St Augustine´s Church,Washington DC

I Googled my nearest Roman Catholic Church from our hotel - the Washington Hilton - and found St Augustine´s. According to the information it was Washington´s first black Roman Catholic Church. I had been to a predominantly black Church once before in Virginia, but this was different; it was described as a black church and I was curious...but also concerned. I associate black churches with a very expressive form of religion; evangelical, pentocostalist and always Protestant. I was curious to see if this Roman Catholic Church had any of these features but I was also concerned as I loathe that kind of religion; not the faith, but anything that purports to get me on my feet, expressing my faith and generally interacting.

Well, it was everying I imagined! The Church was not all black, but predominatly so. I found the white Christian Saints and Martyrs displayed in the copious stained glass windows an amusing contrast. The Church was of a very classic design, nothing modern about it. The cantor was a young white woman, the servers were black and, when he finally arrived, the priest that day was white.

The priest was a larger than life character and equally loud and his opening lines of welcome were punctuated with ´halleluha!´ to which the congregation readily replied in kind. Likewise the sermon - ´halleluha!´ The singing was relatively restrained but I did note a drum kit at the front, presumably for a even livelier Mass later that day. I had gone to the early morning Mass as I had a flight to catch that day.

The Mass had its own unique features. As I could have predicted, hands were raised during the Our Father. This is an abomimable practice in which I had never participated...until this Mass! I had no choice. The people nearest me - one woman in front and another beside me - grabbed my hands and raised them up and I noted that the whole congregation was holding hands as one. At the end of the prayer, the affectionate squeeze on the hand I was given before we all disengaged was a friendly gesture. Of course, when it came to the sign of peace, this lasted a good five minutes or more as everyone in the Church had to shake hands with almost everyone else, including me. I did not take Communion, partly due to time but mainly as I did not want to get tied up in any post-Mass activities. I really like to enter and leave Mass anonymously.

Not my style of worship but I came away with a huge smile on my face. I was struck by the utter sincerity of what I had witnessed and on my next visit to DC, I may go back. Halleluha!