26 May 1996, the Feast of Pentecost, dawned cool but sunny
in Nairobi, Kenya. A large crowd of some 4,000 people had gathered in the
compound of St Teresa’s Parish, Eastleigh. The buildings of the parish centre
form a horseshoe, with the open side giving on to an open space beside the
parish church. At one side of the horseshoe a dais had been erected, and dotted
about the compound were standards, each one bearing the name of an African
language group: Kamba, Kikuyu, Kisii, Luyia, Luo, Meru and so on. People had
been asked to assemble around the pole where their own language group was
displayed.
At 10:30 a.m., the procession wound its way from the church
to the dais. Akamba dancers of the Holy Spirit Society, a parish association
founded to promote multiculturalism in Eastleigh, preceded it. Some fifty
Confirmation candidates and their sponsors followed these. Then came two choirs,
the readers, altar servers and two priests. After arriving at the dais, a
catechist introduced the celebration and the parish priest welcomed the
assembly.
The Service of the Word began with the reading of the
gospel by one of the priests. This was the reading from John 20 about the risen
Jesus breathing on the apostles, and saying: "Receive the Holy Spirit". After
the responsorial psalm came the second reading from Acts 2 about the events of
Pentecost itself. A lay leader read this while twelve confirmation candidates
mimed the scene. The twelve sat in a semi-circle, and at the mention of the
"tongues of fire", a cloth was unfurled behind their heads, bearing painted
flames and the Spirit in the form of a dove. After the reading, the actors came
forward in pairs to proclaim in six different languages that "Jesus is Lord and
Saviour".
The Gloria was then sung and the parish priest invited all
the ethnic groups by name to dance and to rejoice, each according to its own
cultural tradition. The compound was transformed into a noisy and joyous scene,
with everyone dancing, clapping and ululating. After about 20 minutes the
dancing finished and two women readers mounted the dais. One reader took the
text of Chapter 12 of Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians. This passage
enumerates the various gifts of the Spirit in the community: wisdom, knowledge,
faith, healing, prophecy, discernment, tongues, etc. The second reader suggested
applications for these gifts in the parish: catechists, Small Christian
Community leaders, nurses and social workers, readers and servers and so on.
After the reading, the parish priest preached a homily that
concluded with the invitation to the whole assembly to mingle and mix the
various ethnic groups. As this took place, the Confirmation candidates came
forward to form a circle in front of the dais, each one with his or her sponsor.
The two priests then administered the sacrament of Confirmation to them. People
were next invited to celebrate the Eucharist. This was done simultaneously in
the church and in the parish hall. Both Eucharist followed the same pattern. The
Creed and bidding prayers were followed by an offertory procession in which
seven adults, each accompanied by a small child with a lighted candle,
approached the altar bearing a placard with one of the seven gifts of the Holy
Spirit inscribed on it. The placards were received by the celebrant who placed
them around the altar.
The mass continued with special solemnity, the people joining
in a refrain repeated many times during the Eucharistic Prayer itself. The whole
celebration ended at about 12.30 p.m. The Catholics of Eastleigh are accustomed
to celebrating Pentecost in this especially elaborate manner, and the
celebration is an expression of their deeply felt desire to transcend the human
barriers that divide them.