Sunday on Nanumea

Sunday on Nanumea

Lotolelei Church in the main village of Nanumea is a large building which has an interesting Gothic look:

It took 7 years to build from 1931 to 1937 – this was before the “American Passsage” had been blasted through the reef, so access to the island was problematic.  The story is that the rock and other building material had to be dragged in over the reef at the far end of the island, and transported all the way round to the current church site.  It was originally taller than today, with a lit cross on top, which could be seen at night from the neighbouring island of Nanamanga.  There are large underground concrete water tanks around the church to catch the runoff from the roof, but this may have been a later addition:

The inside of the church is even more impressive – it was renovated in 1987:

Heather and I went to the morning service at 10:00am:

Up front there is both the church mixed choir, and the womens choir, but the rest of the church was not crowded.  The hymns, sung in multi-part harmony, were wonderful, but the rest of the service was in Tuvaluan.  The really surprising thing was that the service was largely run by the women – the male pastor was allowed to speak for about 10 minutes near the end of the hour and a half service.  (I get the feeling that the women play a major role in running the island.)

As a result of going to the church service, we were invited to watch a singing competition in the evening – this was held in the big open hall next to the church.  This event was being held to celebrate the 60^th anniversary  of the womens choir (not clear how many are foundation members!)– it was a competition between this all-female choir and the mixed church choir.  The singing went back and forward from one choir:

To the other:

The womens choir sang without a conductor, but a different person from the church choir jumped up to conduct each time.  The pastor was seated opposite us enjoying the banter:

 Eventually he jumped up and did some conducting himself:

This created much hilarity.  All in all, it was a very friendly encounter, with lots of laughter, especially during some speeches at the end.  I think the womens choir was declared to be the winner, mainly for their skill in singing without a conductor.  After the speeches we were invited to join them in light refreshments.  The womens choir were keen to have a group photo: