Easter Musics 1

My Easter Musics started on what I like to call Donkey Sunday (aka Palm Sunday). Lesley reckons it should be the one day in the year that everybody is allowed to bring their pets to church!

I preached at a church in Wynberg in the morning, and one of the songs we sang was the haunting "ride on, ride on in majesty". I then took an elderly friend, Jakes, on an adventure. He wanted to join in the Palm Sunday procession and worship of his Xhosa speaking congregation, who were meeting with other congregations in Hout Bay. Well, we drove around a lot tryinng to hook up with this lot, and eventually wound up at the community hall in Imizamo Yethu (a township built on the steep valley slopes).

The community hall there is constructed of dismantled and re-welded shipping containers, and seats 200. It was packed with 200+ Methodists in their black, red and white regalia. A different crowd to the one we were looking for, but never mind! And the singing was awesome, intense and melodic and much more like the original Palm Sunday. People danced in the communal dance of the amaXhosa, uninhibited but strangely coordinated. We had communion together and sang and I discovered a new-to-me instrument - a short 10cm steel tube welded to a handle and played with a thin steel rod. Its acid clanks melded in perfect rythm with the drums and songs, the sort of atmosphere where one can sing with total lack of inhibition because nobody cares if you hit a wrong note...frankly, it won't be noticed! And there were passionate impromptu prayers, and seven preachers each preaching intensely on different verses from the reading. WHooeee! You have got to experience this!