Curitiba Pilgrimage 5 (11/20 Missãos São Joao Crisóstomo e Santa Isabel; and a Barbecue)

In conversation after service at Santa Isabal: parishioner,
Kate, Michael, Revda. Carmen, John, and Marcel

On Friday (sexta-feira), we gathered at Missão Sao Pedro at our usual starting time of about 10 a.m. and piled into two cars to drive north to the suburb of Colombo.  Rev. Roberto, who serves the missions in Colombo, was driving one of the cars and leading the way, with Marcel following in his car.  We didn’t get very far before we got separated at a light and then made a bad guess about which turnoff Roberto had taken.  Marcel admitted that he didn’t really know which way we were going — and others later laughed about his propensity to get lost in conversation and, as a result, get . . . lost.  After backtracking and trying a second unsuccessful option, we pulled over and tried to make contact with someone in Roberto’s car by cell phone.  Looking over my back shoulder, I spotted Roberto’s car on the road below, with everyone standing outside waving at us frantically.  So, after one more backtrack, we were back together and once more proceeding toward Colombo.

In true Episcopal fashion, Missão São João Crisóstomo is up a side street from the main road.  The chapel is a small rectangular box, large enough to contain a small altar at one end, a bench at the other, and 16 chairs in between.  The story I heard about this chapel is that it was once located where Missão São Pedro is now.  When they were ready to build the permanent structure that is now at Missão São Pedro, the chapel was moved to where it now sits in Colombo.  As usual, there was a community member, here an older gentleman named Arnaldo, who is key part of that congregation and worship space.  The chapel is located on his sister’s property, where he also lives, and he lights the candle daily and makes sure there are flowers.  We celebrated a mid-day Eucharist service in the chapel.  Carmen and Amber co-presided, alternating between Portuguese and English.  Kate and Nancy served as Deacons of the liturgy, and Roberto led the music (as he has done whenever he has been with us).  Marcel read the Gospel a second time in Portuguese, and translated Amber’s sermon as well as the subsequent announcements, introductions, and discussion.  There were about eight community members, a mixture of adults and children, at the service. Amber delivered a transcendent sermon, speaking of the great sadness of losing a beloved member of her congregation in California mixed with the joy of our time here in Brazil, the uncertainties and difficulties of travel to a new place and entering into new relationships that leave us anxious and vulnerable; and that it is at these times, as we confront these experiences, that we are closest to the divine.

We talked with the members of the congregation after the service, and Kate and Melissa performed their newly translated song.  We then walked back to the main road and up to the supermarket to get some lunch.  We then drove to another part of Colombo to visit Missão Santa Isabel.  This mission is in a house located in an area that is not a favela, but is probably the next closest thing.  Michael later noted that this congregation has had to move around due to safety issues with staying in one location.  The key member of this congregation is a teenage girl, who had a baby in her arms, who took responsibility for keeping this worship community together after its previous leader, her mother, had died at a very young age within the past year or two.  We walked through the two-room house to an open back yard area, where a couple of men were sitting on a hammock and there was another girl of about 10 and a small boy.  We prayed together and talked about life in this community.  Someone pointed out that even though Curitiba is renowned for its cheap public transit, there are very few buses out to this area.  These people were also interested in hearing about the San Francisco Night Ministry to people on the streets and the Open Cathedral.

Afterward, Marcel took a couple of us to the back of the clearing, where a few vegetables were growing, and noted that this had once been farmland but had later been overtaken by people moving in.  He pointed out the river behind the property that had once been a place where children swam but now had to be avoided due to the pollution.  With Marcel translating and at times joining in, I had a conversation with one of the men about the reality of life of the poor here and in other parts of Brazil.  He noted that the media always showed the beautiful parts of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo and even Curitiba, but that visitors did not see or know about the other parts.  We compared social welfare systems — they have a food stamps program, but he said they can be taken away if a social worker visits the home and finds any sign of wealth, such as a TV or computer. They do not have anything comparable to our aid programs for mothers with children or senior citizens who live below poverty level.  The expectation for seniors is that they will be taken care of by their children, whether or not that fits with reality.  The public transit system is cheap; I believe Marcel said that one can ride anywhere on the Curitiba system for 1 real (right now about 70 cents), but for some people that may be all they have to live on for an average day.  On the other hand, everyone can get health care.

After this visit we headed back to Curitiba.  Once again Marcel needed to follow Roberto to find our way back.  Once again we got separated, and Marcel got lost. When we spotted a huge replica of the Statue of Liberty (something like four stories high) in front of a store, we told Marcel that he had accidentally driven us to New York City.  From there he knew how to get back home.

In the evening we gathered for a dinner party in a common area of the building where Bishop Naudal and his family live.  The Bishop himself was barbecuing a great variety of meat items — after hanging out with the Andruses in both his country and ours, I’m not sure where he got the idea that he was hosting a bunch of carnivores, but he guessed right.  They were also preparing caiparinhas, the Brazilian rum specialty that one is supposed to sip and pass on (similar to the way we used to share a certain herbal product in days of yore).

One of the highlights of the evening was meeting and speaking with the Rev. Côn. Odilon, the grand old man of the diocese, and as energetic an 83 year old as one can find.  Odilon has been an Anglican priest for 60 years, and for many years was the only Anglican priest in Curitiba.  He was also the dean of the parish of São Tiago (now the cathedral) when Curitiba was still part of the Diocese of São Paulo.  He expressed his fondness for the U.S. and told me of his studies on pastoral care at an institute in a Detroit suburb, which he did as a guest of the Diocese of Ohio (then in a companion relationship with the Diocese of São Paulo).

After the conversation and caiparinhas, we moved inside for singing and dancing and then to eat.  Later on there was a surprise birthday celebration for Michael Tedrick.  Everyone we meet here is quite fond of Michael.  We drove home with Cesar and Veronica and then packed for our five-day journey to Londrina and other cities in the state of Paraná.  It was another late night.