I think what I love most about my new church is that it’s so vastly different than any church I’ve attended before. For starters, it doesn’t look anything like a church. You would never know it was a church if you passed by it, especially since there’s no signage and the entrance is next to convenience store. Told you it was random! The building was formerly a restaurant and the church is awaiting grant money to renovate and get signage up. Until then, we make do. 😊 Here’s a picture, since I know you want a visual!
Turns out there aren’t many Catholics in Kazakhstan. In fact, there are only 20 Catholic priests in the whole country, and they’re all foreigners who’ve come here for mission work. Our priest and the bishop are both from Spain. We also have three nuns who come weekly who are affiliated with the Missionaries of Charity—Mother Theresa’s order. They are from India and are sweet as can be. Nia is fortunate to get to do catechism classes with them each week for the hour before mass! They also convinced her to do a reading on three different weeks and I have to say that my Mommy heart swelled with pride seeing her up there.
We meet in the upstairs of the building because heat is expensive and the upper level naturally stays warmer than the lower level. Even then, we often still have to wear jackets. It’s a small, cozy space though and the sisters have done a nice job of turning it into a worship space. For example, here were our simple Advent decorations. Nothing fancy, yet perfectly adequate for our needs.
The space can only hold 40 people tops, but our typical crowd is around 20-25 people a week. The congregation is quite diverse and usually includes attendees from the Philippines, Africa, the U.S., Britain, and Poland.
As I mentioned in my last post, my friend Sandra recruited me to come help out with the singing. She’s the piano player and had previously been leading the singing as well, but that’s a lot for anyone. So now she simply focuses on playing piano and I take care of the singing.
I wasn’t sure what to expect when I first said yes, but it turns out the experience was definitely akin to jumping into the deep end of the pool. In fact, the very first week I attended, I was already leading the singing and soloing from the podium for the responsorial psalm and gospel acclamation. Thank goodness I’d done it 20 years ago or I wouldn’t have known what to do! My memory is definitely a bit rusty though and the changes to the mass responses throw me off every time. It’s coming back slowly but surely though.
We have some hand-me-down Gather books that were donated from another parish. They were published around 2000 and are the exact same hymnals I remember growing up with. They make me very nostalgic and I’m pleased to say I know at least half of the songs inside, many still from memory. :)
Over Christmas, Sandra went on a three-week trip, which meant that I was promoted to “Director of Liturgical Music” and was in charge of selecting the week’s music. At first, I thought I could just pick whatever music I wanted, so my plan was to stack the mass full of all my old favorites. Then I learned that the music needs to reflect the week’s readings (either word for word or thematically). Turns out there are all sorts of references in the back of the hymnal that organize songs by theme (for example: forgiveness, advent, praise, discipleship) or tell you which songs are based on the week’s specific readings. It was a little disappointing to be so constrained, but you’ll be pleased to know that I still figured out ways to work some of my favorites in.
The other problem with Sandra being gone was that I had to sing acapella. Not ideal, but I kept the keyboard nearby and would give us all the starting note for each song. Thank goodness it’s a chill crowd, because I definitely sang the wrong acclamation once—at which point the nuns looked at me with deer-in-the-headlights expressions on their faces—and I just said, “Oops, that wasn’t right. Let’s start again.” At which point they mouthed the correct acclamation and I swallowed my pride and started over.
When I’ve sung in church in the past, there’s been a lot of emphasis (and stress) on making it look very professional and not making any mistakes. That is definitely not the focus here. We’re doing the best we can with the imperfect resources we have and the congregation is flexible and understanding. It’s been very good for my recovering perfectionist self . . . helps me focus on the service aspect of it, rather than getting it all correct. Probably another reason why this feels like the ideal church for me right now. It’s not showy or fancy in any way, shape, or form. There’s no strong push around doctrine, or giving large amounts of money, or pressure to show up every week. The focus is purely on the act of coming together to worship. Religion feels complicated as an adult, but this pure, simple version of church feels very easy to welcome back into my life.
