With God’s help I was again able to travel to Tanzania for a few days to complete and place the icons in 4 Holy Temples. During my short stay there, many remarkable incidents occurred, two of which I think are worth describing. On the day of the Holy Cross, we planned a Divine Liturgy in the remote village of Magogati, where there is a temporary Church made with care from grass, dedicated to the Holy Cross. The old jeep failed to make it up the last big hill 500 meters before the village, and we continued downhill on foot to the Church. The welcome we received was touching.
Singing the karibu (welcome), young and old alike greeted us with smiles and chuckles that showed their love and gratitude.
Early Christian liturgy
During the Divine Liturgy, the devotion of the faithful and the solemn atmosphere were not missing from the grassy church. The adults seated on the makeshift benches under the thatched roof of the Church, holding pamphlets with the Mass of St. John Chrysostom written in Swahili, joined in the service with their clear voices, and the children seated down on the ground watched attentively. The humble grass dome with the shape of a cross on its top, had nothing to envy from the gold-studded domes of the Russian Holy Churches, and perhaps was more pleasing to our Lord, who gives His grace to the humble. The Divine Liturgy continued in exemplary order to the end, and Fr. Photios, in spite of his exhaustion from typhus, did not fail to preach the word of the Lord to our dark-skinned brethren. Almost everyone participated in the communion with great reverence. First the men, then the women, and finally the barefoot little black angels, who tried with their little hands to make the sign of the cross correctly before receiving the body and blood of the Lord. Watching those scenes, I mentally traveled back in time, thinking that this is how the early Christians, who had a fervent faith, and whose prayer was sincere to God, must have participated in the Mass.
It would be a blessing if we too could return to the climate of reverence and devotion that should exist in our churches. If only we would realize that the disorder of the faithful, and the decibels of chanters in need of earplugs, are not in keeping with the spirit of orthodox worship, and are abhorred by the Lord. This was followed by an open-air meal attended by all the villagers. Loaded with unprecedented experiences, we made our way back, praising the good God who had merited us to experience these thrilling moments. I hope, if the Lord permits, to be with them again for the installation of the icons in the new Church of the Holy Cross, which will be erected on the same site.
Anastasios Sekeroglou
Regular Member of the Adeptship
