Sundays

We all come from churches, so we all have expectations and understandings of church from our own contexts. On our first Sunday, we head to Centenary Methodist Church. It is a large church and we are a bit early. This gives us a chance to settle and observe. 

TIMs are encouraged to become disciplined at ethnographic participant observations. This means, we always ask the questions afterwards:

- what did you see?

- what did you hear?

- how did you feel?

- what did you observe?

etc...

 

At Centenary, one of the key features is the choir, who blessed us with a rendition of Lift up ye heads from Handel's Messiah. We joined in the hymns and were welcomed. Amelia brought a greeting and Fijian blessing. Most of the beautiful singing was a capella (unaccompanied) but full of rich harmonies.

The preaching was by the Past-President, who very graciously gave us a summary of his sermon in English. He was reminding us that we are in the Pentecost season and encouraging us to live in the Holy Spirit.

On the second Sunday, we had a different, but also beautiful experience at the Sacred Heart Catholic Cathedral. Although steeped in the tradition of the Roman Catholic Church, it also has a sense of contemporary vibrancy. The songs were mostly accompanied by guitar.

The Sacred Heart Cathedral is an impressive building.

 

one of the sisters invited us to pose with Jesus in the Church hall

with Mary near the entrance