Happy Easter!

As a Christian, Easter is pretty much the most important day of the year! If Jesus didn’t really get crucified, die and rise from the dead that kind of ruins our entire premise for salvation. Needless to say, as far-fetched as it sometimes seems, I believe it and appreciate commemorating the process! This year my Holy Week celebration was more diverse than most.

I attended Maundy Thursday Service with a friend from work at the Catholic Cathedral. This was very “high church” including many bowing rituals, spreading incense with a series of three shakes of a small cauldron in many directions, the bishop washing the feet (actually only the right foot…I feel this would lead to unbalanced cleanliness) of various congregants, singing without dancing (the first time I’d experienced this in Nigeria) and significant kneeling on a hard tile floor. The church was beautiful in its simplistic design with extremely high ceiling, long uniform screened openings as windows. I also really valued the meaningful liturgy. Certain phrases that everyone there had clearly recited hundreds of times were so beautiful, profound and powerful, I had to really consider whether I was willing to make the commitments that came along with them.

For Good Friday, I attended United Methodist Church at Mayo Gwoi in my neighborhood, which I consider my “home” church. Now, this service analyzed the seven words that Jesus said from the cross. I don’t remember being through a service like this before and I’m not sure I can say that I’ve been through it still because the entire service was conducted in the common language of Hausa. The appeal of this church is that I know many of its members because they all live in my neighborhood and conduct business there. Also, the order of service is comforting because a United Methodist Church in Nigeria has the same basic worship service as a United Methodist Church in Iowa (with longer prayers and more special music).

Finally, for Easter Sunday, I went to Life and Destiny Church, a Pentecostal church, with a friend. It resembles in the environment and worship style of the big non-denominational churches in the US. This church had hundreds of people in it, with lots of very enthusiastic singing and dancing and praising of the Lord for 3.5 hours. I really enjoyed the sermon and learned a lot from the scripture that was used as it was non-traditional references the resurrection. However, everyone felt very anonymous as there wasn’t a feeling of community because people were coming here from all over the city. Also, everything was so spontaneous and emotion driven that there was little time for quiet reflection.

These three experiences summarize my year of church service attendance thus far in Nigeria. I’ve been opportune to attend many different churches as guests of different friends and acquaintances and in the process experience the different modes of worship of the various Christian denominations (all with a Nigerian flair). I think my understanding of these experiences has been deepened through reading “A Generous Orthodoxy” by Brian Mc Laren, which examines the practices of the different denominations and shows that we can worship, commune with and understand Jesus Christ in a more complete way through the diverse methodologies.

There is a really unifying feeling in knowing that all over the city of Jalingo, country of Nigeria and all over the world people are rejoicing in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. While there may be many ways of expressing that joy, thanksgiving and adoration, the sentiment remains the same, Jesus died, but now He is risen! Praise God!