Day 12: Sunday in Osijek

The Assembly of God church that runs the seminary meets in an early-twentieth-century synagogue on the property. I love the confluence of cross and tablets of the law at the front. We always sit in the balcony since that is the most unobtrusive place for a translator if there is one. Today we didn't ahve anyone, but the preacher was a British missionary to Sweden so we understood. I had less trouble keeping up with the Croatian words to the music because it was much slower than Friday's chapel, plus the melody was familiar--Power in the Blood.

There is a separate door to the balconies, a left-over, I suspect from the days when these were the women's galleries of the synagogue.

We had dinner at a place down by the river that we had noticed on a walk. Not the greatest service, but it was interesting to sit and watch whole trees float by on the bloated river. It will be an excellent location when they have the river walk open again.

I went for a longer walk in the afternoon. I snapped this of the building next to a church near "home." Compare with the clean new roofs in Dubrovnik. This is how old roofs normally look--thick with moss and lichen.

In the evening we walked the two miles back into town for a free choral concert at a church near the central square (which is really a triangle, but I never heard of a town with a "central triangle.")

Kapucinski Monastery Church

 When we arrived (after a circuitous route, having mistaken on the map the courtyard the church was on), Mass was still going on. We were amazed at how crowded it was in this post-communist country, How much is faith and how much is nationalism, I'm not sure. Probably a mix. We were also amazed at the numbers of young people who came out.

When the choir opened their mouths, the sound was gorgeous. Wonderful reverberation in the building. But after a while it all sounded the same--rich and poignant Angus Dei without ever getting to the lively glorias and alleluias. Steve whispered in my ear that he was ready for a good spiritual. At that point a female soloist launched into an all-over-the-map gospel rendition of Ave Maria--in Latin. But after that came "O Sacred Head Once Wounded" at half the speed I would take it.

We stood out in the cold on the "Triangle" for a bit and caught the overheated tram home to bed. Now it is time for a new week of teaching and classifying.