Sunday was a day of transitions. After church services and tea time, Steve and I very quickly went over our proposals for the cathedral with the dean, Andrew Hunter. He seemed to be agreeable to most of what we had to say, but also was quite clear we needed to do it or it may not get done. This may prove to be the problem since we are both engaged in the Contextual Theology Programee at the College of the Transfiguration. But, I'm getting ahead of myself.
That afternoon, Steve moved out of the "American Ghetto" and into his room at the College. While we were still there we got a quick tour of the school and got to meet some of the other Episcopalians in the programme.
That evening was the Student Service at the cathedral and I was the preacher. I was assigned the topic "how can I be sure of my faith?" from the Alpha course and changed the topic to "how can I be sure of God's faithfulness." I preached mostly from Habakkuk, but also threw in a sizeable amount of Romans and Exodus. Once again, and I hate to generalize, I got most of my compliments later at tea by the Xhosa and Zimbabweans. I also got good feedback from among the immigrant English. I got the lowest reviews (no one came out and said they hated it or anything) from the South African whites. It is interesting, but I am not sure what it means.
Monday was our first official day at COTT. The days at COTT are interesting since the school is still bearing the signs of being of a very Anglo-Catholic and monastic model. At 6:45 AM the doors of the chapel are closed (and you're expected to be in by then) for a half hour silent meditation. At 7:15 the doors are opened for latecomers who are now let in. On Monday, Wednesday, and Friday there is a Eucharist, on Tuesday and Thursday it is Morning Prayer and Eucharist is in the evenings. The services are in a wide variety of languages - the books used are An Anglican Prayer Book 1989 (in English, Afrikaans, or Xhosa, etc.), Hymns Ancient and Modern, Iculo Lase-Tshetshi Ne-Ngoma (a hymn book in Xhosa), another book with songs in 7 languages, and other locally made booklets and handouts. Essentially, every worship experience there is different.
Breakfast is at 8:00 and first class is at 8:30. Next class is at 9:30 and 10:30 is tea time. Then 11:00 is a third class period. At noon, the Angelus bell is rung and everyone stops what they're doing to pray. I don't know if everyone is actually praying the Angelus, but it seems many are except for those with low-church/evangelical leanings. Following is the final class period. Then lunch at 1:00. Afternoons are less scheduled. Some days there are reflection groups, others focus groups, and others the COTT students go out into the community. 5:15 on T and R is Eucharist.
Ok, so Monday we had an orientation of sorts for the Contextual Theoloy Programme. After that I sat in on a Feminist Theology class and then a Church Reform and Strategies class. After lunch I went home with a headache which turned into a 101 fever which got better and worse for the course of Monday evening and Tuesday. I am 90% sure that it was one of the suspicious snacks I ate Sunday evening after service at the tea and tasties hour.
The rest of the week we sat in on classes of our choosing. So far I've sat in on Feminist Theology, Global Ideologies, Church Reform and Strategies, Spirituality, and HIV/AIDS. So far, I'm finding HIV/AIDS to be the most interesting for the basic fact that it's people who are living with the epidemic in their own backyards and in their own families who are doing the talking. They are saying some interesting things. One thing that I didn't know that sticks out to me is that doing an AIDS seminar in English is much easier because we have the language to talk about sex. Evidently, in many of the African languages such as isiXhosa, sex can only be discussed indirectly because the language simply doesn't have all the necessary words or expressions. Making this worse is that if a clergy person were to ever actually talk about sex, his/her parishioners would probably walk out because of their violation of cultural taboos. Isaias, the lecturer, also talked at length about the problem of stigma. From what I can tell, it is like the stigma that surrounded HIV/AIDS in the US in the beginning of the epidemic, but is much worse and doesn't seem to be going anywhere. As Isaias put it, "[stigma] kills spiritually before the disease kills physically."
Today is our rest day and Therese and Steve and I are going to Kenton-On-Sea to see the ocean. Tonight, all the Americans both in the "Ghetto" and in the Programme are going to see the new Batman movie.
That afternoon, Steve moved out of the "American Ghetto" and into his room at the College. While we were still there we got a quick tour of the school and got to meet some of the other Episcopalians in the programme.
That evening was the Student Service at the cathedral and I was the preacher. I was assigned the topic "how can I be sure of my faith?" from the Alpha course and changed the topic to "how can I be sure of God's faithfulness." I preached mostly from Habakkuk, but also threw in a sizeable amount of Romans and Exodus. Once again, and I hate to generalize, I got most of my compliments later at tea by the Xhosa and Zimbabweans. I also got good feedback from among the immigrant English. I got the lowest reviews (no one came out and said they hated it or anything) from the South African whites. It is interesting, but I am not sure what it means.
Monday was our first official day at COTT. The days at COTT are interesting since the school is still bearing the signs of being of a very Anglo-Catholic and monastic model. At 6:45 AM the doors of the chapel are closed (and you're expected to be in by then) for a half hour silent meditation. At 7:15 the doors are opened for latecomers who are now let in. On Monday, Wednesday, and Friday there is a Eucharist, on Tuesday and Thursday it is Morning Prayer and Eucharist is in the evenings. The services are in a wide variety of languages - the books used are An Anglican Prayer Book 1989 (in English, Afrikaans, or Xhosa, etc.), Hymns Ancient and Modern, Iculo Lase-Tshetshi Ne-Ngoma (a hymn book in Xhosa), another book with songs in 7 languages, and other locally made booklets and handouts. Essentially, every worship experience there is different.
Breakfast is at 8:00 and first class is at 8:30. Next class is at 9:30 and 10:30 is tea time. Then 11:00 is a third class period. At noon, the Angelus bell is rung and everyone stops what they're doing to pray. I don't know if everyone is actually praying the Angelus, but it seems many are except for those with low-church/evangelical leanings. Following is the final class period. Then lunch at 1:00. Afternoons are less scheduled. Some days there are reflection groups, others focus groups, and others the COTT students go out into the community. 5:15 on T and R is Eucharist.
Ok, so Monday we had an orientation of sorts for the Contextual Theoloy Programme. After that I sat in on a Feminist Theology class and then a Church Reform and Strategies class. After lunch I went home with a headache which turned into a 101 fever which got better and worse for the course of Monday evening and Tuesday. I am 90% sure that it was one of the suspicious snacks I ate Sunday evening after service at the tea and tasties hour.
The rest of the week we sat in on classes of our choosing. So far I've sat in on Feminist Theology, Global Ideologies, Church Reform and Strategies, Spirituality, and HIV/AIDS. So far, I'm finding HIV/AIDS to be the most interesting for the basic fact that it's people who are living with the epidemic in their own backyards and in their own families who are doing the talking. They are saying some interesting things. One thing that I didn't know that sticks out to me is that doing an AIDS seminar in English is much easier because we have the language to talk about sex. Evidently, in many of the African languages such as isiXhosa, sex can only be discussed indirectly because the language simply doesn't have all the necessary words or expressions. Making this worse is that if a clergy person were to ever actually talk about sex, his/her parishioners would probably walk out because of their violation of cultural taboos. Isaias, the lecturer, also talked at length about the problem of stigma. From what I can tell, it is like the stigma that surrounded HIV/AIDS in the US in the beginning of the epidemic, but is much worse and doesn't seem to be going anywhere. As Isaias put it, "[stigma] kills spiritually before the disease kills physically."
Today is our rest day and Therese and Steve and I are going to Kenton-On-Sea to see the ocean. Tonight, all the Americans both in the "Ghetto" and in the Programme are going to see the new Batman movie.
