April 8, 2012
Today, we attended St. Peter's Anglican Church in New Plymouth, Abacos, for their Easter service. This church has been recently rebuilt (due to hurricane damage), and the members have many fund raisers to help pay for the construction. We had planned to attend their fish fry on Friday evening, but there had been squalls earlier in the afternoon, and they had lost their power. We weren't able to get updated information on the VHF, so we decided not to brave the weather to dinghy in and then walk to the town. But, the fish fry went on without us, and we're sorry we missed it.
The Easter service started with a procession through town, singing hymns and gospel songs. The procession started about 11:30 and went down the main street, past two or three other churches which were already in session. It may have been my (Joyce) imagination, but it seemed as though everyone sang louder as we passed the other churches.
Since New Plymouth is a Loyalist town, and we were attending an Anglican Church, I assumed that most of the members would be white, but the congregation was predominately black. Most of the white attendees seemed to be visitors; I'm not sure where the Green Turtle Cay Loyalist descendants attend church. The church is served by a pastor who has five churches in the Abacos, and he officiated at one (or more) of the other churches today. St. Peter's was served by a priest from Nassau today.
Since New Plymouth is a Loyalist town, and we were attending an Anglican Church, I assumed that most of the members would be white, but the congregation was predominately black. Most of the white attendees seemed to be visitors; I'm not sure where the Green Turtle Cay Loyalist descendants attend church. The church is served by a pastor who has five churches in the Abacos, and he officiated at one (or more) of the other churches today. St. Peter's was served by a priest from Nassau today.
Since I was raised in the Methodist Church and have attended a non-denominational evangelical church for most of my adult life, I was not familiar with the liturgy of the Sung Mass of St. Peter's. (We did spend a bit of time trying to figure out which book we should be following at any point in time). And, although we sang a lot, they weren't the songs that I tend to associate with Easter. But, we both thought that the service was a special experience, and there were many touching moments for us. One of these moments was during the sermon when Pastor Saunders talked about having faith that God will protect you in your times of trouble. He enumerated many of these times, ending with health issues. Although everyone wants to be cured, he reenforced that this doesn't always happen, but don't be afraid because God has prepared a better place for us because of Jesus' sacrifice. We then sang 'Oh, Victory in Jesus' for a second time, the first time being during the procession through town.
Oh, Victory in Jesus,
My Saviour forever.
He sought and bought me
With His redeeming love.
He loved me ere I knew Him
And all my love is due Him.
He plunged me to victory
Beneath the cleansing blood.
This was followed by a gospel song which included the line 'I know His tomb wasn't empty, it was full of my sins'. I thought that was a perfect mental picture for this Easter morning.
Since church lasted over two hours, instead of the hour that we had expected, we arrived 45 minutes late for our reservation for the Easter buffet. But, it was no problem. When Tom apologized for being late, saying that the church service lasted longer than expected, the hostess/waitress said 'they usually do'. The buffet included some traditional Easter foods but also island specialties like grouper, lobster, and peas and rice.
Good food and a very nice day!
Good food and a very nice day!
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