November 2, 2008--Church Times three

Well today I accidentally went to church three times (I only intended to go once). As I have mentioned before, there is a large Evangelical population here in Las Pajas, but of course Catholicism is the dominant religion of the country, and accordingly there is a Catholic church in the community. Since I had already been to the Evangelical church services, and didn't want to give the impression that I preferred one religion over the other, so I told my host mother this morning that I would like to go to the Catholic service with her in the afternoon. I then left to go visit the host family of a former volunteer in the community (or so I thought). When I arrived at their house there was no one there, instead I found one of the youth leaders, who said that the family was in the church (an Evangelical church) and that I was welcome to come. Since I didn't have anything to do, I agreed to go. This group does their bible study on Sunday mornings, and they were all watching a video about religion. I stayed there for a while and then went back to my house.
After a hike into the hills with some of my host brothers and sisters and some neighbors, I came back to the house to get ready for the Catholic church service. I went with my host mom to the church, where there were about ten little kids playing the tambourines and drums and singing to begin the service. Since Las Pajas is so far away and a small community, a priest only comes once a month, and the rest of the time church members lead the services. Today two older members were leading the services. I must admit, I felt much more at home in this church, not because my beliefs fit more with one sect or the other, but because the service was much more like the ones I am used to in the United States—there was praying, some singing, and a short sermon. I had actually avoided the Catholic church services (and all church services in general) here in the DR up until I arrived in Las Pajas because I feared a long sermon, rituals that I wasn't accustomed to, and awkward parts of the service, such as communion, that I couldn't take part in because I am not Catholic. I was pleasantly surprised with this service; the sermon was short, the songs were fun and I didn't have to sing, since I didn't understand, but I happily clapped along, and when it came to communion, for some reason I don't quite understand, only the two people running the service and one other man took communion, which only consisted of a wafer, no wine. Nor did I have to do any kneeling, because in this church there is nowhere to kneel, and the floor is cement.
About halfway through the service there is a ritual, similar to most American churches, where everybody greets each other, usually with a handshake. Here however, no one is shy, so during this part, everyone greeted one another by saying “la Paz” (Peace) and hugging each other. I don't think I have ever gotten so many hugs by strangers in my life.
Towards the end of the service the man in front formally recognized my presence and thanked me for being there, which was very kind of him, so afterwards I went and thanked both the directors of the service, who then gave me another hug and told me I was always welcome. One thing that was very different from the Evangelical services was that this church was not full by any stretch of the imagination. There were a group of young children there, and then the rest of the churchgoers were mainly older parents and grandparents, there was no one my age or in the 15-30 year old range.
I came back to sit around with my host family, and quickly the electricity went out. We were sitting in the dark when a girl came by and asked me to go to her church service. Once again, since I didn't have anything to do, I went. This was a different Evangelical church that I went to this time, but the service was similar; lots of singing and dancing and a short sermon from the pastor, followed by lots more singing and dancing and a raffle for a bag of food in order to raise money for a new floor for the church. Though both kinds of services were fun to go to, I see myself going to the Catholic one more because, as I stated before, it reminds me more of churches in the United States. However, if things keep going as they are, I might end up going to a different church service every night of the week!