A Visit to Church

I visited the Christ Church of Rwanda with my friend Laurie this past Sunday. She attends regularly and plays the piano with the choir /band. I was immediately impressed by this large pretty church in the middle of a fairly upper class neighborhood (Gaculiro) in Kigali.

They were celebrating their 2-year anniversary, complete with a larger than usual crowd, cake and refreshments. Lucky me!

As others began to arrive I ran into a handful of people who I have met before. A few families from the US Embassy were there, and a number of people I knew very well when I was last in Rwanda. It was a nice feeling to know so many others in the congregation, and immediately made me feel welcome.


I skimmed the visitor materials and learned the church was started by a couple from Uganda in 2005 and was primarily financed by a Church of Christ in Oaklahoma City. They describe this as a nondemominational comunity seeking to discover the call of the Bible in unity and community revival. As I listened to the proceedings (prayers, scripture, and the usual)...I learned they take a fairly conservative approach to scripture, which is not typically what speaks to me the most. However, the Minister gave an interesting sermon and explained that he strives to provide an academic and historical approach to faith when considering modern issues relevant to Rwanda. This is something that often does speak to me. Religion and faith have had both detrimental and helpful impact on Rwanda's healing and rebuilding after the horrific genodice in 1994. I want to explore this angle in my time here in an effort to more fully experience the culture and community. I liked that songs were sung in Kinyarwanda while the sermon was given in English. The congregation appeared to be about 70% Rwandese and 30% International.


The sermon included mention of the following quote: "Confront the brutal facts, yet never give up faith."...which is from the book "Good to Great" by Jim Collins. It was framed in a lesson about the "intention for gathered people and call to action". The Minister presented a challenge to consider the context of life in Rwanda, accept responsibility and understand impact of historty; while gathering with a purpose of finding solutions forward, providing thoughtful debate, and valuing security and empowerment. I liked these messages and appreciated the overall positive emphasis in the lecture. It was good food for thought.


Because it was the Anniversary celebration for this church, they invited traditional Rwandese Intore (een-or-ay) dancers to perform after the service ended. This form of traditional Rwanda "ballet" (centuries old) is one of the ancient forms of dancing in Africa. The Intore dancing is also known as “warrior dancing". They wear little bells on each foot which gives a rhythm to the entire background music. I loved how everyone smiled so widely throughout the dancing, the men jumped especially high into the air, and thanks to a friend translating next to me I learned the women were imitating cattle with arms extended as horns and the men acted as warriors and cattle keepers.