Holy Week in a mix of styles

By Katie

I already mentioned in the last blog that we got to do some traveling during Holy Week. It was quite a week of mixed styles of worship for us. We started the week with Palm Sunday in Nicaragua with the other folks living in Central America and working for CRC ministries. So our Palm Sunday service was probably a lot like whatever yours was in North America... and in English :)

Skip ahead to Good Friday where we spent the day in Copán and got to see some of the Catholic traditions that give honor to this important day in the Christian calandar. All through the night on Thursday teams of people were hard at work creating this carpet of colored sawdust near the Catholic church and central park. Each square had a picture of something Christian made by patting the colored sawdust over stencils. On Friday night a parade passed over the carpet, ruining it.



Also on Good Friday in Copán we saw a live reenactment of the Stations of the Cross. It was really fun to have Tanya along with us during the stations since she is Catholic and we could together decipher what was universally Christian, what was specifically Catholic, and where Central American culture had influenced the event. In the first picture, you can see some people doing a reading with a very social justice theme at one station.



This video was taken at the next station after the reading and as the actors were playing the part of giving Jesus the cross to carry to the next station. It was a very touching scene that left many dumbfounded at what happened to Jesus.

By Sunday we had picked up another friend of ours, Jenny, and were at the Resurrection Day (Easter) service at the river. It was the annual joint service of the Christian Reformed Churches in Olancho.

The Catholic/Protestant mix of my week continued strongly into this day. Both Jenny and Tanya are Catholic. Unfortunately many "Evangelicals" (as Protestants call themselves here) are very openly opposed to Catholics. We heard a mention in the sermon scoffing at the way Catholics do things. Another person came up to ask me if my friends were Evangelicals. I said they were Christians who are Catholics, to which the response was "Oh, but how are their hearts?". I am continually disgusted at the Evangelicals for thinking they are so justified in openly belittling the Catholics. While I don't know the history that brought these feelings about, I can't help but think that if we continue into the future with such an us-vs-them attitude that we will never bring about healing.

On the other hand, there was some really exciting things about the service. Every year this is one opportunity that new Christians can be baptized in a truly beautiful setting.


Two of the youth in the Sunday school class that we teach were baptized. Here is Lucía being baptized by our pastor Isidro.



In the end, no matter how you celebrate, it´s a beautiful thing to know that Jesus Christ paid the price for our sins on the cross and has risen from the dead. Happy Easter, everyone.