Susan ’ s address to the Week
The 1991 WCC General Assembly was held in Canberra on the ANU campus , over a fortnight from February 7 to 20 . To those of you here now , who were there then - welcome !
The theme was ‘ Come Holy Spirit , renew your whole creation ’ . It was like a mega-conference that let in and welcomed the public , particularly for the enormous early-morning services . A huge marquee on the football oval housed more than three thousand visitors from over a hundred countries . There was an Assembly choir of 70 voices , which led the singing at the early-morning services , and several singers in our choir here , and I , were part of that choir . The services were full of singing , worship , dancing even , praise and welcome . Every morning the huge congregation were taught the songs for the service beforehand , then there was a silence , and the service would begin . Each service addressed issues raised in the daily sessions and workshops – there was some factionalism and protests , reported in the daily conference newspapers and Australian press .
The services were beautifully organised , and organised around beauty – the tent was decorated with lovely banners , broad ribbons and Aboriginal designs . Simple ceramic bowls and jugs were used for communion , or carried in slow processions , containing water or incense or fruit or bread or wine , with third-world simplicity .
Many delegates came in national costumes – African men and women dignitaries in colourful printed robes and matching headgear , Eastern orthodox priests in flowing black gowns and hoods and golden finery , Aboriginal singers and dancers with painted bodies recalling the Dreamtime . A trio of Islander men , wearing wraparound skirts of coconut woven fibre , started each ceremony with a hooting call on raised conch shells , something like this [ hoot ]. The prayers and ceremony that followed were like multiple layers of worship - reflecting the layers of painted gold on the Russian icons carried in processions , the layers of colourful clothing ( each piece put on with care ), layers of voices singing phrase after phrase .
It was a wonderfully stimulating and humbling experience to be in the choir , coached by international conductors called ‘ animateurs ’ . They came from Taiwan , Indonesia , Brazil , Ghana , North America , South Africa , Scandinavia , Europe , Peru and the Middle East . The animateurs coached us in the particular techniques of their songs and in the passion , the magic of the singing . There were exciting pulsing rhythms from South America and Africa , songs of passion and protest , fine slow meditative textures in the Indonesian invocations of the Holy Spirit , warm ex-
St Margaret ’ s News 18 May 2021