Indigenous Christianity 101

We had a holiday here today so I went to a nearby town with my Brit buddies from my hostel and saw a famous church which is the best example of indigenous Christianity I could see so far. Apparently when the missionaries came to these parts, they realized that they could not convert the indigenous people entirely to Christianity so they integrated indigenous rituals into the form of Christianity they wanted to promote. So at this church for example, there are traditional healers that come to lead the services and there is no priest. Everyone sits on the floor on pine needles! And the healers (all women) light candles, like in a church, and there are dozens of statues of various saints and jesus too and they sit there and say their prayers in their local Indian languages and use things like eggs and chickens and even cans of soda and bottles of fake juice drinks in their cleansing rituals. Although I don’t understand the local language they are praying in, I clearly heard the word “fresco” which is what they use to refer to soda (and which so ironically means ‘fresh’).

So that was really interesting to observe. We had a good time wondering how the Pope would feel about a church with eggs and chickens! Where soda pop was holy water. Since it was almost mardi gras, they also had a carnival - lots of men playing music and walking around in a very ritualistic way - not wild but definitely different. I didn’t take any pictures - considered too rude - since its not really a tourist event so I had to keep my camera under wraps. But it was a nice day and then we ate some rice and beans and came back home.