Sunday morning was a “low Sunday” of sorts after the festive, yet tiring festival. It was a simple service without many of the frills associated with the Sunday worship at the cathedral. After the service, I had a nice conversation with one of the local academics who had some questions about the differences I’ve noticed between the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, particularly as it concerns the education of the laity. Before I knew it, we were talking about the discovery of Ugarit, Q, and the Dead Sea Scrolls. He was particularly impressed to hear about programs like Education For Ministry (EFM) that is made available for people who want a pretty in-depth program of Christian education.
That evening, after a lazy afternoon of rest (and fighting a cold) we went to Evening Prayer. It was straightforward service out of the new Prayer Book, but the hymns were out of the English Hymnal (printed before WWI). It reminded me a lot of the way we do the Daily Office at Sewanee with sung canticles and Psalms, but spoken liturgy. The preacher was a guest from the College of the Transfiguration (the local Anglican seminary). He preached a lovely sermon on the psalm for the evening, but it was a very long sermon. I am not sure how long he spoke, but the total time for Evening Prayer was about 75 minutes.
Monday was a sort of day off. I went to a meeting that afternoon that the Vicar General, Andrew Hunter, convened of some area priests, Steve and I. They were very intrigued by what Steve and I said about the possibilities of using Non-Profit Organizations to do the work of the Church but being able to draw in gov’t funding. Of course, we do not know the South African system, but I think we were able to give them some good ideas which were pitched the next day at the diocesan executive council meeting. I believe we’ll be summoned back in the next week or so to talk about some more about it with the archdeacons (note: archdeaconries play a much bigger role in the governing of the church than in the US, for example, Grahamstown has some dozen archdeacons who meet regularly for regional ministry projects).
Tuesday morning was the traditional Morning Prayer & staff meeting. This meeting was very short though since the dean, director of music, and financial officer were all away leaving my supervisor (the sub dean), myself, and the interim secretary. The interim secretary, her name is Rudo, is a college student from Zimbabwe. Rudo is a law student in her 4th year (out of 5). Many of her siblings have immigrated to South Africa (Zimbabweans were one of the principle victims of xenophobic violence earlier this year), but her parents still live in Harare, Zimbabwe. When asked how her parents are doing with all that is going on there, she replied “they’re surviving.” She wasn’t exaggerating. When we asked if she plans on returning to Zimbabwe after school to practice law she replied, “how can I go back, what do I have to return to?”
That afternoon we went on a hospital visitation to a parishioner. It was my first chance to see the local hospital. It was eerily empty. It was full of patients, but I did not see a single doctor and only a few nurses. It was very cold and many rooms were 8 beds a room. After that visit we went to one of the orphanages in Joza, one of the townships, were the cathedral has an informal relationship. The orphanage is trying to get a puppy, but the SPCA person said they needed to fix the fence a little bit (we went to the hardware store right after that and the problem will be fixed shortly).
Wednesday we went to Assegaai where the Diocese of Lexington is having a reading camp for some of the township children. The cathedral staff went there over the course of the week mostly as observers, but also to see what kind of work was being done and how it could be aided in the future, etc. I had a nice chat with Bishop Stacy and his wife Ginger. I also met a lovely priest from Ohio who hopes to duplicate the reading camp somewhere in the Western Cape outside of Cape Town.
That night I took over for Suzanne as leader of her weekly Bible study. Suzanne had to pick up the new YASCer (Young Adult Service Corps) and the study I normally attend was still on holiday. So after all the prep I did for the readings and the tea and biscuit time afterward, no one came. Some people called ahead but with the festival having ended the weekend before and the weather being terrible people just stayed home. It worked out for me, I taught Steve to play cribbage instead. Cortney, the YASCer arrived safely from Bowling Green, Kentucky. She will be staying the subdeanery as well until sometime in August.
Thursday morning the cathedral staff went on a “visioning retreat” at the monastery (Holy Cross – Anglican). We went to Lauds which was followed by a Eucharist with the brothers. It was breathtaking. The service was beautiful, but the chapel itself is on the edge of the hill overlooking the valley and the windows are normal so you can look out. We then spent the next several hours talking about the cathedral’s place in Grahamstown and how to improve its ministry, etc. I made a lot of proposals which were aided by my being an outsider and having no sense of “how it has always been done” or “what is normal” for them. Dean Andrew wasted no time sending taking advantage of this and wanted a preliminary report of how feasible some of the changes would be in the building itself. One of the proposals we all talked about was how to make the cathedral building and the worship more African Anglican because after all, “this isn’t Canterbury” as one priest put it.
Friday was my last visit to Brookshaw to do the communion visits with the elderly ladies. It was nice being able to say goodbye to some of them. Since I will be in the Contextual Theology Programme soon and Suzanne will be at Lambeth, the Mother Superior of the CR (Community of the Resurrection) Sisters will be making the visits along with Sr. Dorianne who goes with us. The rest of the day I took it easy since I am still a little bit sick with cold and everyone pitched in for last night’s dinner: taco night. We did our best to recreate Mexican food, no easy task in barely urban South Africa, but it was very delicious. With Suzanne’s prompting, we’ve started calling the subdeanery the “American ghetto” since there are now 5 Americans living here including her.
Today I’m still taking medicine and will be doing some light reading. Our plan is for the “American ghetto” who are all kind of winding down before we move to our next big thing, to go to the movies. None of us have been to the theatre yet, so that will be interesting in itself. It is a time of transition for us all. Suzanne departs for Lambeth this week, Steve and I are getting ready for our program at COTT, Therese is working on a new project with the street children at Amasango School, and Cortney is still adjusting to Grahamstown as she begins her year commitment here as part of the Young Adult Service Corps.
That evening, after a lazy afternoon of rest (and fighting a cold) we went to Evening Prayer. It was straightforward service out of the new Prayer Book, but the hymns were out of the English Hymnal (printed before WWI). It reminded me a lot of the way we do the Daily Office at Sewanee with sung canticles and Psalms, but spoken liturgy. The preacher was a guest from the College of the Transfiguration (the local Anglican seminary). He preached a lovely sermon on the psalm for the evening, but it was a very long sermon. I am not sure how long he spoke, but the total time for Evening Prayer was about 75 minutes.
Monday was a sort of day off. I went to a meeting that afternoon that the Vicar General, Andrew Hunter, convened of some area priests, Steve and I. They were very intrigued by what Steve and I said about the possibilities of using Non-Profit Organizations to do the work of the Church but being able to draw in gov’t funding. Of course, we do not know the South African system, but I think we were able to give them some good ideas which were pitched the next day at the diocesan executive council meeting. I believe we’ll be summoned back in the next week or so to talk about some more about it with the archdeacons (note: archdeaconries play a much bigger role in the governing of the church than in the US, for example, Grahamstown has some dozen archdeacons who meet regularly for regional ministry projects).
Tuesday morning was the traditional Morning Prayer & staff meeting. This meeting was very short though since the dean, director of music, and financial officer were all away leaving my supervisor (the sub dean), myself, and the interim secretary. The interim secretary, her name is Rudo, is a college student from Zimbabwe. Rudo is a law student in her 4th year (out of 5). Many of her siblings have immigrated to South Africa (Zimbabweans were one of the principle victims of xenophobic violence earlier this year), but her parents still live in Harare, Zimbabwe. When asked how her parents are doing with all that is going on there, she replied “they’re surviving.” She wasn’t exaggerating. When we asked if she plans on returning to Zimbabwe after school to practice law she replied, “how can I go back, what do I have to return to?”
That afternoon we went on a hospital visitation to a parishioner. It was my first chance to see the local hospital. It was eerily empty. It was full of patients, but I did not see a single doctor and only a few nurses. It was very cold and many rooms were 8 beds a room. After that visit we went to one of the orphanages in Joza, one of the townships, were the cathedral has an informal relationship. The orphanage is trying to get a puppy, but the SPCA person said they needed to fix the fence a little bit (we went to the hardware store right after that and the problem will be fixed shortly).
Wednesday we went to Assegaai where the Diocese of Lexington is having a reading camp for some of the township children. The cathedral staff went there over the course of the week mostly as observers, but also to see what kind of work was being done and how it could be aided in the future, etc. I had a nice chat with Bishop Stacy and his wife Ginger. I also met a lovely priest from Ohio who hopes to duplicate the reading camp somewhere in the Western Cape outside of Cape Town.
That night I took over for Suzanne as leader of her weekly Bible study. Suzanne had to pick up the new YASCer (Young Adult Service Corps) and the study I normally attend was still on holiday. So after all the prep I did for the readings and the tea and biscuit time afterward, no one came. Some people called ahead but with the festival having ended the weekend before and the weather being terrible people just stayed home. It worked out for me, I taught Steve to play cribbage instead. Cortney, the YASCer arrived safely from Bowling Green, Kentucky. She will be staying the subdeanery as well until sometime in August.
Thursday morning the cathedral staff went on a “visioning retreat” at the monastery (Holy Cross – Anglican). We went to Lauds which was followed by a Eucharist with the brothers. It was breathtaking. The service was beautiful, but the chapel itself is on the edge of the hill overlooking the valley and the windows are normal so you can look out. We then spent the next several hours talking about the cathedral’s place in Grahamstown and how to improve its ministry, etc. I made a lot of proposals which were aided by my being an outsider and having no sense of “how it has always been done” or “what is normal” for them. Dean Andrew wasted no time sending taking advantage of this and wanted a preliminary report of how feasible some of the changes would be in the building itself. One of the proposals we all talked about was how to make the cathedral building and the worship more African Anglican because after all, “this isn’t Canterbury” as one priest put it.
Friday was my last visit to Brookshaw to do the communion visits with the elderly ladies. It was nice being able to say goodbye to some of them. Since I will be in the Contextual Theology Programme soon and Suzanne will be at Lambeth, the Mother Superior of the CR (Community of the Resurrection) Sisters will be making the visits along with Sr. Dorianne who goes with us. The rest of the day I took it easy since I am still a little bit sick with cold and everyone pitched in for last night’s dinner: taco night. We did our best to recreate Mexican food, no easy task in barely urban South Africa, but it was very delicious. With Suzanne’s prompting, we’ve started calling the subdeanery the “American ghetto” since there are now 5 Americans living here including her.
Today I’m still taking medicine and will be doing some light reading. Our plan is for the “American ghetto” who are all kind of winding down before we move to our next big thing, to go to the movies. None of us have been to the theatre yet, so that will be interesting in itself. It is a time of transition for us all. Suzanne departs for Lambeth this week, Steve and I are getting ready for our program at COTT, Therese is working on a new project with the street children at Amasango School, and Cortney is still adjusting to Grahamstown as she begins her year commitment here as part of the Young Adult Service Corps.