Moved by the Spirit

 Have you ever heard of the Eritrean Orthodox Church? I sure hadn't until these Christian brothers and sisters started meeting in our church building every other Saturday morning.* 

Normally I'm not in the church building myself. The Dutch Baptist Union, along with several other Christian organizations, is following the strictest guidelines for COVID safety. We are still meeting online rather than face-to-face. But on a couple of Saturday mornings, I've been in the church yard as part of the Tuin (Garden) Team. One Saturday morning a month, three members of the Tuin Team come to weed, trim, and rake. Half-way through the morning the team members take a coffee break. We go inside for that, while still keeping the regulation 1.5 meters apart.

So do our Eritrean brothers and sisters. They begin chanting and praying before any of us gardeners get there, and they keep going after we've left. Our familiar building is filled with unfamiliar sounds, the unfamiliar scent of incense, and dark, slender people wrapped in fine-woven white--men, women, and children who come and go all throughout the morning. They observe the limit of 30 people in the chapel at a time, 1.5 meters apart. 

So there were people coming and going when we went in to make our coffee/tea. The Spirit moved one of the Eritrean brothers, wearing a blue facemask and a white cotton wrap, to offer us a round loaf of bread from a stack on the counter. 

We do not share the same language. We do not share the same church traditions. We do share the same Lord. And we shared this loaf of bread.

There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; 5one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. Ephesians 4:4-6

 *Photo from Internet of Eritrean Orthodox Church in Canada.