Service of First Communion

Five young girls adorned in white veils and shy smiles of expectation holding in their hands bouquets of beautiful hand- picked flowers around white taper candles entered into the incense filled wood board church along with seven young men dressed in clean white shirts holding bouquets as well.

Padre Horacio takes a moment to explain the practice of first communion to the delegation, and to the congregation who understands Spanish. He explains that while in many communities women do not learn to speak Spanish, as if they are not allowed, that in church we are trying to go around the problem of woman’s roles and give opportunities to women. Here there are two steps together… usually first communion is at seven years old as the children start being adults and have work responsibilities. At fourteen they are preparing for marriage and need to be confirmed before they can be married… so this community is newly Lutheran and the two come together today.

The text for the day was Zaceo, up in his tree… Padre Horacio sang the Zaceo song… same tune and everything and then asked if we, the delegation knew it. We did, so we sang the song as well. It was a moment when culture melted away through music, we shared the same song, the same bible story… watching the faces of the community members when we knew the song as well spoke volumes for at that moment for some reason it became clear that we were indeed brothers and sisters in Christ.

After the confirmation and communion service was over, the youth who were confirmed all planted orange trees outside of the church so that they could remember this day.