Day Eight - Sunday Service

DAY EIGHT – SUNDAY

Church starts at 10:45 at Governor’s Harbour. Fr. Eldon has three churches in St. Patrick’s parish – St. Patrick’s church (ADA 70), St. Margaret’s church (Savannah Sound; ADA 10) and St. Agnes church (Gregory Town; ADA 35). He preaches at all three churches each Sunday morning and had started this particular Sunday at the 8 am service at St. Margarets. On the fifth Sunday of the month there is a single service which alternates locations. The church bus is used to transport parishioners to church and between churches and to festivals and other services.

St. Patrick’s, built in 1893, is a beautiful large limestone church with walls over a foot thick and, like all the Anglican churches on the island, is located right on the harbor. The church has an organ and choir loft in the top back – about half way across, with a central altar flanked by two formal alcoves/seating areas – St. Patrick on the left and The Holy Mother and Child on the right. These areas serve the useful purpose of the robing room behind one and the altar guild materials behind the other. The service was a traditional Anglican service at which all of us felt right at home. We recognized the hymns, the liturgy and flow. There were a total of eight hymns including “Be Still and Know that I am God”, “I Am the Bread of Life” and “Marching to Zion”. All the singing is congregational and everyone sings out.

At Fr. Eldon’s invitation, Rachael read the first lesson, Claire read the second lesson, Janice read the psalm and Fr. Lance preached. The sermon was on mission – the job of the church being mission and ministry.

Between the ministry of the Word and the Eucharist, Fr. Eldon asked if anyone was celebrating an anniversary or birthday. It was Chris’ 17th wedding anniversary and Rachael’s 17th birthday. Fr. Eldon prayed for Chris and the whole congregation sang Happy Birthday! At the end of the service, the parish has all the children come forward for an individual blessing – from babes in arms all the way through high school. It was lovely and makes a statement about the importance of children in this culture.

Singing is a huge part of the service. They have music throughout the service, for the blessings and every week a group sings to the community – the women, the men, the children. And this week, our entire group, led by Sara, sang for the community “What Makes You Beautiful”. They loved it!! Then Fr. Lance invited the entire congregation to join the team in “Bind Us Together, Lord” – which is in their hymnal.

Like Anglicans everywhere, the community had seats where they always sit. Nancy noticed that the central portion of the right side was empty. And of course asked “why?” The church installed air conditioning last year. Prior to that the center right was where the sun beat in on Sunday morning making it very hot. The left side enjoyed the harbor breeze! There were fans along the right wall. But it was hot in the middle right so no one sat there. Al and Janice said that they had tried to sit there and it was too hot. And, no one sits there even now. On the wall were many banners – the parish banner, the Anglican Church Women and Church Men banners and a Cursillo banner.

Nancy lit up when she saw the Cursillo banner and had a chance to ask Fr. Eldon about it. Cursillo started in Nassau in the 1980s and is an important ministry in the diocese of the Bahamas today. Ther are two to three weekends put on each year – generally two for men and one for women. Cursillos are generally held in Nassau at a youth camp. It is very expensive to hold them on Eleuthera and other out islands. Six parishioners have been to Cursillo and there are some small prayer groups. Fr. Eldon is an active Cursillista and has been for many years. He is hoping to encourage more members of his parish to attend as a springboard to ministry. Two men including Sean were supposed to go to the last men’s weekend but had to cancel two days before due to logistics!

After the service, Sandra, Stephanie, Melinda, and Gail with whom we had gotten to know the past week through the food distribution and preparation, graciously prepared and served us a traditional Bahamian meal.

Our team was joined by Al, Janice, Mandolin, Cameron, Fr. And Mrs. Eldon, and Shannon. We served the traditional foods of the islands including barbequed chicken, peas and rice, baked macaroni and cheese, and potato salad; it was simply delicious. For desert we were served coconut cream pies (individual tarts) and guava duff – a magnificent Bahamian delicacy made from kneaded dough that is rolled out like a bread roll, with a guava paste spread across the dough and then rolled up like a jelly roll and then boiled in a turkey bag. A wonderful custard sauce is poured over the top. The women told us that their mothers used to boil the guava dove in pillow cases or in sacks that were placed on top of pots placed inside a pot of boiling water. Guava duff must be tried to be believed.

After lunch we went back to the Laughing Bird for a rest and then a lesson in hand washing clothes. We are working hard, sweating a lot and our clothes had started to smell. Bailey gave the girls a lesson is how to hand wash clothes in little trash cans, rinse them well and lay them out to dry.

This is one of the more useful skills for the future. We ate a very quick dinner of sandwich wraps and cold hot dogs. No one was particularly hungry after our Bahamian feast.

With the clothes hanging on chairs, we all piled into our truck for a trip back to Pascal’s and the infinity pool. We arrived in the middle of a thunder and lightening storm. The woman who runs the resort at Sky Beach is Cece – she had been supplying us via Shannon with the large coolers of ice. Cece is a talented jewelry maker. While we waited for the storm to clear Cece invited us into her bungalow to show us her jewelry studio.

Every one of us purchased something!! – bracelets, earrings, pendants. We swam in the pool, had fruit smoothies and cooled off. This was the first time that Nancy had felt reasonably cool in eight days!!

On Sunday night we held a team meeting for the first time since Thursday. We all processed how we had felt at the time of Claire’s accident and how we felt now. We have a strong team of amazing young women, a very talented Director of Youth Ministry, Fr. Lance and two chaperones to assist. Each of us was scared but we all came together to support Claire. Claire for her part bounced back by mid-day Saturday and was determined to participate in the rest of the trip. We laughed and sang and shared. This team has weathered changes in flights, changes in plans, heat, bugs and then Claire’s accident. Through all of this we have shown resilience, teamwork and a spirit of unity. This team was truly called.