Week 5 has been totally defined by the National Arts Festival. Sunday morning was the big Festival Eucharist at the Cathedral of St. Michael and St. George. It was a high mass with incense and sung mass settings accented by the inVerse Choir from Johannesburg. The sermon was by Andrew Hunter, the dean, and he captured the mixed feelings being experienced by South Africans right now as they go through the cultural high of the festival at the same time as a political low with threats of “blood in the streets” and reports of the steadily worsening situation in Zimbabwe (neighbor to the north) coming in daily. I very much recommend reading the text of his sermon found here: http://www.scifac.ru.ac.za/cathedral/sermons/ - 29 July. The Festival Eucharist was about 2 hours long so after mass it was nap time before we reported back to the cathedral at 2:30 as “tourist hosts” (a job we did every day this week, so I’ll refrain from mentioning it daily). Then at 4:00 was the “Songs of Praise” concert. It was a mixed choir performance with inVerse, the cathedral choir, a choir from the local Dutch Reformed church, and a college student choir. They sang praise songs both ancient and modern from across denominational lines. My two favorites were “Lord of the Dance” (classic Shaker hymn) and a North African rendition of the Sanctus.
Monday, Therese and I saw another show, “Raiders: the Daily Lama.” It was a two-man show/prop comedy that was very well done. That afternoon we went to the Village Green Market to look around at the local crafts. I found a wonderful mohair blanket for when I start my class at the College of Transfiguration for which “drafty” is an understatement. Later on during our shift at the cathedral, I met an interesting racist. This white (English descent) South African woman inquired about the memorial plaques on the walls of the cathedral with words blocked out. When I told her they were put up in the 1840s and have racist and culturally offensive remarks about the native Xhosa and Sotho populations that needed to be deleted, she replied, “whatever happened to free speech!?” and walked out.
Tuesday morning I led Morning Prayer, went to staff meeting, and worked at the cathedral with one of our teenage interns. Marlene, from the Congo, is 16 and a volunteer for the week. We did some grunt work at the cathedral that needed to be done and then I worked the sales desk at the book launch/lecture by the Revd Dr. Bob Clarke whose book, Anglicans Against Apartheid has just been published.
That night, Therese and I went to see the show I was most interested in, Skin. It was a two-piece contemporary dance production. I think it best to direct you to their website: www.acedanceandmusic.com (I recommend the 2-min trailer). It was the best show we saw, simply breath taking.
Wednesday, we went to “A Guided Tour of Handel’s Messiah” at the cathedral. It was very interesting, but more lecture than performance. We did another shift, which coincided with an organ recital, which meant we just sat and listened. After that, we spent about 90 minutes setting up for Taize. The service went well, except that the moments of silence were disrupted by the sounds of the Rastafarians outside. It was a bit comical and frustrating.
Thursday we returned to the Village Green Market. It was not pleasant. It was very crowded, and that was the day I caught the cold I still haven’t gotten rid of. I spent the afternoon at the cathedral sniffling and sneezing. That night we went to the ballet to see Don Quixote. The dancing was great, but the directing was oh so disappointing. The ballet was trimmed down to 90 minutes (including intermission) so the story was essentially: villagers dancing Don Quixote has a dream more villagers dancing.
Friday was the day of interesting stories. Steve D. returned from Queenstown where he had spent time at a three-day archdeaconry retreat. The northern part of this diocese is in the process of forming their own diocese in a misguided (my and Steve’s opinion) effort to fix some problems. Anyway, almost all these clergy are trained locally by TEE (Theological Education by Extension). This is most unrigorous, and many of these priests have jobs during the week and say liturgies on Sundays. Each has 4-10 congregations they have to see on a circuit. They also have to deal with HIV/AIDS more directly than the clergy in urban settings and because of their lack of education, most believe AIDS to be a plague of Satan that infects “sinners” (read “homosexuals” among others). They will bury AIDS victims but are unwilling to talk about it in public. Steve also reported having been taken to a segregated restaurant in Queenstown in which whites are seated inside and blacks and coloured sit outside (remember, it is winter and very cold) with the justification that the outside is for “those who want their food quickly or to-go.” He also talked with a priest who is an Afrikaner who said that Apartheid gets a bad rap and wasn’t so bad compared to now.
When I went to Brookshaw (nursing home/retirement assisted living community), Mary Gay said a man came to her door pretending to be from Telkom. Once he came in she realized her mistake and, if you can imagine it, this 95-year-old woman chased this man out with her walking stick. Evidently, he has been going around the flats at Brookshaw trying to steal from the residents, mostly elderly women.
That afternoon I talked with parishioners during our shift at the cathedral about how until 1994, no Dutch Reformed person would have been caught dead in an Anglican church because, “horror of horrors, the Anglicans admitted blacks.” I was told all about the propaganda campaign supported by the NGK (Dutch Reformed Church in Afrikaans) and others that attacked the Anglican and Roman Catholic Churches for this practice and attacked Tutu during his tenure as Archbishop for being a communist who threatened the very fabric of society. Evidently, this was successful enough to be the number 1 contributor to the decline in Anglicans in this country. One of the other stories we were told was by another parishioner who said that growing up she went to a farm in order to learn Afrikaans. There, she learned that Afrikaners referred to black people with a word that translates as “knock-offs” or “copies” (of people). Her husband talked about how he taught at a dual school (English & Afrikaans) where as the only first language English speaker and Anglican he dealt with constant shunning by the Afrikaners and was treated as a second-class member of the faculty. The most shocking thing I was told is that Grahamstown, townships and all, was among the MOST integrated places in the country.
Today, I plan on doing laundry and going to the chemist to get some medicine for this cold that just keeps getting worse.
Monday, Therese and I saw another show, “Raiders: the Daily Lama.” It was a two-man show/prop comedy that was very well done. That afternoon we went to the Village Green Market to look around at the local crafts. I found a wonderful mohair blanket for when I start my class at the College of Transfiguration for which “drafty” is an understatement. Later on during our shift at the cathedral, I met an interesting racist. This white (English descent) South African woman inquired about the memorial plaques on the walls of the cathedral with words blocked out. When I told her they were put up in the 1840s and have racist and culturally offensive remarks about the native Xhosa and Sotho populations that needed to be deleted, she replied, “whatever happened to free speech!?” and walked out.
Tuesday morning I led Morning Prayer, went to staff meeting, and worked at the cathedral with one of our teenage interns. Marlene, from the Congo, is 16 and a volunteer for the week. We did some grunt work at the cathedral that needed to be done and then I worked the sales desk at the book launch/lecture by the Revd Dr. Bob Clarke whose book, Anglicans Against Apartheid has just been published.
That night, Therese and I went to see the show I was most interested in, Skin. It was a two-piece contemporary dance production. I think it best to direct you to their website: www.acedanceandmusic.com (I recommend the 2-min trailer). It was the best show we saw, simply breath taking.
Wednesday, we went to “A Guided Tour of Handel’s Messiah” at the cathedral. It was very interesting, but more lecture than performance. We did another shift, which coincided with an organ recital, which meant we just sat and listened. After that, we spent about 90 minutes setting up for Taize. The service went well, except that the moments of silence were disrupted by the sounds of the Rastafarians outside. It was a bit comical and frustrating.
Thursday we returned to the Village Green Market. It was not pleasant. It was very crowded, and that was the day I caught the cold I still haven’t gotten rid of. I spent the afternoon at the cathedral sniffling and sneezing. That night we went to the ballet to see Don Quixote. The dancing was great, but the directing was oh so disappointing. The ballet was trimmed down to 90 minutes (including intermission) so the story was essentially: villagers dancing Don Quixote has a dream more villagers dancing.
Friday was the day of interesting stories. Steve D. returned from Queenstown where he had spent time at a three-day archdeaconry retreat. The northern part of this diocese is in the process of forming their own diocese in a misguided (my and Steve’s opinion) effort to fix some problems. Anyway, almost all these clergy are trained locally by TEE (Theological Education by Extension). This is most unrigorous, and many of these priests have jobs during the week and say liturgies on Sundays. Each has 4-10 congregations they have to see on a circuit. They also have to deal with HIV/AIDS more directly than the clergy in urban settings and because of their lack of education, most believe AIDS to be a plague of Satan that infects “sinners” (read “homosexuals” among others). They will bury AIDS victims but are unwilling to talk about it in public. Steve also reported having been taken to a segregated restaurant in Queenstown in which whites are seated inside and blacks and coloured sit outside (remember, it is winter and very cold) with the justification that the outside is for “those who want their food quickly or to-go.” He also talked with a priest who is an Afrikaner who said that Apartheid gets a bad rap and wasn’t so bad compared to now.
When I went to Brookshaw (nursing home/retirement assisted living community), Mary Gay said a man came to her door pretending to be from Telkom. Once he came in she realized her mistake and, if you can imagine it, this 95-year-old woman chased this man out with her walking stick. Evidently, he has been going around the flats at Brookshaw trying to steal from the residents, mostly elderly women.
That afternoon I talked with parishioners during our shift at the cathedral about how until 1994, no Dutch Reformed person would have been caught dead in an Anglican church because, “horror of horrors, the Anglicans admitted blacks.” I was told all about the propaganda campaign supported by the NGK (Dutch Reformed Church in Afrikaans) and others that attacked the Anglican and Roman Catholic Churches for this practice and attacked Tutu during his tenure as Archbishop for being a communist who threatened the very fabric of society. Evidently, this was successful enough to be the number 1 contributor to the decline in Anglicans in this country. One of the other stories we were told was by another parishioner who said that growing up she went to a farm in order to learn Afrikaans. There, she learned that Afrikaners referred to black people with a word that translates as “knock-offs” or “copies” (of people). Her husband talked about how he taught at a dual school (English & Afrikaans) where as the only first language English speaker and Anglican he dealt with constant shunning by the Afrikaners and was treated as a second-class member of the faculty. The most shocking thing I was told is that Grahamstown, townships and all, was among the MOST integrated places in the country.
Today, I plan on doing laundry and going to the chemist to get some medicine for this cold that just keeps getting worse.
