June 30th

I’m not a particularly religious person. Although I was raised Roman Catholic I’ve studied more Islam than any other major religion out of mere compassion for innocent Muslims discriminated against post 9/11. I call my self a Unitarian but only for the fact that they are the most accepting and tolerant of different points of view as far as I know. I simply try to live my life doing what I feel is good and right while minimizing the expression of my many flaws. Church is not my favorite thing, but Elyse advised me to check it out and she hasn’t let me down with “must do” Ghana experiences thus far. If there was any doubt as to whether I’d make it, Shara nagged me and my housemates to be up for church at 5am during our (me, shara and Andrea’s) first weekend, despite the fact that we were up till 2 and still jet lagged. We never made it to church that Sunday, I’ve had three spiritual experiences in the past five days. The first of the trio was hiking to a little used place of worship with a Rastafarian. When Americans think of Rastas immediately what comes to mind are probably dread locks, marijuana and Bob Marely. But behind the stereotype is a deep appreciation of loving your fellow man, being a good person and having faith against all odds. Komoyete told us of the struggle to preserve the most spiritual aspects of Rastafarianism in light of Christianity’s sweeping reach in Ghana.
Last night was my second experience. Shara and I went to a Pentecostal service (at the International Central Gospel Church in Osu, Accra) with Olivia, a Ghanaian journalist and friend of our housemate Daan. When we arrived the congregation was in the midst of “worship” which is singing and dancing. We were lucky that they were teaching a new song so we could sing along. After a couple of minutes I closed my eyes and observed the goings on with my ears. There were random shouts of “praise the lord, lord have mercy, hallelujah” as the live band played. At one point everyone started “speaking in tongues”…it was quite the unique experience for to non-religious Obrunis – visiting a Ghanaian church for the first time. After worship, Pastor Smith took the stage. The subject of the sermon was “the luke-warm Christian” – ‘lukewarm is defined as a liquid that is not hot nor cold …thus it cannot be used for its purpose as it is unstable’. He then read a passage from the bible that neither me nor Shara have ever heard …something to the affect of “if you are luke-warm when you come to me I will spew you out”. It was an awfully pertinent subject for us given that Shara is half-Jewish, half-Christian and joked about getting baptized in Ghana just for the experience…and I won’t rehash my feelings about church. As a whole the service was very interesting, intelligent, well articulated and humorous – it was more or less a light-hearted but well directed wake up call to the parishioners as they gear up for their version of Ramadan (from July 1-July 31 they fast from 6am-6pm in the hopes that god will continue to bless them for the second half of the year).
This morning I was invited to the 28th Anniversary Remembrance Service for three assassinated High court Justices. Among the distinguished guests was the Madame Chief Justice of Ghana (more like the president of the judiciary, way more relative power than John Roberts) the Deputy Attorney General and several Supreme, Appellate and High Court Justices, as well as a who’s who of Ghanaian lawyers. The service, hosted by Ghana’s Bar Association, and conducted by The Very Rev. Father Andrew Campbell, commemorates the lives of 3 high court justices, slain by revolutionaries for freeing individuals unlawfully imprisoned by the short-lived John Rawlings revolutionary government. Father Campbell, an Irish ex-pat who has lived in Ghana for almost 40 years, was brilliant. He spoke about the importance of forgiveness – “revenge is human, but forgiveness is Divine”. It was the best Roman Catholic service I’ve been to since I last attended Father Michael’s service at the St. Francis church in Hoboken as a boy of 11 or so. By and large it was a pretty traditional service except when the collection plate came around. At that point the choir busted out the African music from their set list and drums emerged from the woodwork. The Madam Chief Justice then led the congregation in a dance. The service closed with Ghana’s national anthem, marking the first time I’ve had the privilege of hearing the lyrics sung aloud. My experience with Pastor Smith and more so with Father Campbell is that I actually really enjoy church services. Once you get past of the monotony of the rituals and the brainwashing overtones of guilt (not present at all in Father Campbell’s service) church is really enjoyable. Perhaps I will shop around when I get back to the US for a good place to visit when I start to lose sight of what’s important in life.