Monday, September 22, 2014

Confirmation

Hello my friends - hope you are well.
In my last post I wrote about our summer vacation - well we are back at it.
Summer is winding down, school has started, and we are cranking up for CCD to begin once again.

I mentioned before that the Bahamas is a Christian nation.  Not like the US, here they put it into the Constitution that this is a Christian nation.  This makes a difference in how things are done, for example, at a town meeting the local Administrator will start the meeting with a prayer - or invite clergy to do so.  This is NOT something you'd ever see in the US anymore (although the founding fathers certainly did).

Anyway - we had a visitor to the church who asked if I would come to school to lead the opening.  It seems that the 1st week of school, each day is started with an assembly.  After the Pledge Allegiance and singing of the National Anthem, a member of the clergy is invited to do a 15-20 minute inspirational talk to start the day.  My day was Tuesday.  You can't imagine what its like to stand up before 200 kids, all in line by class, standing at attention, and preach.  It went over well and it really was an honor - but such a hoot compared to the US culture that I've come from.

When the school year ended last fall we were waiting for the Archbishop to visit us for Confirmation but his schedule got in the way.  As a solution we decided to defer his coming until the fall when school resumes since most of our kids leave Andros for the summer (it really is unbearably hot and there is nothing here for the kids to do over the summer so they go to the US or other islands to visit family.)

September 13 was the feast of St. John Chrysostom, our patron saint, so we made a plan for him to come that weekend - and he did.  He flew in Saturday night and we went out for a nice meal.  Then, after dinner we had our annual review - which was good.  We talked about our accomplishments and the challenges still ahead, the finances of the parishes and a wide range of issues impacting ministry here.  What we thought would be an hour was over two by the time we were done.

Sunday started with a trip to AUTEC for the 8:30 service.  AUTEC personnel have a difficult time getting off the NAVY Base due to work schedules and military life in general so keeping our regular Sunday schedule was good for them.  Then it was back to St. John Chrysostom for the 10AM Confirmation.  Since we had kids from all the parishes we decided to have a combined service of all the Bahamian parishes.

Parishioners drove up from Behring Point, Cargill Creek and Mastic Point to join us in Fresh Creek for Confirmation, and it was fantastic.  The church was filled to the brim and the song and prayers filled the rafters.  My biggest fear is that here we have "Bahamian Time".  A 10AM start time could mean people arrive at !0:30 - but they were on time so we began without a hitch

The service included our Confirmadi as lectors and they brought up the gifts for the Archbishop.  Here Jared reads the first reading.



and here I am proclaiming the gospel


followed by the Archbishop Preaching - another stressful point for me because he always asks the students a few questions to test them - they did fine and I could breath a sigh of relief.  I really was pleased at how well they did.


Next came the Renewal of Baptismal Promises.  Cameo did a great job holding the Archbishop's book perfectly still - not something that is that easy


After the renewal of Baptismal Promises the Archbishop lays hands on each and prays for the descent of the Holy Spirit


Finally came the anointing with Chrism, where each declares their patron saint.  This year it ranged from traditional like LUKE to those you don't usually hear, like VALENTINE.  What surprised me was how many girls picked PETER!


Having received the Sacrament it was time to continue with Mass.  Here I am after the gifts were brought up, setting the table.

One finished we did the mandatory 'posed pic' with the Archbishop.  We have a teenager from AUTEC who has become a rather good photographer who took all these pics.  She will get a kick out of seeing her name in Bahama Catholic (our Archdiocesan newspaper) getting credit for the pictures.


And FINALLY it was time to eat.  With a celebration like this you need a plate of chicken and rice and some cold water melon.  Here everyone is getting in line to fill their plates - it was quite the spread!

Well, enough for now
Till next time