The Theological College of Lanka

It's been a quiet two weeks for you, the anxious reader, and I apologize for that. I've been (and am till Saturday) at the Theological College of Lanka, an ecumenical training ground for ministers and teachers of religion. Internet access here is limited at the best of times, and has been more so due to some technical issues at the college. To make it up to you, I'll not write too much, but post some pictures.

The college is on a hillside in the jungle. It's near the town of Kandy, which is the site of the last independant Sri Lankan kingdom, and a heartland of Sinhalese culture. It's hard to get good pictures of the college as a whole, because there is so much jungle in the way! The main classrooms, mess hall and men's dorm is at the top of the hill, and the library half way down, so you look out at the roof of the library from the classrooms. The quarters for the married students and the lecturers are nearer the bottom of the hill, and run up the side of the next hill.



This is a view looking down at the library. You have to walk down about a million steep slippery concrete steps to get there.

The college is an ecumenical one, with four main denominations: Anglican (Church of Ceylon), Methodist, Baptist and Presbyterian. Baptists and Presbyterians are not common in Sri Lanka, and there are none of those students at the moment. There are a couple from the Church of South India, which has a diocse in Jaffna.



This is looking up to the main class room building. There are four classrooms, a larger seminar hall, and a beautiful chapel.

The dorms are pretty basic (well, the men's dorm is. I assume the women's is as well). Basic, but not horrible. There is the standard cement floor (this is common in Sri Lanka), and the whole place is open (also common). There are only cold water showers (common) but the climate here is much cooler than the rest of the country. This is especially noticable at 5:30 in the morning!

This is my room in the hostel - the bed is not as comfortable as it looks.

But I didn't come here for a soft bed or hot water. I came to meet the students, and they are what has made my time here special. They are mostly (but not all) in their twenties. Some are married, and live in housing provided by the college, but most are single. When a person becomes a candidate for ministry here, they are not allowed to marry until they are ordained.



This is me with Pradeep, the secretary of the Student Body.

This is a picture of some of the students having afternoon tea on the verandah of the mess hall.

This is (from left) Sashi, Fr. Stephen (the lecturer in Church History), Newton and Anil. Newton and Anil are both candidates from the diocese of Colombo, and brought me up to the college with them when they returned to school from the long vacation (April-May and half of June)

Colombo Again

I wasn't going to post today, but I'm in the St. Michael's office, and Fr. Dushantha is being interviewed for a newspaper right behind me. I don't really want to barge past to get out, and so I'll tell you about my last couple days in Chilaw.

I really enjoyed my time there. Fr. Sam was really friendly and very good about answering questions - and I had a lot of questions! A lot of what we were doing was going around to the cluster group prayer meetings that happen once a month. At. St. James they have divided the congregation up into clusters based on regions, so people who live near each other will be in the same cluster. Once a month they gather for a prayer meeting with Fr. Sam - they sing some praise songs (including several I knew from Sunday School, including "This is the Day that the Lord Has Made" and "He Will Enter His Gates With Thanksgiving". The services were all in Sinhala or Tamil, but where there were English speakers, they would sing one verse in English (I joined in with gusto!).

These meetings were all in people's homes, so I got an interesting look at how the ordinary people live in a rural village like Chilaw. As you might expect, there was great diversity, from some houses that were clearly very big and well appointed, through to some very very small dwellings. Everyone was super hospitable though, and happily for me, made a point of making sure I had a fan blowing on me!

Fr. Sam thought it would be good if I wore my cassock when I was going around with him, and people got quite the kick out of the fact that it was black. The priests here all wear white cassocks with black cinctures, so to see an all black cassock was quite shocking for people!

Last night we went to a parishioner's house for supper, and boy was that an inter-cultural experience! It was the house of one of the youth leaders in the parish, and his extended family. There was a young boy there who I made friends with - he brought me all his toys, one by one, and patiently showed this dumb foreigner how each of them worked! He chatted away to me in Tamil like I knew what he was saying, and I just talked back to him in English. A kid that age, I doubt I would have understood what he was talking about anyway!

Before long it was time for supper - rice and curry. There was a chicken curry, a pork curry and potatoes. Fr. Sam explained to me later that for these people chicken is a rare thing, and that they have gone all out for us. There were a couple things that were quite uncomfortable for me. The first was that I used cutlery. Now, I know that I've been practicing using my hands, but they had the cutlery out, and I was not sure if it was rude to not use it. Fr. Sam explained later that to not use it would have been fine, and that they were uncomfortable seeing someone use cutlery! Also, it made the meat, which was as usual still on the bone, hard to eat. The second thing was that they sat us down at the table and watched us eat! That is definitely something that I am not used to! When I finished, they kept giving me more, and more and more, until my natural acquiescence was overcome, and I had to say no. It was delicious, but quite hot, to the point where my nose was running!

So it was an interesting, experience, the kind that is difficult to go through, but so valuable when you're done. I seem to be getting a lot of lessons like that... I think it's time for a nice easy lesson for a change!

Today was back down to Colombo on the bus with Fr. Sam. It was quite crowded, and so I had to have my big fifteen kilo bag on my lap the whole time. It was blocking the air conditioning, and so I was dying of heat, my legs and arms were cramping up around the bag... pretty miserable! I was actually grateful for the security checkpoint where all the Sri Lankan nationals got off the bus and I could move a little. The enormous guard suspiciously checking my passport and bags was, by comparison, a tiny inconvenience!

The First Weekend!

Things have been going along quite nicely here in Sri Lanka! I'm staying with the Sisters of St. Margaret, a group of Anglican nuns, and since my days at the moment are quite relaxed, I have been joining them for the daily offices. I really like the daily offices, and am glad that I've landed in a place where there is a community to pray with! We have Matins at 6:20, Mid Day prayer at 12:00 and Vespers at 6:00. The sisters are very friendly, and have been helping this poor dumb Canadian to sort out the right pages in the book - it's almost as complicated as the BAS in Canada!

This weekend was May Day, and so the parish church near here, St. Michael and All Angels, Polwatte, held a May Day mass. They invited me to come along, and I'm glad I did - it was like nothing I would see in Canada! We started with a march around the village, led by traditional dancers. All the priests (there were quite a few) were wearing their usual white cassocks, with red stoles emblazoned with the Hammer and Sickle! I marched next to a Sri Lankan ordinand, and just in front of the retired Dean of the Cathedral, Fr. Sydney Knight, who has been very kind to me. After the march (about half an hour, but seemed longer in the hot sun) we went into the church for the mass. The service was all in Tamil and Sinhalese, so I couldn't understand a word of it, but I was still able to follow more or less what part of the service we were at. Things were kicked off by remarks from a Buddhist Monk, and an Imam. Instead of the sermon there was a drama, with Jesus and his followers (the workers) walking in, carrying the cross. Then a man dressed in coat and top hat with "America - USA" written all over it in red white and blue came in, and did a little dance, kicking at Jesus every now and then. As he ran off stage, a chorus came on, did a little dance and song. Then the American was replaced by a politician, then the chorus, then an actor. It was really cool, with great Sri Lankan music through the whole thing. It felt like the liberation theology we talk about in school being lived out!

Yesterday was Sunday, and I went to St. Michael's for the services. I had been asked to preach at the 7:30 (English) service. It went ok, I think. The services here are quite high church, with lots of incense, and bells at the Sanctus and the Consecration (even the outside bell of the church!). I went to the next two services as well the 9:00 (Sinhalese) and 10:30 (Tamil). They were quite similar, although the language was very different. The music changed as well - the 7:3- service felt like an English service, but the 9:00 and 10:30 felt more Sri Lankan. that's not really a good distinction, I know, since they were all authentically Sri Lankan, but it's hard to feel local when you have a pipe organ blasting out English 19th Century hymns!