoria, a monster of 16-stanzas: imagine it in metal! sadly only the first 8 were performed), 332b (here is a sample of this hymn in metal), 160, 517; and the reading from the week’s entry in the Church’s lectionary. 
But the heavy-metal style of music gave the appropriate sense of urgency to (for example) ”Jumalan Karitsa” (“Agnus Dei”) and the readings (Abram and the stars from Genesis 12; Mark’s account in chapter 2 of healing the paralyzed down the roof) were also poignant about God being our only hope when all else is lost. Totuus on, että hän meni ristille kun kaikki olivat toivoton: sitten tämä risti on meidän toivon tunnus. Overall a moving and striking experience.
I am looking forward to the next time Metal Mass will be in Stadi: the 5th anniversary service will be on 30 June 2010.
Becoming ‘British’
is not about
passing a test, saying some pledge,
getting that passport.
It is about
picking a side for yourself
in that old, drawn-out war
they call ‘civil’.
Then around you,
the ever-cumulous skies,
the revolting lands,
the tumultuous seas,
cannot even decide on their own names.
But oddly,
you know exactly
who you are,
where you stand.
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