Talk of a prodigal son. I
recently went to two churches twice in two days after what I imagine is a
......long, long hiatus. After spending my early and formative years in the church’s bosom,
classes 1 to 6 - C.B.C Musang - and Forms 3 to 5 -Baptist High School, Mankon -
you and I would expect more of me but then what can I say?
So on Friday the 22nd of
June 2013 I was in the Catholic Church just behind the U.B. Faculty of Science and
on Saturday the 23rd of June 2013, I was in St Anthony’s Catholic
Church, Njinikom. O’boy was I lost for words, reflexes, reactions and you name
it. I didn’t know when to stand up and when not to. I didn’t know when they
were praying and I didn’t know the responses to entreaties from the pulpit. I
was completely out of sync. Sure part of
my helplessness was due to the newness of the church, it is Catholic and I am
Baptist by default and passion, but part of it was also due to the long
absence. Whatever the case, I survived this new meeting with this old
acquaintance and walked away with a few observations I find worthy of note.
(1) The church has CHAnged, if the Catholic Church is
considered as representative of all churches. My childhood memories of the
church at Musang Baptist Church are filled with church attendees tiptoeing into
church upon arriving late, afraid of striding into church with their iron-clad heels
clanging on the floor and distracting the church. Some persons even elders
caught dozing was asked to move to the back of the church and stand still the
sleep died away. Church attendees now walk in and out of church more freely,
people stand, stroll in church recording the service with their Ipads, Iphones
and camera without fear of reproach. Simply put, the church as I saw it recently
has shed its conservative ways and has assumed a more liberal and flexible
posture. It has changed even if just superficially to accommodate the new breed
of educated Bible and gadget carrying attendees strolling and riding into its premises.
(2)The wind of Pentecostalism is
blowing even in mainstream churches.
Maybe it has been caused by the constant losses to Pentecostal churches, it’s
hard to tell but mainstream multinational churches like the Catholic Church
have been forced to rediscover the Pentecostal customs of their former years.
Ever heard of Christian charismatic movement? All I knew about this movement
until recently was that it is Catholic and mostly attended by women. But during
the Saturday mass I attended, I think I saw its manifestation. While the mass
was being celebrated, I noticed one woman who walked through the church at
irregular intervals muttering the name of Christ, rubbing the rosary she held
under her Bible. I felt like thinking she was mentally challenged but she didn’t
look so and I had noticed her conversing sanely with people. Since her actions
didn’t seem to attract any strange looks, I concluded she is a church regular
and her actions were sanctioned by church officials.
(3) The smell of the traditional
doctor’s incense in church.
Was it me or was the odour I picked up not the same one that always filled the
room of the traditional doctor I was taken? At the start of the
service, I was hit by a certain smell from the smoke oozing from the thurible. I am
not saying anything I am not saying. I am just saying that it seems strange
that two ideological enemies could be resorting to the same fireworks to liven
their respective games. Just saying.
(4) CATHOLICS are still so CATHOLIC. Thousands of years after Christ
came with the New Testament and said what he said about salvation, Catholics
still believe sins can be forgiven post-mortem. How Catholic of them Catholics.
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