Palm Sunday

Sunday saw me leave the compound at 7.00 a.m. (never any lie in here) along with Rev Chuck and Ruthanne Sharrow to go to Raniganj church for Palm Sunday. As we drove into Raniganj I saw monkeys for the first time. I heard them the other week at the Leprosy Mission in Bankura, and some team members had seen them the previous evening. The Church of North India is a united church and the building at Raniganj says "Wesleyan Methodist chapel" and it still uses individual glasses for communion so still hold onto some Methodist practices.

We arrived just before 8.00a.m., had some refreshments, he talked about the service with Church as he was preaching and then we got back into the car again.We drove through Raniganj a couple of kilometres to the Mission Chapel. W were given palms and there was about  people waiting there and we processed back to the Church singing.

This is the Mission Chapel that has a Sunday evening service. It is also a Kindergarten school during the week feeding into the Christian Primary school next door which is funded by the Indian government.

The Rev Chuck and his wife Ruthanne waiting before the procession.

The Rev Naru saying a prayer in front of the procession before it set off. As is the custom here all lined up in height order with the smallest at the front.Some adults did walk to the front afterwards to walk with children for safety as we were walking the km back down the main road.

We all had real palms and some had added flowers or make crosses out of some the the leaves, some were so creative.

That is the procession moving along single file as we turned out onto the main road. Many watched but there was no hostile actions or words towards us. It is something they do every year and a good witness to the community.

Here we are still processing along the main road and stretched out quite a way still singing the same Hosanna hymn.
We arrived back at the church and it was very full, many children and women sitting on the carpet at the front. It was a communion service, the children all lined up after communion and were given a sweet each. It is a church that has a keyboard player - has learnt only by ear and sol-fa but she only had one doh -F# which made some hymns very high - also means she uses all the black notes on the keyboard mainly.

The church was beautifully decorated.

And the front of the lectern

Then at the end of the service was a time of prayer ministry.
Then went to Rev Naru's bungalow next to the church where his wife had prepared breakfast (now 11.50 which we shared with the family, he has two children Rebekah and Reuben, before heading back to Durgapur.

St Michaels church also had some beautiful palm decorations in and very different from above but I didn't manage to get pictures because they had been taken down again when I went back.