Sunday Service

Back in the States, we both looked forward to attending Sunday service either at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Atlanta or Northwest Unitarian Universalist Congregation. We have not found a UU fellowship or church here in Bangalore so we decided to use our Sundays to embark on an Indian religion tour and visit as many diverse houses of worship as we could.

We opted on our first worship pilgrimage to attend a Sunday service of the International Church. The Yellow pages offered an array of choices from the A.G. Worship House to the Yesukrupalaya Church. We had no clue from the Yellow pages what to expect from those houses of worship or how to find them.

From Helen’s Overseas Women’s Club booklet we selected instead the International Church that met at the Taj Gateway Hotel. Once we arrived we discovered that the International Church was the Bangalore International Christian Fellowship. We are all God’s children and we are on a world religion tour. Our greeting by Daphne Bastion (pictured above) was friendly and warm as were the other greetings offered. To Helen’s delight, one of the acquaintances she had made at the Oversees Women’s Club, Jean Kingery, was an active member. Jean led the service, sang songs and introduced Rev. Joseph Stanley who delivered the Message. Originally from the US, Jean has been in India for 20 years helping people who are physically challenged.

Afterwards we shared very strong coffee mixed with hot milk or hot tea and the birthday cake of one of the older members of the Fellowship. We spoke with a young couple with three small children who had been in Nepal since 1995 helping to translate the Bible. Their religious dedication was to be admired.