Presbyterians again for a day

Last Sunday we were invited to attend the local celebrations to mark the 100th anniversary of the Presbyterian Church in Rwanda. Since we regard Scotland as the spiritual home of Presbyterianism and my sister was visiting from Geneva, where John Knox, the leader of the reformation in Scotland, studied under Calvin, how could we refuse?
It was an open-air event, although the invited guests (about 100) had a tarpaulin shelter to keep us from the elements. The rains have already started, but on this particular day we needed protection from the sunshine. There was an impressive array of visiting choirs, including one from Idjwi, a large Congolese Island in the middle of Lake Kivu and another from Bukavu. The lead singer of this latter one had a fantastic jazz-singer voice, quite strong enough to make the microphone redundant even out of doors. Their choice of music was also noticeably different in style from most Rwandan choirs we have heard.
However, pride of place had to go to the brass band from Kigali. They were well equipped with trumpets, trombones and drums and played several pieces competently : unfortunately we did not get an opportunity to discover their history. We haven’t seen or heard anything like this elsewhere in Rwanda.
There were impressive contributions from school choirs and a dance group, with an inspiring and admirably short sermon about building on the good points of history while having hope and faith for the future. We were welcomed as the “official delegation from the Presbyterian Church in Scotland” (!) and presented with a length of specially-printed fabric which the brass band were wearing as a uniform.
It was all going so well under the direction of a very competent MC until the political speeches started. At first it was interesting to hear about the vision and strategy of the Eglise Presbyterienne au Rwanda, although it took a long time to describe it. There is of course a strong similarity with what the Eglise Episcopale is doing. Peace and reconciliation is still vital for all the churches here, while education, health and the alleviation of poverty are essential parts of living out the gospel, as being faithful to the mission of Jesus.
However, at these events the political representatives are always given pride of place and the last opportunity to speak. Since he started with “I will not say much” we should have known we were doomed. Thanks, repetition and political propaganda took us well over the 4-hour mark for the whole event, well past the comfort limit not only for us westerners, but also for the crowd. One of the good points about NOT being under the tarpaulin is that you can come and go at meetings like this and usually the ordinary people take full advantage.
The day was going to continue over food, usually in such cases followed by more speeches, but we were able to leave at this stage, having another visitor to welcome later in the day. The EPR is obviously thriving, like most of the protestant churches in Rwanda – we hope to meet with them again when we can play a more low-key role.