Belgium Adventures Day 5: Sunday worship

As an exchange student, my host families made sure I had the opportunity to attend church in English. The also connected me with an orchestra, but I forgot about that until just now, so I did not look into if that group still meets.

As I remembered, the church met at the University of Liege and was mostly made up of ex-pat Brits. We met in a hall, not in anything that would look like a church. I remember meeting at night. I'm not sure if it was every week or only once a month. It was important enough that a few years later while studying abroad in Paris I sought out an English-language church.

Before leaving I Googled English church Liege and found one match: a group that meets three times a week at Saint Servais, and someplace else on the fourth Sunday. The first Sunday of the month is Communion Sunday.

I lingered after the service to talk to Pastor Guy. I wanted to match my memories with the present. He confirmed when the church met in the 1908s it was at the university, and mostly British. In the 1990s the shipping industry collapsed, taking the British community with them. Brexit did not help.

The church is now made up of 12-14 different nationalities, many from Africa. There is a Dutch/African community not too far away they are planning to work with on the fourth Sunday of each month. The pastor dreams of the congregation growing so large they have two services each week: one in English and one in French, instead of the combined service they now have.

As Pastor Guy preached, the worship leader translated line by line. Reminded me of Colonial-era hymn sings that took place before hymnals were popular. The worship leader would sing a line, then the congregation would repeat. Even with two languages being spoken, the service was only 75 minutes long with communion. There were about 30 people, including eight children. This was the first week they have been able to provide Sunday School during the service since before Christmas when their volunteers moved home again. They were thrilled and hope it grows. 

I spent a lot of time talking to Joe, another worship leader. Joe was born in Liege in 1961 to an Italian father. He moved to Vancouver when he was young. He messed up his life. I'm not sharing anything he doesn't openly share with anyone who listens, including school groups. He wants the next generation to learn from his mistakes. He found God. His wife and daughter still live in Canada. He was the only white man in the congregation. Everyone else seemed to be from Africa. Not all of them speak English. The pastor is from the Netherlands, but was trained in England in the Anglican theology. 

It was nice to worship in a real church.