Young_Leader: Sean Doherty
Date: Friday, July 07, 2000
Time: 02:38 PM
Journal_Entry
There is certainly a great deal to see in this capital city, a capital city which is actually
surprisingly green with as many trees as a small Brazilian rain forest. Its also a very clean city which I incidentally seem to notice about every city I visit outside of Britain and Ireland. However every story has two sides and the obvious affluence that first strikes you on the plane into the city masks an uglier side where poverty and crime are all too
apparent. We encountered this other side of the city on our day to Mount
Lebanon Baptist Church. However among the deprivation and social neglect I discovered another world where people refused to accept the destiny that there circumstances seemed to present them. Here in this Church not only was there a religious service in which everyone wanted to be there, was happy to be there and wasn’t afraid to shout it from the roofs that they were glad to be there, but the church was playing an active role in the community providing jobs and training for the unemployed, encouraging their children to doing well at school by publicly praising those who improved. This Church to me was and is playing the role that Jesus expected his disciples to play and I respect them for that.
Young_Leader: Claire Savage
Date: Thursday, July 06, 2000
Time: 10:02 AM
Journal_Entry
Day 7 in DC – 25th June 2000 “Amazing Grace”
They call it the most segregated hour in America. Every Sunday between eleven and twelve in the morning. To be honest I did not understand what that meant. I thought it might just mean the split between people who go to church and those that do not. It was not until all the young leaders attended a service in a black gospel church, did I appreciate exactly what they meant by a segregated hour.
There we were, all the young, white, youth leaders clustered together in the pews, not really knowing what to expect. As soon as we sat down, we were surrounded by gospel singing and clapping. A few of us looked at each other, wondering how to react. I come from a church background, where the nearest we get to slipping out of informality is during the
children’s sermon. I guess certain religions just have a certain way of worshiping. It was really interesting to see all of us enjoying this new form of worship. Why not enjoy this new experience? All because we took pleasure in the experience, it did not mean we would have to convert. I think as a group we are all fairly open minded individuals. However, would we all have been as understanding had we been asked to attend, a service back in Northern Ireland, which meant we had to cross the religious divide? It annoys me that we have all had to come to a different country, in order to RESPECT a different religious practice, comfortably.
Even though we were all getting into swing of things, literally, the church felt divided. The whites seemed split from the blacks. It felt a little uncomfortable. The pastor then said, “They call it the segregated hour, but here in this church today we’re going to change that.” He then instructed us to get up and mix with the
predominately black congregation. It suddenly felt a lot more relaxed and a tension drifted out of the air. Now I can appreciate the term segregated hour. At home the split may not be as physically obvious in terms of the color of our skin. Even though the times we attend church and mass maybe slightly different, in some cases the segregated hour term can just be as easily applied in Northern Ireland.
They seemed to reward people, and acknowledge them with their academic achievements. It was great to see their community sense of pride. I liked the way the whole ceremony did not stick rigidly to the agenda, if people were enjoying themselves, why stop a good thing. The whole church service lasted almost two hours, but it felt much quicker. Maybe when you are experiencing something for the first time that’s the case, but
definitely I would recommend this experience to everyone.
After the sermon the whole clan could not have been made to feel more welcome.
We were fed and watered. It was so nice that these people had so easily welcomed us into their community. To thank them for letting us experience their culture, we sang them a few traditional songs. It was all gracefully amazing.