Today we started off early to attend church in Marrakesh at L'Eglise des Saints Martyrs, a Roman Catholic Franciscan parish. The service was entirely in French, but the music, performed by an entirely African choir, included music sung in French, Latin and Congolese! I discovered I can sing in French better than I can speak! I understand it when I read it but not when someone is speaking (as in I got about 1 sentence in the sermon!!). There was a group of young Charismatic Roman Catholic kids from Belgium who were visiting the parish for a week and as soon as the service was over they and the choir of the host church all started singing and clapping, with drums and synthesizer going - it was very lively! The priest at the parish told one of our leaders that we were all welcome to receive Communion, which surprised us, but certainly made it more enjoyable to be at the service. Although I couldn't follow the French very well, except when we were singing, it was pretty easy to follow the liturgy and interesting to see a Christian community in a country where Christianity is a distinct minority. In Morocco the Christians are almost exclusively ex-pats, not Moroccans. Non-Moroccan Africans and Europeans mostly.
After the church service was over we hit the road for Rabat which was another long ride. About 2 hours along we stopped for lunch and then resumed. During the ride, for the first couple of hours, we enjoyed a very lively conversation with our Muslim leader and his wife about Islam and issues around the interpretation of the Qur'an in the modern context. It certainly helped make the ride pass quickly, as we enjoyed robust conversation and reflection. As we got off the highway about 20 minutes outside the city, we were driving along the Atlantic coast. We stopped to get out and look at the coastline which was pretty and rocky and rugged. As we drove into Rabat, we passed through the poorest section of the city, which has shanty towns with tin huts, not far from palatial villas facing the ocean. As we drove further into the city, we came to our hotel which is very near the royal palace and the diplomatic residences. We got to Rabat at about 5:30 and had only a short time to get showered and dressed in our clerical attire to attend an Iftar reception at the residence of the US Ambassador to Morocco, Dwight L. Bush, Sr. He hosted us and invited a cadre of Moroccan academics and public servants as well as various staff from the US Embassy and USAID to join us for Iftar. The ambassador's residence is, to say the least, palatial and elegant. I was seated with Imam Bashar, one of our trip leaders and the ambassador and two prominent women in Morocco whom the King has designated as women who are qualified to be intellectual and religious leaders, even over men (quite an accomplishment in Muslim culture!) Our dinner conversations were all about the importance of interfaith work in the context of various global crises, particularly those in the Arab world, and particularly why interfaith engagement is important for Muslim clerics outside the US and for politicians and diplomats to learn as they navigate the conflicts and trouble spots. Morocco is a bright spot in this region as it is progressive (at least compared to other Muslim majority countries) and Muslims here are more open to interfaith engagement than is the case in other middle eastern countries.
Pics include the church, the coast near Rabat, and shots from the embassy reception.
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