Worship at Esikhawini
(Sunday, 1st July 2007)
Text of report letter to Hadwen Park church:
Sanibona, Hadwen Park! ...
Sunday morning was a reminder of winter as it tends to come here in KwaZulu-Natal, not the surprising snowstorms in the mountains, but the chill from the lower temperatures, with no central heating and the windows really not made to hold out the cold. But the day also had an unexpected bluster of high winds, cross winds shaking the car as we drove the hour and a half up and back towards Richards Bay, here and there a glimpse out over the Indian Ocean looking, this day, more like the north Atlantic with whitecaps as far out as one could see. The winds this day were really more like what we’d expect in August as the harbinger of the change of seasons.
We were on the road because this was our Sunday to visit Esikhawini. As the Zulu churches of the UCCSA in KwaZulu-Natal go, Esikhawini is easy to find, and the route there is well remembered. We first visited there in 2001, as part of the preparations for, and then for the holding of, one of the local community outreach workshops on which we worked with the regional church’s Mission Council; and of course we’ve been back there over the past couple of years in connection with the ‘i3L’ effort. But besides, the township of eSikhawini, as it properly would be, is right off the N3 ‘national road’ interstate-like limited access highway, a toll portion of this major north-south route that mainly parallels the coast between Richards Bay in the north and Port Shepstone in the south of the province. The township came to be as a housing area for workers engaged at the industries in and around the major raw materials port of Richards Bay, with some connection also to those affiliated with the University of Zululand, off the same exit but inland a bit at Empangeni.
The service was scheduled for 9 a.m., and it was our experience that at this church, they started on time (not always anticipated in the Zulu churches). So, we set our drive to get us there about quarter to the hour. When we arrived, there were no cars in the parking area, as yet, but the lights were on in the church so we went in to be greeted by a very few members, some youngsters and a couple of older women, who were there for Thulani Hlengwa’s Bible study group. We’d heard about this activity. Rev. Hlengwa is an ‘out-of-charge’ (that is, he has not been called to a church) minister, serving as the (non-resident) acting minister of the small rural congregation at Mfanefile, which he would therefore visit once a month or quarter, but who with his wife Snowy (a big wig in the regional and national leadership of the UCCSA’s women’s organization Isililo) and their family are members at Esikhawini. This morning, the study was on the Beatitudes.
Thulani was kindly dropping a smattering of English into his discussion from time to time, enough for us to follow generally what was going on. Towards the end, he spoke on the ‘constancy of prayer,’ the idea that prayer was the condition of being in relationship with God, so that the living of one’s life, rather than just the use of words to try to express one’s thoughts and feelings, should be one’s prayer. It brought to mind the quote from St. Francis about preaching the Gospel every day, only if necessary using words, but also the hope for the establishment of prayer connections as an element of the relationships between the ‘i3L’ churches.
The Bible study group wrapped up promptly at 9, as more people had gathered in the sanctuary, and three Iziphika members trooped to the front table with their Bibles and notebooks, and everyone started to sing an invocation.
This was obviously going to be a youth-led service, in particular by Iziphika. In the Zulu churches of the UCCSA, which are most often circuits of several churches, and often enough – as for the present with the Esikhawini churches – don’t have a resident minister, it is usual for several of the Sunday services at any particular worship point – branch church – to be led by the deacons of that branch, and often the responsibility for leading the service would be rotated amongst organizations in the church. We’ve encountered many congregations where Amabutho (the Soldiers of Christ, the ‘men’s’ evangelistic group, which has many women members in most of the churches; they’re the folks in the khaki uniforms), Isililo (the women’s organization, in the white uniforms), and the youth will each take a Sunday per month, with the minister having leadership on the remaining Sunday, and with the Sunday school, for instance, having charge of one service a quarter, or so. This day at Esikhawini seemed to be a youth Sunday, as mentioned, and this was borne out by the way the service was conducted, but it was led specifically by these three young ladies of Iziphika.
Iziphika can be described as a youth auxiliary, a sort of training ground, for Isililo. Most of the members are young women, though as moving up to Isililo is required only if they get married, there are older women in some of the churches who retain their Iziphika membership (we encountered an 89 year old Iziphika member in one of the churches). But in the usual situation, unmarried younger women are members of Iziphika, with Isililo members serving as advisers and mentors for the group. The annual meeting of Iziphika for the KZN Region was, we knew, scheduled to be held next Sunday at the Emphusheni church, just south of Durban and beginning a relationship with the Rockport church, and it seemed likely enough, as they confirmed when we asked them about this after the service, that the delegates from Esikhawini were, in a sense, practicing for their attendance at the annual meeting, through their leadership role in this morning’s service.
We begin with the leader’s announcing a couple of hymns from Amagama Okuhlabelela, the Zulu Congregational hymnal, which are sung with gusto. Esikhawini, even though it’s a bit more urbanized than many of the churches, is yet one of the better singing churches, as we’ve complimented them before. This morning, one of the hymns was a translation of ‘I want to be like Jesus,’ attributed to Charlotte Grout, who we know was the wife of Aldin Grout, one of the first group of American Board missionaries. His main church, at the place named for him as Groutville, is beginning a relationship with the Belchertown church.
We have common prayer – a brief chorus signals the moment, and all pray aloud, separately but together. When we first encountered this, we’d wondered a bit as to what might be going on, but it now strikes us most powerfully as a special moment in these services, the voices in prayer beginning quietly, usually building to a sort of crescendo, then quietening down as various persons finish their own prayers and wait for the others, and when all are done, then with the end usually marked by an iteration of the chorus.
The service continues with a responsive reading (in Zulu), conducted not with a leader and congregational response, but with one side of the congregation reading the first part, and the other side reading the second.
As a transition to the next part of the service, we’re treated to a lively chorus, a reminder that the Esikhawini congregation (and especially some of their younger women) have a particular fondness, it seems, for some of the more rhythmically complicated choruses. Not that they don’t do the old standards, but they experiment a great deal, it seems to us; they’re good at it, too, so it’s always fun to hear what they’ll use. This day, the choruses were confidently led by the young Iziphika members.
The choruses transitioned into, and were interspersed with, short testimonies by each of the Iziphika leaders, and additionally by Lulu Myeza (who was not dressed as an Iziphika member; she is serving as a youth leader and with whom we’d been in contact about the Hadwen Park relationship) and a young male youth member as well. The testimonies were impressive statements by each of the youngsters, as we could follow them through their interspersing their general Zulu presentation with quite a bit of English restatement. There was a general theme of resisting inappropriate peer pressure, from not engaging in harsh joking about other people, to resisting negative life choices. The core scripture reading framing their reflections was 2 Timothy 3: 10-17, regarding holding to the things one had been taught, and trusting in those who had taught you. One of the speakers dwelt on the nature of the learning process, both academic and about life, that she was engaged in, the lessons of common ground and purpose gained from the family and community, in particular from the church community, and specifically from lessons about and from the Bible. Lulu spoke on the question of believing in one’s self and one’s own worth, but in the context of putting God, not oneself as seen by others, first, and accepting the mission that God put before us. The teachings of the family, the community of the church, and the Bible, would arm us for that mission. And the young man wrapped up with an exhortation to hew to the course outlined in scripture, and to be guided in the choice of one’s teachers and sources of influence. It was all quite well done, and an impressive indication of the strength and vibrancy of the youth at this church.
A couple of more hymns, including one to a setting of the familiar (well, the tune) Sicilian Mariners’ Hymn, and it was time for the announcements and, somewhat to our relief, the specific indication that yes, we’d be provided time to address the congregation. Our plans for the day had been a bit uncertain when it had become clear that Nontando Dludla wasn’t in attendance, having been unexpectedly drawn away by a friend's funeral, but in due course we were ‘on.’
Jan began with the ‘i3L’ chorus, always fun with the congregation remembering it in a few instances, and being quite willing and capable of joining in anyway, in most cases. He read a few words of greetings in Zulu from the Massachusetts churches generally, and then gave specific greetings from Pastor Hanlon and the people of the Hadwen Park church, reminding of the course of the establishment of the relationship. He urged the broadening of the participation by members in each church, beyond the specific ‘contact persons’ to date, with particular attention to the possibilities of pen pal relationships between children of the Sunday schools, as well as youth and adults and perhaps even families; the hope for the engagement with a youth to youth connection; and, most especially, the idea of an ongoing prayer connection between the churches. All of which was noted to be of significance in keeping to the instructions and expectations of scripture as concerns our mutuality in and of the one church, and the special historical connection between the KZN and Massachusetts Congregational churches in particular. A reprise of the chorus, and we’re done.
The Iziphika leaders seamlessly move us into the general offering, during which we sang another chorus, and after one of the advisers’ explanation about travel expenses to the annual meeting at Emphusheni, a separate (chorus-accompanied) offering for that purpose. Another hymn, almost traditional it seems for a service we’re attending as it’s to the tune identified with ‘My country ‘tis of thee,’ leads into Thulani Hlengwa’s offering the benediction by reading one of Paul’s closings from the Letters, and a sung Amen as the congregational response. It all takes not quite two hours, having moved quite briskly through that time.
After the service, we’re approached by Lulu and by Mpume Shezi (identifying herself also as a youth group leader, in her case concerned with those like herself working or studying in Durban), as well as by one or two others from the youth asking about how to go about initiating pen pal communications? We point the latter towards Nontando in the first instance, but are hopeful that as direct lines of communication on the youth front between Esikhawini and Hadwen Park can be established, this is something that can be explored between and amongst the young people themselves. To that purpose, we’ll be passing these ladies’ contact information [e-mail!!!] along to Hadwen Park ASAP.
Various thanks, handshakes, and hugs, and we’re off back along the highway to Durban.