Church

Both Sundays we were here we went to church with Lucille.  She goes to the Catholic Church Santa Cruz, with the clock tower.  It’s not too far to walk.  But we took a taxi to make life easier for my mom.  Both Sundays the church was packed, standing room only.  Mexicans and white ex-pats are part of the congregation.  The musicians are a group of guitar players and percussionists.  They sing very lustily with a rough, kind of guttural, pushed out sound.  The service is all in Spanish.  They had the service written out in the bulletin so it was kind of easy for me to follow.  Unfortunately they don’t have the songs written out or printed anywhere: not in the bulletin, not in a hymnbook, not on a screen.  Many of the Mexicans were singing along to the songs of the liturgy.  I wished I could have too.  It was cool though that this Sunday, during communion, the musicians sang “Santo, santo, santo, santo, santo santo es nuestro Dios. Señor de toda la tierra, santo santo es nuestro Dios….”  This is a song we also sing with Hilariter.  It was very cool to recognize it, even though they sang it at triple speed!  I was the only one singing along with that song!

They also did a Spanish version of O Waly Waly.  This is an old tune from Scotland/England.  Often sung to the words “The Water is wide, I cannot cross ‘oer”.  The tune also comes up in our Presbyterian Hymn Book a few times.  Andrew Donaldson wrote the hymn lyrics "Although I speak"  based on 1. Corinthians 13 to that tune.  It seemed like the congregation was doing “global music” in the opposite direction.  This past Sunday they also read the scripture readings in English as well as Spanish. 

Both Sundays they had baptisms after the service.  And this past Sunday there was also a little girl receiving her first communion.  She looked like a little bride.  And the children being baptized were also very fancifully dressed.  Their families were all excited and a buzz.  For me it was disappointing that there didn’t seem to be any liturgy or presentation of these sacraments within the service that helped to make it special for the community.  The girl receiving 1^st communion sat in the front row with her mother, who got up at some point during the communion liturgy and lit the girl’s candle from the Christ candle and the priest served the girl communion first.  Lucille pointed out that that was likely very special for the girl, even if it wasn’t what we are used to.  I could see that that was true.  It was definitely nice to be there.