Three September baptisms and a wedding at Maruranau

                                      The newly-married couple, Mr and Mrs Shu-Shu, with flower girls on

                                      their wedding day at Maruranau Village. (Photo Medino Abraham).

In the interior and especially in the Rupununi, the Catholic communities normally celebrate baptisms and weddings around Easter and Christmas. However, this year, this tradition changed a little for Maruranau village in the South Rupununi when a wedding and three baptisms were celebrated on September 10th in this Wapichan community, There is only one priest available to serve the people of the South Rupununi (Fr. Paulouse Valakada SJ), so the faithful and church team of Maruranau, along with Fr. Paulouse, made a plan that during this September there will be baptisms and holy matrimony conducted during Mass in the village. The Catholic community therefore celebrated two holy sacraments: three baptisms and one marriage on Tuesday September 10th, at 9.00am. Because of the two sacred sacraments happening during Mass, the church was packed to capacity with villagers and visitors.

September is Indigenous Heritage Month - a time to showcase the rich culture and traditions of Guyana’s first people. As a way to observe Heritage Month, before the Mass began there was the ritual of face painting using Annatto Dye on worshipers as they entered the church building to celebrate the sacred and joyful occasion. Most of the Mass - such as songs, readings and prayers - was celebrated in the local language, Wapichan. Additionally, the church was beautifully decorated with indigenous art and craft, including small baskets and other handicrafts made by the people that boosted the spirit and environment of the Catholic/ Wapichan Mass celebration.

A beautiful Wapichan song was played on a speaker for the Bride and Groom as Fr. Paulouse called them forward to get married, and also when he blessed and declared them husband and wife. The homily had a good message to the faithful which highlighted the importance of baptism in the Catholic faith, and welcoming of the new members to the church. An inspiring message was given on the sacred covenant of marriage based on the love between husband and wife being centered on God.

The aspects of indigenous culture and language were emphasized by the priest, to maintain and preserve them, because they are important for identity and contribute to making them indigenous Catholics. At the Mass, there was an interesting aspect of the solemn occasion, which was centered on the young couple Mr. and Mrs Shu-Shu. It was their beautiful traditional wedding outfit that stood out from the regular wedding celebrations around the Rupununi. Their wedding outfits were made locally from colourful bird feathers and beautiful beads and cotton.

After the mass I congratulated the newly-weds and had a little chat with the happy bride about her wedding outfit. She narrated to me the following: “I made my wedding outfit myself. It was made out of cotton and beads. All the local materials I gathered from the environment since I know how to make cultural outfits and hammocks from cotton and also from beads etc. While my husband´s headdress was made from bird feathers, he didn´t kill any birds to get them. He gathered them in the bush when they fell from the macaws and parrots on the ground. We began a long time to prepare our clothing for the marriage and I am happy we got married using local materials”.  

In a conversation with the bridegroom about his wedding outfit, he said that “we opted to get married with indigenous wear. I found it appropriate to get married in our traditional wear because firstly, it’s during September our Indigenous Heritage Month. A time to tie the knot and be blessed by God as Indigenous Catholics.

Secondly, we saw that economically, making our marriage outfit is far cheaper than buying expensive clothing from the stores that make us feel very sweaty in this hot weather. I hope I am not sounding like we want to promote Indigenous weddings in September or to make it a show. No, it’s nothing like that. We are serious about our married life as Indigenous Catholics. Especially having it centered on the plan of God with a view to live a good Christian life as husband and wife, in a world where we are seeing that the sacred covenant is being taken for granted by many”.

Congrats to the young married couple and may God richly bless their married life.

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                               Bernadette Abraham, 84, recalls life in Moruca 

       Mrs. Bernadette Abraham of Kumaka Road, Santa Rosa, Moruca (Photo Medino Abraham).

From Medino Abraham

Mrs. Bernadette Abraham is 84 years old and is from Santa Rosa, Moruca. For the celebration of the 200th anniversary of the Catholic faith in Moruca, the oldest Catholic mission in the interior of Guyana tells her story of what is like to be a Catholic for all this time.

Mrs. Abraham is of the third generation of the first Morucans who came from Venezuela to Mariaba (present-day Santa Rosa). She was educated at the convent school run by the Mercy Sisters that time. From that school came a few indigenous religious sisters from Santa Rosa. There were also a few young men who entered the seminary to train for the priesthood but they did not continue. She lamented that Moruca has not produce any priests in its 200 years of Catholicism.

Mrs. Abraham narrated to me her memories of going to church very regularly as a child with her parents who were strong Catholics and who themselves were educated by the sisters at the convent school. Mrs. Abraham is the eldest of five siblings, who are all still alive.

She recalled that when she was a small child, her life revolved around the home, school, the church and the farm. Being subsistence farmers, they worked hard to plant cassava and other crops to sustain the household. Their family life was very strong and despite the hard work, they had fun. “We prayed together, ate together, discussed issues and tried to solve matters about life as a family” she said. Mrs. Abraham noted that today this has changed much, with people not spending time with their families. “Nowadays people are married one day and sometime after they will separate. They make a joke of married life and the holy sacrament of matrimony. This is not good”, she said.

Another concern she has are the high rates of promiscuity seen today. “Today we have men making ‘pickneys’ all over the place with women who just think it is normal. The children grow up with single parents and most times they are wayward because there is no structured parental guidance”. She said that during the time when most of the people lived according to Church teachings this issue was not so common.

Mrs. Abraham noted that she heard her parents speaking the Arawak and Spanish languages at home to one another, but she never learnt those languages, except for a few words in Spanish. When I asked her if she regretted not knowing to speak her native language her response was a quick ‘yes’, and lamented that most people of Moruca nowadays don’t know their language either.

In our conversations about her experience of the celebration of Mass prior to Vatican II in the 1960s , Mrs Abraham narrated “I remember seeing the priest facing the wall and backing the congregation. The priest used to celebrate Mass in Latin, and the congregation used to accompany him with responses in Latin. I learnt a few words like ‘mea culpa,’ that means ‘through my fault’ and is an acknowledgement of having done wrong.

Then after the 1960s the priest began to celebrate the Mass facing the congregation. This I found strange for the first. But after sometime I got accustomed to it.

“I got married at age 15 to my husband Joseph Abraham who died a couple years ago, God rest his soul. We lived our married life happily together through rough and through good times and with the grace of God we never separated until he died”.

When I asked her what kept their married life strong and firm, she related that they always prayed together at home, and also tried to show love and respect for one another. “This for me is what it means to be Catholic”.

They also sought advice from the priest and elders in the community for encouragement and good advice to keep them going.

Mrs. Abraham recalled too that during that time, Santa Rosa was a uncorrupted place where the main time and place of social interaction was around the church after the Mass on Sundays. There were rarely places where people went to dance and drink as nowadays. With a tone of nostalgia she said she missed those good old days and laments some of the changes that have taken place over these 200 years in Moruca, which, according to her, are for the good and the bad.

Over the course of these 200 years things have changed a lot in Moruca, with many people leaving the Catholic church and joining other churches in the community. Also many people nowadays don’t go to church at all.

“I don’t know why people have changed so much like this. Because in my day every Sunday the church used to be packed whether there is a priest or not. But not today. People hardly go and it’s only those who have kept the faith or the diehard Catholics that go regularly”, she said.

Mrs. Abraham always practices her Catholic faith by going to church regularly. Besides this, she enjoys doing voluntarily work assisting the priest in her role as Parish Lay Assistant (PLA).

She served as a PLA for a number of years in Moruca during the time of Fathers Terrence Petry and Bernard Brown. Under these Jesuit priests she learnt many great things about her faith and about the teachings of the Church. Then after some years she decided to step down and encouraged younger people to take over.

This, I found it very interesting because nowadays there are a lot of long standing, generous PLAs who continue to be there and may not be giving the chance to the young ones to take over.

When I asked her about this common issue with the young verses the old in the leadership of the Church she said it was always there. “But I used to know how to deal them. We need the youths in the Church to be active and for the senior ones to help them to learn so that they can take over and not just to shut them out.”

Craftwork depicting the 200th anniversary of Catholicism in Santa Rosa. (Photo Medino Abraham).  

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The participants and planning team of the Bible Quiz in Aishalton Photo credit ( Judy Winter)

From Judy Winter

Youth leader

St. Robert Bellarmine R.C Aishalton

South Rupununi

In Region 9 and particularly in the South of the Rupununi there are always games being played among the young people such as foot ball and cricket between different teams; competing against one another, and also keeping themselves physically occupied and talented.  Aware of this reality,  Medino Abraham who is based at Aishalton along with the church team, thought about engaging the youths- mainly the confirmation candidates in a game in which they do compete with one another, but this time in a religious education activity, namely a Bible Quiz. In this way they will learn about the Bible and also boost their faith.

Thus, on Saturday June 30th the Catholic Community of Aishalton in the South Rupununi held a Bible Quiz among the young people preparing for confirmation.

The religious educative programme began at 4:30 and finished at 5:30 pm that evening. It was organized by the church team and the youths who wanted to know more about the scripture and particularly the Gospel of Mark.

Much preparation took place. At first Medino Abraham and the church team held a Bible Seminar on the Gospel of Mark in first week of June to give the participants some background and preparation.

The participants were given three weeks to get ready for the event.

 It was agreed upon by the youths that the quiz would be boys against the girls and four in each team.

The team conducting the quiz namely Leah, Medino, Bunny and Mrs Leona Spencer selected twenty questions from the gospel of Mark. The participants answered many of them almost without hesitation. However, as in each competition there must be a winner and as such, the girls emerged as the winners by six points.

According to one parishioner “it was really good to see that the young people carefully studied the Bible and prepared well. I was impressed with their performance at the Bible Quiz. For me I saw all of them as winners and I wish them well as they continue educating themselves about the holy book”.

A participant receiving a certificate of participation at the Bible Quiz exercise. (Photo Judy Winter).

At the end of the quiz, all participants were presented with certificates of participation and merit prizes, all compliments of the Planning Committee.

The youths and audience, who seemed to enjoy every minute of it, were not only given the opportunity to be more motivated about the Bible but also to experience a bible quiz which the church in this community had never witnessed before.

This religious activity is the start of a good and successful initiative being implemented that will continue to help youths, particularly Confirmation candidates to be more involved and learn more about the bible.  

Perhaps someday we can even send a team to the annual Bible Quiz in Georgetown.  😩🙌

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