First Sunday Mass in Nebbi

Early start this morning, as Mass started at 7.00am.

The Cathedral was packed, despite the early hour - a congregation of well over 1,000 and all dressed in their Sunday best (a practice which sadly has long since been lost at home).

The Mass was awesome - full of life and reverence.  The offertory procession was more than simply presenting the bread and wine for the Eucharistic Feast and monetary offerings.  There was a long procession of people from the parish offering more tangible gifts - everything from hands of bananas, trays of oranges, tomatoes and other fruit and veg, cases of bottled water and soft drinks, cans of cooking oil, sacks of rice and maize, bags of charcoal and bringing up the rear two live goats!  From the lengthy notices at the end of Mass, there appears to be a rota whereby representatives of different groups and organisations within the parish are responsible for donating these more tangible gifts.  Next week is the turn of the business community and the local government, the police and the civil service.

Take a camera out where there are small children and the cry is "take my picture!".  Three young members from today's congregation.

Despite being the only white person in the packed Cathedral, I felt welcome and very much part of the Mass.  For me this morning underlined the beauty of the Universal Church.  In a remote town in the north west of Uganda, I am welcomed in faith, charity and love.

Oremus pro invicem!