ELKHART, Ind. (Mennonite Mission Network) – People from many of the earth’s nations streamed toward a 21st-century “mountain of the Lord” Sept. 29 for a grand-finale worship service, marking the end of the four-day extravaganza celebrating Protestantism in France.
Isaiah may not have imagined the Palais Omnisport de Paris-Bercy – a glass-and-grass, multi-peaked pyramid built for professional sports competitions and rock concerts – when he made the above prophesy that begins the second chapter of his book in the Bible. However, the event that it housed from Sept. 26-29 caught the attention of the national media and received rave reviews from participants.
Seventeen choir members from the Châtenay Mennonite Church, including four workers from Mennonite Mission Network, joined the 1,000-voice choir. Catherine Copol, one of the Châtenay singers, said that there were no words to describe the experience. “Wonderful, joyful, formidable" are pale adjectives for the reality of mountain-top worship.
“All I can say is, ‘let’s do it again soon,’” Copol said.
video of the choir singing.Brenna Steury Graber and her husband, Brad, are in the first year of their Mission Network assignment working with youth in Paris’s three Mennonite congregations. They both sang in the choir. Brenna said that the experience was moving and encouraging in a country with a small Christian population.
“That stadium normally boasts a full house of thousands of fans screaming for internationally known athletes or singers, but this time it was a crowd full of Jesus fans singing their praises to God,” Brenna Steury Graber said. “Christians seem to be reaching out to each other and their society more and more.”
Janie and Neal Blough, who have served in France with Mennonite Mission Network since 1975, also added their voices to the choir.
“It truly was an amazing experience – an example of how singing continues to play a vital role in the development and transmission of our faith, as well as creating unity in diversity,” said Janie Blough, who is completing a doctorate in congregational worship.
The Scripture reading symbolized how God’s word is passed on from one generation to the next. An enormous Bible was handed from older people at the back of the stadium to their middle-aged descendants. They, in turn, delivered it to teenagers near the front altar table for the gospel proclamation.
While bringing together 15,000 people to praise God is remarkable in any country, it is especially newsworthy in post-modern France with its deep Catholic roots. The country’s tiny Protestant minority has been a source of derision for the past 500 years and is often caricaturized as old-fashioned, strict and prudish.
These stereotypes were blown away by Protestants en fête (Protestants Celebrating) with its exuberant youth delegations, strobe lights, and music of all genres, including the renowned Cameroonian, Manu Dibango, who has created a fusion of jazz, funk and traditional music from his homeland.
Neal Blough said that both Catholics and Protestants are working at breaking down the walls that have separated them for centuries.
“Catholics participated in the [Protestant festival] events – the bishop of Paris was present at the [Sept. 29] worship service – and there were ecumenical events during the weekend, one of them at the Catholic University on the present state of ecumenical relationships, which Janie and I attended,” Neal Blough said.
Elisabeth Zimmerly, a member of the Châtenay congregation, appreciated the green scarfs that were worn by Protestants during the celebration. These were used in demonstrative worship on Sunday, but also served as a recognizable symbol that invited dialogue.
“I engaged in conversation with strangers on the street, something that I do not normally do,” Zimmerly said. “With a government intent on downplaying religion in the public sphere, it is urgent that we, as Christians, have a public space where we can share the beliefs of our faith.
Though Protestants only account for 2.8 percent of the population, or 1.7 million people, that number is rapidly increasing, according to faitreligieux.com, an independent website that reports on religion for the French-speaking world. Much of this growth is due to immigration that brings evangelical and Pentecostal flavors to Protestantism. Since 1975, a new evangelical church is created every 10 days. The myth that church-going is for the elderly is also shattered by statistics showing that 50 percent of Protestants are 35 years old or younger.
In the three days preceding Sunday’s worship service, the public was invited to attend concerts and exhibitions in churches. Soccer fields attracted kids with contemporary Christian music. Le Parisien, one of France’s largest newspapers, wrote that 30,000 people participated in the events throughout Paris during the four-day festival.
Neal Blough said these kinds of festivals are important because French Protestants don’t have a history of collaboration.
“We can share our convictions that we hold in common, not uniformity but unity nevertheless,” Zimmerly said.
This was the second nation-wide effort to celebrate Protestantism. The first event was held four years ago in Strasbourg, and planning is already in process for a 2017 festival to be held in Lyon that will commemorate the 500-year anniversary of the Reformation.
Watch a video slideshow of the festival on YouTube.
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Mennonite Mission Network, the mission agency of Mennonite Church USA, leads, mobilizes and equips the church to participate in holistic witness to Jesus Christ in a broken world. Media may contact news@mennonitemission.net.
