Song and colour abounded at the inaugural Africa Day Mass with many of the continent’s 50 plus countries represented at the North Perth Monastery
The inaugural Africa Day Mass on May 25 was never going to be a sedate affair.
Standing before several hundred people at the North Perth Monastery, the woman who first suggested the event, Patience Sakonda, exhorted the congregation to the right kind of worship:
“Let us praise the Lord in song and dance, the African way.”
Smiles abounded as the 50-person choir enthusiastically sang out the opening hymn in Shona, a Bantu language from Zimbabwe, punctuated by traditional high pitched cries from some of the women.
Two rows of girls led the book of the Gospel and concelebrating priests – Fr Daniel Chama, Fr Emmanuel Djimobi, Fr Leo Ugapo CSsR and Fr Blasco Fonseca – down the centre aisle, swaying and raising their arms from side to side in praise and supplication.
It was one of many spirited moments, with the choir singing hymns and Mass parts in languages from throughout the continent; in Shona (Zimbabwe), Chewa (Malawi), Ndebele (Zimbabwe) and Swahili (Kenya) among others.
“People enjoyed it,” said one of the event’s organisers and Record employee, Bibiana Kwaramba.
“Everybody was saying congratulations; that it was good. We were very happy.”
Many in the largely African congregation donned the dress of their homelands, with women wearing the cloth of the church associations and guilds in their local home areas.
The Africa Day Mass commemorated the founding of the Organisation of African Unity on May 25, 1963, now known as the African Union; designed to assist its 53 member countries in meeting common challenges and opportunities.
The event grew out of the Memories of Africa choir, founded in 2008, with members from throughout the continent.
The day’s primary purpose was to praise God, Ms Kwaramba said, but organisers also wanted to stimulate interest in forming an African Catholic community in Perth; a goal which they achieved.
Chief celebrant and homilist Fr Daniel Chama, assistant priest to the fledgling Catholic community in Baldivis, said Africa Day was about unity.
In his homily, Fr Chama said the challenge of Christ’s call to communion was a hard but ultimately liberating one.
“Here, inside this church gathered together, it seems we are all completely united, it seems fantastic, but half the time we stab each other in the back.
Don’t we do this? Is this the way to Christian life?
I’m not so sure about that,” Fr Chama said. “This word of God, this celebration, comes to invite us to do one thing: live according to the vocation that God has extended to us in our baptism; which is to be one, not only with Christ, but to be one with the people around us.”
“This Gospel comes to remind me to enter into a spirit of reconciliation and forgiveness, mercy and the same love that Christ has extended to us,” Fr Chama said.
The organisers are planning future events and initiatives, which will be advertised in The Record.