Pastors' Conference

Today was spent mostly in preparations for next week's pastors' conference.

My first trip to Kenya was last year at this time. Two LC/MS congregations were funding a pastors' conference at the seminary here. The pastors from those congregations (Pastors Douthwaite and Froh) were coming to teach at the conference; Dr. Tim Quill (professor at the sem in Fort Wayne) was coordinating it and teaching also. This hymnal project was born, and I joined the group to observe the worship services, be a part of the official start of the Kenyan Hymnal Commission, and participate in the first planning meetings of the commission.

We were enthusiastically received. The Lutheran community here is gracious and generous, and the pastors and seminary students are very eager to learn. As a result, it was decided to hold a second conference: 1-5 March 2010. Pr. Froh is teaching again, as well as Dr. Quill, and myself. The topic this year is this new hymnal - introducing some parts of it, teaching about liturgy, and about music.

Among the various songbooks/hymnals currently being used in churches, none have music in them. This new hymnal, Ibada Takatifu (Divine Service), will. Very few people can read music, but perhaps the hymnal will be one small step among many in giving the people some music literacy. Along with talking about the importance of liturgy, I plan to teach the basics of reading music, and how to sing this setting.

I'm the only person at the Guest House today, other than the staff, and the solitude has been great for getting prepared and also for relaxing.

I'm not sure how many workers there are here. I'm aware of three young ladies doing household tasks, a couple of young men working in the yard, and a driver. My impression is that this is full time work for all of them and they their pay is mostly room and board. Molly, the head cook, just turned 27 yesterday. I've talked with her more. She considers this her career, although she also hopes to be married someday.

Traveling to Kenya

Once again I’ve made it safely across the ocean, over Europe, and south to Nairobi, Kenya. This being my third trip, there’s a sense in which it feels like a normal thing to do. For instance, I realized yesterday I have a routine for Schipol Airport in Amsterdam. Double check the connecting flight and gate number and actually walk there. The lounge area on the second floor is quietest and the lighting is dim. Go there for a nap. If the layover is too short for a nap, go to the art gallery and gallery gift shop. Then walk, walk, walk, because the next flight is just as long as the last one, and if your legs are tired you’ll look forward to a long sit.

The layovers were just right this time – about three hours in Detroit and three in Amsterdam. No rush even if the plane arrives late (everything was on time), but not a long wait either.

First thing upon arrival at Jomo Kenyatta Airport in Nairobi, all visitors must apply for Single Journey Visas. The lines are slow and long and in a part of the airport that has low ceilings, no ventilation, no windows, and somewhat poor lighting, making for a shocking introduction to the warm climate. The pilot had told us that the temperature was 75 outside, and I couldn’t wait to get out of the airport and breathe the night air.

Once through the visa line, which includes a $25 fee and getting my picture taken, I was free to get my luggage. One more inspection, and free to go. I was asked questions, but as far as I know, my suitcases were never opened.

Pr. Isaiah Obare and James, the driver, were waiting to greet me, and I spent the first night at the Obare’s home, because the Luther Guest House was fully booked.

A home in Kenya

While I was at the seminary in Kenya I stayed at the home of the seminary president, Dr. Joseph Omolo Ochola. The Ochola family were gracious and generous hosts and are now good friends. Here are a few pictures of them and their house:


Dr. Ochola


Ruth, Sandra, Raija


the main room of the house


daughter Raija's and my bedroom


my bed with the mosquito net down


wash day - Raija was always quick to offer to wash my clothes

A hymnal provides ritual

One benefit of a hymnal is the unity that comes from ritual. The Divine Service is full of rituals, and in fact it’s not really possible to have communal worship without rituals. There are the fundamental and foundational rituals instituted by Christ - the preaching of the Word and administration of the Sacraments. The church is created for and built up by those rituals. And there are rituals men have devised over the centuries which, done properly, catechize us, aid in our worship, unite us, and deliver the Gospel to us.

The order we do things in within the service is ritualistic, as well as they way we do them, and these rituals accomplish vastly more than one thing. For instance: making the sign of the cross reminds us that we are saved by Christ’s crucifixion and that we are His. It reminds us of our baptism. It might also serve to refocus our attention. If my mind started wandering, the habit of raising my hand to make the sign of the cross reminds me to pay attention. Seeing others around me reminds me of my neighbor, to whom I’m united and for whom I pray. Young children participate by making the sign of the cross (or really young children by having mom take the hand and make the sign of the cross on them) before they can even understand that much of words.

A hymnal gives a church the blessing of shared rituals.

I am reading the Concordia Commentary on Leviticus by John Kleinig, and he used this great phrase to describe the complexity of purpose and meanings for ritual enactments. He called it a “surplus of significance”. I love it!

Choosing and translating hymns

Selecting the corpus of hymns is proving to be an interesting challenge. While Rev. Omolo was at the seminary, one of the jobs we accomplished was to look at each hymn in LSB and prioritize it for inclusion in the Kenyan hymn; one meant yes, this hymn should be in the Kenyan hymn, two maybe, and three no. One criterion that gave a hymn an automatic number one was if it was also in Mwimbieni Bwana, the Tanzanian hymnal, since that meant it was already in Swahili. There were 64 hymns that were in both hymnals.

There are, of course, other hymnbooks and songbooks in Swahili, and those are being researched for additional hymns. However, if the hymnal has perhaps 200 hymns in it, this still means at least 100 need to translated. One hundred is a big number!

The challenge is not so much in the literal translation because there are a number of excellent Kenyan pastors who are fluent in English and skilled at translating. The challenge is in writing poetically – following the rhythm and flow of a melody - making the stress of the beats and the stress of the syllables match – while keeping the text rich in meaning and clear in doctrine. What we need are a few theologically and musically trained poets who are fluent in English and Swahili. If you are such a person, or know someone who fits the description, please make yourself known!

Looking over the prioritized list, I see that some of the hymns which are in both English and Swahili are weak theologically. The fact that a hymn is already translated is not going to be able to automatically qualify it for inclusion, and we need to revisit this list. Hymnody is simply too important to the life and faith of the church.

Samples of the Kenyan liturgy

The traditional melodies used in the Kenyan settings of the liturgy are lovely. They have a churchly sound. They’re straightforward and easy to sing, but not frivolous or trivial. They’ve grown on me as I’ve listened to them and written them down, and there’s something about them that sounds liturgical.

As I mentioned, these tunes are oral tradition. However , the other day I was singing through a collection of African hymns (Tumshangilie Mungu) transcribed and compiled in the 1960’s and 70’s by Howard Olson, a Lutheran theologian, missionary, linguist, and musician. Much to my surprise and delight, I came across a piece that is nearly identical to the Agnus Dei in the Divine Service! It has some minor differences, as one would expect, but considering that this version was written some 40 years ago, in Tanzania, it’s remarkably similar.

Clicking on the title of this post will take you to three brief recordings by Pr. Omolo and myself - the Kyrie Eleison and Agnus Dei from the Divine Service, and the Opening Versicles from Matins.

Working on the hymnal

During the month of July, Pr. Omolo and I were able to put together a draft of the Divine Service, Matins, and Vespers, in Swahili, with the music as it is sung in Kenya.We got all this work done because we had not only had three weeks together at the seminary in Fort Wayne for the sole purpose of working on the hymnal, but also could meet frequently with Dr. Quill and Dr. Grime as we were working. It used a chunk of money from the Hymnal Project account to bring Pr. Omolo over, but it was definitely money well spent.

The music for the liturgy is all oral tradition, so Pr. Omolo sang the parts one at a time for me and I notated them. Pr. Omolo spent hours each day on his own, translating Proper Prefaces and Collects and other parts of the liturgy. Dr. Grime and Dr. Quill carefully walked through the liturgies with us, making suggestions, explaining historical practices and traditions and theological considerations. In those conversations I was primarily an observer, gaining more appreciation and love for our liturgy as we poured over its details.

One of the amazing benefits of working on a project like this is that it means being immersed in the Word of God, with brothers in Christ. Thank you, Lord!