Good Friday
Well, we’ve finished the journey through Lent and reached Good Friday. What was it like to celebrate this vital day of the Christian calendar in a setting in which Christianity is very much in a minority?
In some ways there was very little difference from home. We live in a “Christian compound” in Manali. Today Lena was off work (as much as she ever can be while in the compound!). Day Star School had today as a holiday too, though because students and other young people roamed the playground all day I guess that many parents were still at work.
The Manali Masihi Mandali Church of North India congregation that worships in a church building in the compound held its Good Friday service between 12md and 3pm. After half an hour of chorus, guitar-led singing, with a group from the Dar ul-Fazl Children’s Home we got down to business: 7 talks, each of 15 minutes’ duration and by different people, on each of the 7 sayings of Jesus on the cross.
It looked like a marathon to me! After about 90 minutes of a marathon the body has exhausted its energy food supply and starts to convert body tissue into energy. That’s often called “hitting the wall”. Good marathon runners have to work out ways of “running through the wall”. After 90 minutes this afternoon, first the children started fidgeting and walking out, then one or two of the men crawled to a different place in the room to get more comfortable, then…You can imagine.
I was second last speaker, so I had everyone stand up, stretch and turn around, and I used the data projector to show pictures. Not very spiritual, but I think I managed to keep the attention of most people!
After the service we accompanied a new friend Thomas to a Bengali restaurant for lunch. Then back to our flat where we relaxed skyped (two of) our children and had a really good talk over evening devotions. I really value that daily time of reading a devotional, praying and talking with Lena.
Well, we’ve finished the journey through Lent and reached Good Friday. What was it like to celebrate this vital day of the Christian calendar in a setting in which Christianity is very much in a minority?
In some ways there was very little difference from home. We live in a “Christian compound” in Manali. Today Lena was off work (as much as she ever can be while in the compound!). Day Star School had today as a holiday too, though because students and other young people roamed the playground all day I guess that many parents were still at work.
The Manali Masihi Mandali Church of North India congregation that worships in a church building in the compound held its Good Friday service between 12md and 3pm. After half an hour of chorus, guitar-led singing, with a group from the Dar ul-Fazl Children’s Home we got down to business: 7 talks, each of 15 minutes’ duration and by different people, on each of the 7 sayings of Jesus on the cross.
It looked like a marathon to me! After about 90 minutes of a marathon the body has exhausted its energy food supply and starts to convert body tissue into energy. That’s often called “hitting the wall”. Good marathon runners have to work out ways of “running through the wall”. After 90 minutes this afternoon, first the children started fidgeting and walking out, then one or two of the men crawled to a different place in the room to get more comfortable, then…You can imagine.
I was second last speaker, so I had everyone stand up, stretch and turn around, and I used the data projector to show pictures. Not very spiritual, but I think I managed to keep the attention of most people!
After the service we accompanied a new friend Thomas to a Bengali restaurant for lunch. Then back to our flat where we relaxed skyped (two of) our children and had a really good talk over evening devotions. I really value that daily time of reading a devotional, praying and talking with Lena.
Reflecting on the seven sayings of Jesus from the cross does provide an interesting perspective for Good Friday worship. Rev Dirk van Doorene used this approach at St Matthew's Uniting Church in Baulkham Hills in the NW of Sydney. Our service was limited to an hour and a quarter to allow time for the commencement of the next
ReplyDeleteservice. Notwithstanding, we got the point that Jesus words were incredibly selfless, full of love and compassion and inspiring us to show our love for God in steadfastly living out our faith even at the most inconvenient times. Your service must have been a very special time. Blessings.
Bruce Rowe