Starting with today and the immediate afternoon: We waited an interminable time for a CNI car to take us back to our hotels.Jimmy left first with a CNI staffer, leaving us ladies to continue waiting. While sitting in the hotel lobby where the rest of the foreign guests stayed, the Archbishop of Canterbury came off the elevator. He came over to us, shook hands and chatted most cordially. Shortly after that his main go to person joined us and spoke at length about her work with the Archbishop. A fascinating job and challenging. She needed to make another phone call for a car for him and his staff and kindly included our needs as well. I do credit her intervention with finally getting us a vehicle, even though Alwin Maseh, the General Secretary of the Church of North India had already called for a car for us.
This morning we arrived on time at St. Ursula's Girls' School where a double row of girls stood waiting to greet every guest. There were at least 200 in their school uniforms standing proudly with balloons and flower petals. We foreign delegates were ushered into a room together and led out behind the Archbishop and Bishops of CNI for the procession through the streets of Nagpur to the Episcopal Cathedral grounds where an immense tent had been set up for the occasion for 2,000 people. We were seated on the dias with the Bishops and other foreign delegates, most of whom were Moderators or leaders from their various denominations from England, Scotland, Canada and the US. The church service itself lasted about an hour and a half, with communion served to all. Hyms, some of them very familiar, were sung with repeats of many verses and refrains. And it was hot. Sweat poured from the faces of the group on stage, we were higher and there were no fans as there were for the audience. That was ameliorated with a few fans on stage. According to our driver this evening the temperature today was 40 degrees centigrade. The sermon by the Archbishop was moving and perfect for the occasion. He is a good speaker with a great voice and presence.
After the service representatives of the visiting denominations were invited to speak. Margaret was called on behalf of PCUSA and her words of greeting and love were well received. After that gifts were given out, one by one, and recognition of various people for their contributions to the Anniversary Celebration. It was past 12:30 when the service concluded.
We noticed the huge signs announcing the anniversary celebration of CNI placed at many places around the city on our way to Hissop College where the conference was held. The first day we attended was devoted to presentations of papers written by various theologians. Habil Massey, who we are going to visit in Delhi was among the presenters. I made a new friend; 10 year old Yashika Daniel took a liking to me and sought me out each day of the conference. She must have a library of 50 pictures of me. I gave her my card and she gave me her e mail address. I am hoping she and Natalie, my 10 year old grandaughter might get in touch with one another. I also met Bishop Cutting of Agra Diocese and we agreed to meet on Saturday, 10/16. I do hope that goes well and that he can help arrange a car and driver for our trip to Etah the following day.
The second day we were broken up into groups to talk about ways to address the challenges facing CNI. Groups were Bishops, Clergy, Lay Men and all the Women wether they fit into any of the other categories or not. The prefact to the announcement of the groups was a statement that no gender discrimination was involved in grouping the women separately. I did speak out about that, perhaps inappropriately. It may have helped women in the group Margaret was assigned to discuss gender inequality in the church and bring it to the attention of the whole group in their report. We were invited to lunch at the Tulli Hotel by the General Secretary along with the other foreign representatives. It was a good time to meet Alwin Maseh and to talk about concerns we may have as partners of CNI.
Tomorrow is a travel day. We leave early for the flight to Delhi and will go to the home of Rev. Santosh George who has graciously arranged for cell phones for us and has promised to make train reservations for us to Agra the same day. It will be the end of the Commonwealth Games and there is concern about traffic and availability of space. His work provides for treatment of infants born with club feet. The treatment, routine in the US, is not readily available in India. He coordinates services in a number of hospitals in the Delhi area.
And now my Internet Session must end. I tried earlier to log on to my Verizon Account, to no avail. Best love to my faithful readers.
ITS ME YASHIKA, CALL ME ON 9229111170.
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