Worship at Tumutumu

Christina and I have had the opportunity to worship with the people of Tumutumu Presbyterian Church. This has definitely been a cultural experience for both of us and departs from our traditional Presbyterian services back home. Both of us have worshipped outside the US before, but it is always a blessing to share the intimate act of worship with new community.

Tumutumu Presbyterian Church

Africa has always been a place of music, rhythm, and dance, and the church service was no different. Most of the service consists of clapping, singing, and even dancing in the pews. The service starts with serveral songs before the leadership arrive in the church. After their arrival, general announcements are performed and visitors (like us) are introduced. A time is given for testimonials, which are generally given in a song representing their dedication to Christ. A time of prayer follows and then the reading of the scripture. A leader then gives a brief sermon (usually preceeded and followed by more singing.) and then performs the benediction.

On Sundays, the Tumutumu church has two services- a 9AM English service and an 11AM Kukuyu service. Often the music flows from the end of one service to the begining of the next. (This sometimes made it difficult for Christina and I to know when to leave.) Most of the music was in swahilli although a few English hymns were attempted. The Africans had some difficulty with the rhythms and pitch of the hymns, but what they lacked in talent was more than made up for in passion and volume.

We were able to attend the Good Friday service at Tumutumu and it was quite a departure from our traditional somber service. There was only one service that day and it was in Kukuyu. It was a joyous noise that arose from the little church and it was well attended. It was somewhat difficult for us to follow the sermon, but a few of the lines were punctuated in English- "there is no life without Christ," and "The American's are used to 1 hour of worship. Today will be 3 hours!" Many of the people around us helped us through the motions to the songs and although we did not understand the language, we easily felt The Spirit.

We also attended the Easter Sunday service and although many hymns were sung, Christina was upset that we didn't sing "Jesus Christ is risen today." The sermon was surprisingly taken from the Old Testiment and we are pretty sure that the word "Easter" was not actually uttered through the whole service. Perhaps as lively as the services are, every Sunday is considered Easter. Or at least celebrated as exuberantly.