We visited the outlying village of Choantonio for a communion service. The name Choantonio refers to a long ago appearance there by Saint Anthony. The municipality of Santa Apolonia covers a large rural area far beyond the town in which the orphanage is located. I believe it is all served by just one Catholic priest, so he can only infrequently visit the many scattered chapels. Our group leader is also a deacon at St. Al's and was given permission to preside at a service here.

The music ministry at Choantonio includes a dual keyboards, bass guitar, drums, and a few song leaders. Only they have sheet music, but the congregation knows the hymns. I'm told that when our mission visited for the first time last August, we were surprised to learn they expected us to alternate with hymns we knew. Without a hymnal, our group knows one verse of Amazing Grace. So this time, we made sure to bring along the song sheets we used for our morning and evening prayer at the orphanage.

Or so we thought. When the time came, we couldn't figure out where we had packed them. Suggestions of Battle Hymn of the Republic, America the Beautiful, and Christmas hymns were vetoed, and so we sang the first verse of Amazing Grace a couple times, and mumbled through On Eagle's Wings.

Our deacon gave the homily, reading aloud from a translation into Spanish while we followed the English text. A homily on "I am the vine and you are the branches" might mean a bit more to produce farmers than to supermarket produce shoppers.

Their church lacks the benefits of contemporary liturgical architecture. For example, instead of opening onto a large asphalt parking lot, it opens onto a little gravel plaza where we gathered for ... well I guess for what I've heard called fellowship. They brought out rolls and coffee. We gave the moms and kids soaps and toothbrushes.

¶ 5/23/2006 07:32:00 AM