Visual vs voice

19.01.2009

Fr Colin McLean looks for new ways to proclaim the mission of the Church.

Marcelo Batista, one of the married deacons from our parish, and I were together at a Mass in a community of fishermen to honour St Peter, on the feast of Sts Peter and Paul. The feast, known here as São Pedro (St Peter) - St Paul doesn't get a look in - is one of the major feasts in Northeastern Brazil.

At the beginning of the Mass, the fishermen brought to the altar a large basket of flowers, to be cast later into the sea as an offering; they also brought up various symbolic gifts in the offertory procession.

As soon as the Mass was finished, the men organized a fluvial (river) procession, the first ever in this community, to honour St Peter. After I had blessed the large basket of flowers, 13 small fishing boats followed the boat with the basket out to sea. Marcelo and I rode in the boat behind the one that carried the flowers. The other boats were filled with many fishermen and a few women. I kept thinking of the gospel stories of Jesus and his fishermen companions on the Sea of Galilee.

All the way out to sea, the mood was joyful. When the men decided we had reached a good spot, many of them dived overboard, and the basket was passed from the lead boat into the arms of Marcelo and me. I blessed it again, then handed it down to the fishermen in the sea. With a prayer, they let it sink. We headed back to shore to a most enjoyable lunch that the women had prepared.

For those fishermen and their wives, it was a wonderful precedent that they hope will become an annual tradition. Reflecting on the number of fishermen participating in the fluvial procession and their being outside the church during the Mass, I can only hope that eventually, by us entering into their world and engaging with the fishermen via the procession (the sea), we may help them come to see the relevance of the Eucharist in their lives also.

"Cena Um" (Scene One)

It was with this in mind that several years ago I helped form a non-government organization called "Cena Um" (Scene One). Our aim is to utilize the Afro-Brazilians love of Capoeira (Brazilian form of martial arts blended with dance) and the sound of the drums, legacies of their African forbears, who were brought here as slaves over three centuries.

"Cena Um" now boasts a theatre and a dance company, and more recently, a circus acrobatic troupe.
The principal aim of all three groups is to raise social awareness through the content of their presentations, and to develop self-esteem in the young participants. All come from poor communities on the periphery of the city of Salvador, and suffer racial discrimination because of their colour. Most of these youth are not churchgoers.

Right now, we are trying to get a modest theatre built on a small property we have bought, but the bureaucracy involved is unbelievable!
Our property is in the middle of our church deanery, on the periphery of Salvador, and will thereby involve many more youth from the poorer communities to participate in our project. Hopefully, the demolition of a building on the property will begin within the next week, so that as soon as we do get the title deeds we can construct a pre-fabricated frame with a roof. That will at least allow us to have rehearsals and some performances, while we raise further funding to transform it into our theatre and to meet overhead expenses.

Soap opera rules

One of the young men participating in our "Cena Um" project commented to me that he and many other youth do not go to Mass because it is boring and so predictable: reading after reading, boring church music, and then the sermon. This is the standard church procedure in a culture that focuses on the visual and vibrant.

Soap operas rule television from before midday to late at night. When they are to be televised live, even football matches are timed to start after the last "soapie" finishes for the day! That is the competition the Church faces daily!

In liturgies and church activities (including a TV station), everything is concentrated on the spoken word, and almost nothing on the visual arts. Every two months we have a Mass in the afro-style that does attract a few more youth, including the one I mentioned above, who commented on the boring and predictable nature of the Mass.
The afro Mass, with its vibrant rhythmic drumming and songs, colourful vestments, and dancing at the entrance of the bible and offertory procession, speaks so eloquently to him and many youth, while it turns off others.

From time to time in the church, I show feature films that depict gospel values. Some of the films are explicitly religious, others not, but I am convinced we have to use more visual and rhythmic forms in our attempts to help bring about the reign of God on earth... and we have to find the right language!

Jesus didn't get to know his fishermen companions by waiting for them around the synagogue. He got to know them and their language by walking along the beach to where they tended their nets, fishing with them, crossing the lake with them (even in storms), and cooked their fish on the beach. He entered their world, learned their fishing language… and then he called them to be fishers of men and women.

Fr Colin McLean has been a missionary in Brazil since 1985.

Read more stories from the The Far East, January/February