For the sake of a better word, I call the church we visited on Sunday in Penrhyn, the “Ziona Church”. This because “Ziona” was written outside above the entrance and on each support column inside and outside the church.

As the voices singing at the school fund raising event were so wonderful, we decided to stay one day longer to visit the service on Sunday to get another chance to listen to them.

All the people we talked to about visiting the church on Sunday said we should be there by 0800 – 0900 while the service starts at 1000. They also warned us to not be late because then everybody will look at us including the priest who is preaching from above the entrance door.

So we were there at around 0900 and nobody else was to be seen around. The only one church door and the windows were wide open.

Then a first visitor and an official person came. I use the term “official person” (OP) because I don’t know what there real title and function is. I just describe what I saw. All OPs and the priest were wearing suits and neckties. Shoes varied between beach sandals and basketball sneakers. Other men, incl us, wore long pants and shirt with a collar; the requirements for male visitors. The ladies all wore hats and a dress; the requirements for female visitors.

At 0930 we were welcome by an OP with a handshake and asked to sit in the last row.

We sat down there and I just looked and observed.

Minutes later, 3 ladies and 2 men started singing a hymn.
At 0950 there were 17 ladies, 2 men, and 3 OPs in the church.

I got the impression that places are assigned to certain persons without name plates on the benches. The community is small, thus all is remembered fast.

The singing I heard so far was not what I expected having listened to a hym on Wednesday evening. Maybe some leading voices were still missing.

At around 1000 a procession of mainly kids came from the mission to the church. There were adult caretakers among the children and they moved into the church bench with the children. To me it appeared that a certain number of children wer assigned to one caretaker.

At the very left and very right side, between walls and church benches, there ate corridors, about 1.5 m wide. In these corridors , at a distance of about 5 min to each other, there were chairs for OPs placed. OPs first greeted the people close to their respective chair, with handshake and then sit there. We also were greeted again by handshakes of OPs close to us.

I made text notes on my mobile phone – not taking pictures – and Shigeo made notes on his paper notebook. I was asked, by one OP close to us, to stop making notes on my mobile phone; Shigeo could continue on paper. I stopped.

The church was filled to about 1/3 and counting gave about 60 people. Considering the village has 180 people, 1/3 of them visited the Ziona Church’s Sunday morning service. As there are 2 more religion communities in the village (7th Day Adventists and Roman Catholics) these 2 split the other 2/3 of the village’s population.

There was a lot of singing, interspersed with reading of texts by OPs and the priest. Prayers were most likely included as well but I didn’t get this due to the Polynesian language used.

At a certain moment, the priest walked up the stairs to the pulpit just above the door. He also read texts from a book, but as his main activity I recognized the sermon he gave.

There was an activity, which I don’t understand without talking to someone who can explain it to me. An OP, sitting immediately beside the door, closed the door during the service several times and opened it again after a felt minute.

The singing, for which we mainly came, was loud. Women and men sang with the full power of their bodies. In terms of well balanced sounds, the Wednesday’s evening singing appeared to me as better. However, this is my personal opinion and I don’t want to make a general judgement.

At the end, of the service we met outside a few men and had little chats. On the way back to our boats, Olaf needed to pick up a yellow fin tuna for him and Manfred at Junior Andrew’s house.

For me this offered a chance to talk with his wife and the charming, outspoken daughter. Shigeo mentioned once that the girl is like her mother; a wonderful description. This was the last time we could talk with them.
Like others, they stay in our memories and hearts.