First sermon in the Cathedral

It started like this. A colleague at the University had promised to preach in the Anglican Cathedral today. Unfortunately his plans had to change so he asked me if I could stand in for him, which I accepted, after having asked the Dean at the Cathedral. Dean Sibisi was happy that I could stand in.

This morning, at 8 am, we arrived at the Cathedral. The first Eucharist, which started at 7 am, was still on. I chatted with some of the servers and lay ministers before we all joined the Dean for the procession.

One server and two lay-minister are getting ready for duty.

To prepair the incense takes some time.

I am not going to publish my sermon. It was a bit longer than usual. My wife said I preached 25 minutes. No problem in Pietermaritzburg. In Church of Sweden it is rather unusual. One part of my sermon I was asked by my mother-in-law to do. I did it some years ago in our church in Sweden, Birgittakyrkan. That time I gathered different nationalities in front of the altar and they all said something in their own language. (If I remember correctly they said: I believe in God!) This time I asked people to come forward and do the same thing, but this time they said:

I believe in the Spirit of life.

This time we had languages like: isiZulu, isiXhosa, sePedi, seSotho, English, Afrikaans, Swedish, Shona, German, and one language from Malawi. (I didn’t get the name). So, in my understanding people could say, as the people did on the first Pentecost:

All of us hear them speaking in our own language …

When I turned 50 I had to buy reading glasses. Without them I am lost!

It was a nice experience to be part of the fellowship. When I preside on Thursday mornings, at 6.45, we are usually 5-10 persons. That is also very special.

I like the incense team. There is always an older server taking care of a younger shild, 

who carries the so called boat.