The Syro-Malabar Church is an Eastern Rite Church which is in communion with the Roman Catholic Church. They have a page of facts all about it here but I will sum up. The "Syro" part refers to Syria and a Chaldean tradition, the "Malabar" part refers to the Malabar coast of Indea where St. Thomas landed.

I will confess, the Syro-Malabar Catholic's are not a group of Catholic's I ever expected to become in any way aquainted with. They are all the way over there and I am all the way over here. Nevertheless, by the wonders of modern technology (aeroplanes, economics and the like) it makes sense for them to fly halfway around to world to come and work in Hull... For this reason we have a sizeable community of St. Thomas Christians here at the West Hull Parishes.

Today was the feast of the Immaculate Conception and the first anniversary of the St. Mary's Prayer Group which is a prayer group set up by the Indian community here in Hull. For this reason there was a bit of a celebration. The Indians invited the Parish Council along and Fr. Massie encouraged myself and Ella to go along and experience it as well.

Mass in the Syro-Malabar Rite

The celebrations began with the celebration of mass in the Syro-Malabar rite. Fr Joy Cheradiyil came all the way from Glasgow to celebrate a beautiful (if strange to my ears) liturgy. This was my first experience of the Indian love affair with the microphone. In our culture a microphone is designed simply to make a speaker audible at the back of a room, the perfect microphone setup is invisible to the human ears and simply makes the voice a little louder and audible to elderly ears towards the back. In the Indian culture a microphone is as large as possible, there must be a constant hiss and the voice must be heard to echo. The other rule is that feedback must happen every half an hour or so and while the English cover their ears and strain to maintain their sanity the Indian Catholic's don't even notice that anything is amiss.

The entire mass (with the exception of the readings and the homily) was sung. This was not possible because the Indian community have been trained so sing Malayalam plainsong (many of them did not sing at all) but because the Priest sang and people either joined in or didn't. The Malayalam language is a marvelous thing to hear, mostly like a record being played backwards with the occasional 'woing, boing, doing'. The chanting is rythmic and beautiful while entirely unlike any chanting I have ever heard before. I enquired with Fr. Joy afterwards and he confirmed that they sing non-polyphonic chants and simply chant the mass including introits, antiphons etc. He said "that is not how you do things in England..." and I said "that is how we should do things in England".

Given that Vatican II talks about chant having "pride of place" it's a bit of a scandal that people have to come halfway around the world for me to hear a sung mass in my own parish Church!

The other thing that was certainly notable about the mass was the homily. The best word I can think of is this: Animated. You don't have to speak Malayalam to recognise the waving of arms and the shaking of fists. Fr Joy's voice was (as we say in England) raised. I have never heard nor seen an English priest speak to a congregation in this way, the message was clear - whatever he was saying, it was not optional.

The mass did feel long but not so long as to be too long. The main reason for the extra length is that the prayers are much longer. The rite itself is pretty similar and they even have a special three part blessing for advent (just like us). I wish our masses were more like their masses.

Speeches and Food

After mass we had some presentations where the key players in the St. Mary's prayer group were invited on stage to give speeches. Fr. Massie took the opportunity to invite the Indian community to come to Lourdes next year which is a smart move.

The man who runs catechesis classes after mass at St. Wilfrid's gave a heartfelt plea to those present to get their kids along to the catechesis classes. It is a plea I have sadly heard all too many times before. I heard it said to peoples parents when I was a child, I heard it said to my peers when I was a teenager and I hear it said every now and then at weddings, baptisms, christmases and easters. It's the classic "I'm not saying you don't go to mass and I know you have very good reasons for not going to mass but really I think you should start going to mass". It's kind of saddening to hear it and I really felt for the man saying it. I remember a polish man saying to me "I do not understand, in Poland my friends go to mass but when we are in England they do not go to mass". This Indian man was in the same situation.

I have spoken to a few immigrant Catholic's who have made similar observations. It's worth remembering when getting all rose-tinted-spectacled about Catholic cultures in places like Poland where "everybody is Catholic" that a fair number of people are not particularly Catholic at all. I think there's a lot to be said for "if you love someone let them go" and "if they don't come back, they were never yours".

Anyway, after the speeches it was time for one of the highlights of the evening: the food. Some of the Indians turned up with a huuuuge pan (probably too big for some doors) of curry and another huuge pan of rice. The curry was deeeelicious and Leona loved the lumpy white non-spicy stuff that came with it. There was plenty left for seconds and the man dishing out the food did that classic where you say "just a bit" (you know, because you have already had a full meals worth) and he fills your plate anyway. Mmmmm.

The Play

There were two plays actually, just before we ate some of the younger kids did a play and afterwards the adults did one. There's not something you see in our culture... In our culture drawing and painting, acting and singing and dancing is for kids. In the indian culture adults take part in everything and I thoroughly approve. The play by the children told the story of the prodigal son, the one by the adults told the story of Jesus' life from birth to death.

The plays were remarkable for three things. Firstly, the lighting. The entire way through the stage was bathed in coloured light, white or green or red or sometimes all three (flashing). A red spotlight was used to highlight key moments and a strobe light was employed for the scene in which a man was beaten up. The lighting was intense. Secondly (you guessed it), the sound. The actors did not speak, the entire thing was acted out using body language and facial expressions. Very loud music was played along with sound effects (the blind man heard all kinds of people talking in a rather disorientating fashion), we heard a crying baby when Jesus was born and thunder roared when he was crucified.

It sounds awful doesn't it, flashing lights, loud music, imagine trying to inflict that on the English? The old ladies would walk out (and who else is there?). However, the third remarkable thing saved the day. The acting was amazing. I don't just mean it was good in a "let's be polite way". Especially with the flashing lights and the loud music caught me totally off guard. What was amazing about it was the integrity of the "fourth wall". There were no glances at the audience, no nervous pauses or giggles. When those men and women walked on that stage they became Mary, Jesus, the Blind Man etc... It was the complete opposite of that rubbish french style mime and an amazing thing to behold and we really enjoyed it.

As you can imagine, it is a challenging environment for photography and I had to use all my l337 5killz to get reasonable photos, the following doesn't even begin to do justice to what we witnessed but at least you get an idea...

We had a wonderful wonderful evening and we ardently hope we are invited to something similar again someday. Our thanks to the Indian community for inviting us along. The only trouble is, we feel a bit embarrassed to invite you for a cup of tea after mass now - we don't have microphones or curry or anything... you get a biscuit?