Touring churches in Cape Town

I have now been in Cape Town for 8 weeks and been to 6 churches. I decided before I came that I would do some exploring and step out of my comfort zone, attending services I wouldn’t think of at home.

This has included:

Heathfield Baptist Church

Hillsong Church

Capricorn Community Church

Holy Redemmer Church

Every Nation Church

St George’s Cathedral

Thought I would use my Easter blog post to talk through my experiences of each of them and what I have learnt so far.

Heathfield Baptist is the church at the bottom of my road and the one I’ve been to most. It is a small church with a congregation of about 40 people, it is very family orientated. Almost everyone is related one way or another, the current pastor is the son of the previous pastor who set up the church years ago. It is a very welcoming place to be, the first time I went I felt like I was introduced to 20 people one after the other. Got to know a few of the young people well through their youth group and young adults meetings and feel at home here. The worship is familiar, which was such a great surprise when I went for the first time. It made me smile as the songs being sung are ones I know by heart but haven’t sung at home for about 5 years. Mighty to save and blessed be your name are both popular!

This church has taught me that familiarity is okay and you are allowed to comfortable in a church. I am always looking for challenge and mind blowing sermons but with work so full on, I think this every week would have been too much. Instead there are friendly services that unpack a different topic or bible story each week. It has been lovely to get to know the families there and be able to walk in on a Sunday and be greeted with hugs.

Hillsong is a huge international church, a very different setting and atmosphere! It takes place in a big building that is set up like a theatre, with a large stage, complex lighting and tiered seating. I went with a couple of other volunteers at the start of my trip.

Ray from the USA who is familiar with Hillsong and a Christian and Chelsea from Manchester who had never been to church before! We went before the uni terms had started up again so it was a bit quieter than normal, but still a couple of hundred people in the congregation. There was loud music with lots of jumping and dancing to start. The sermon from a guest speaker, he was an eccentric guy from Sweden. The topic was ‘fighting the storms’ he spoke about embracing opportunity, travelling light and taking heart. It was an encouraging talk but delivered in a very shouty way, I find this quite distracting as a public speaking snob I spent a lot of the service praying for connection to the message beyond the delivery.

 Left the service with my friends with mixed reactions. On the way home Chealsea asked a bunch of questions, it was interesting to be on the receiving end of this! They included: what is the trinity? What does hallelujah mean? How was Jesus born? What is free will? To name a few!

This church taught me that an overly enthusiastic message can be hard to process, something to watch in my public speaking - and that being part of a big congregation is something I really love but couldn’t do every week.

Capricorn Community Church was brought to my attention to Tim, the minister at my family’s church in Olton. He went to Bible College with the minister of this church years ago and is still in touch. This was the first church I went to that is distinctly different from my previous church experiences. It is situated on the edge of the Vrygrond Township, and has a small congregation from all over Africa. The worship songs were in a range of languages as were the prayers they call themselves a ‘fruit salad church’ that welcomes everyone wherever they are from.

The sermon was on ‘Sex and relationships’ we looked at a range of bible verses and split into groups for discussion on how the community, the church and popular culture view sex, then fed back. Was interesting to hear people’s thoughts and hear Bruce the minister pick apart common misconceptions about the God’s view on sex. Ended powerfully with prayer about moving from condemnation to conviction, looking at repenting and receiving forgiveness. It was clear people were moved by this message. After the service I chatted to Bruce about how he moved with his family from the UK to South Africa over 7 years ago and the work they are doing now. Was great to talk to someone who understood the culture shock I was experiencing at the time.

This church showed me how the church can educate people about God whilst respecting everyone’s different backgrounds and cultures. Preaching truth and shining light into dark places. Look forward to meeting up with Bruce, Louise and their family in the near future for lunch.

Holy Redeemer Church is my host mum, Brenda’s Catholic Church. Here I learnt lots about Catholic tradition and strict order of service. Before this I had only been to a Catholic church for a wedding and christening, so was a very different experience to see a typical Sunday. After hymns, prayers and readings Father Gerard gave the sermon on Lazarus being raised from the dead. He quoted TS Elliot ‘we are always living and partly living’ it was interesting how he unpacked this and challenged us to examine our hearts, looking at what is broken and dead and how we can bring that to Jesus for restoration. He explained that hate, grief and resentment can be moved to acceptance, joy and compassion through the Holy Spirit. We then had more prayers and communion. I had an internal debate on whether I could/should take communion, it used to be that you would only be allowed communion if you were a member of the church. However a few years ago this changed and is no longer a requirement, Brenda said that since I was a practising Christian then I was allowed. I decided that God was bigger than manmade restrictions, the symbolism of communion is one of unity, brothers and sisters in Christ eating bread and drinking wine across denominations and countries.

This church affirmed that Catholicism isn’t for me, I really struggle with the rituals and reciting of prayers throughout a service. I felt like I was in a museum rather than in a church, but I am really glad I went and stepped out of my comfort zone. It was here that I heard about a talk on Prison Alpha to be given the next week, I went to this and it blew my mind. Absolutely shifted my focus and interpretation of my time here (am sure I will talk about this more in another blog post).

Every Nation Church was introduced to me by one of the supervisors at work, it is a student church that takes place on the edge of a university campus in a theatre. I went with a group of volunteers from the office who had varying degrees of experience in a church environment, but all asked to join me as part of their cultural experience of Cape Town. Was good fun to see their reactions to modern worship beautifully filling the theatre at the start of the service.  They all found it very uplifting and enjoyed people dancing and clapping around them. I felt so peaceful at this church, had a brilliant chat with Michael, one of the guys who founded the church. He studied in the UK and spent some time going to Renewal in Solihull, which shows what a small world church is! The sermon was on healing by the Holy Spirit, quite a confusing jump for my friends who had little to no experience of church before.

Filled in a sheet at the end of the service with my details in and asked to be contacted about a connect group in my area. Was contacted by email a couple of days later and went to one about 15 minutes from where I am living. Spent the evening with some really lovely people talking about forgiveness in a really provoking way. Finished the connect group with prayer, God gave these strangers images and messages to share with me, urging me to rest and let go of my endless to do list. Was powerful to hear this from people who had only known me a couple of hours! Looking forward to going back this Wednesday and hopefully for the rest of my weeks here.

This church reminded me of the power of music to connect us to one another and show us more of God in an easy going way. Was amazing to see my friends experience this.

Finally St Georges Cathedral! This is Desmond Tutu’s church, it is very high Anglican (which is the style of all Anglican churches here) I had been told that this style was very similar to Catholic and can see why! It was miles away from Knowle Parish at home in style. I went on Good Friday because I wanted to experience something different on such a significant day. Everything was very formal and sombre, with readings, incredible choral music and processions from the clergy. Found most of the service inaccessible, I felt like everyone else was on the inside and knew the secret language. Found the standing, sitting and kneeling confusing, but am glad I went to such a grand and beautiful church. The stain glass is breath taking. I also appreciated the prayer for those in public office, a prayer that is very pertinent at the moment with calls for President Zuma to step down.

This church showed me how different a church service can be in another country even in a denomination I recognise. I know that the 7:30pm service at Knowle is very relaxed, but I hadn’t realised just how informal it was until now.

Every church I visited showed me something new, I felt more at home in some than others but found peace and solidarity in all. I am in awe of how big God is, and how he reaches people from all over the world in a way they can understand. Just because I find traditional church jarring doesn’t mean it isn’t comforting and though provoking to others, it is important that a range of services are available for people to choose from.

I still have a few churches left on my list to visit, but think this blog post is quite long enough as it is! Would defiantly encourage you to go to a new church over the next month and just embrace the similarities and differences.

Prayer requests:

-       -    I am now adjusting to a new team of people at work, with two good friends leaving the project last week and new volunteers starting, it is all change! I find change very triggering but am really trying to go easy on myself and encourage those who are finding their feet in a daunting project.

-         -  For Mia as she enjoys her Easter Holiday without Tom and me at home, may she love spending time with friends and family!

Thank you for making it to the end of my thirteenth blog post, have a great week.