The 'ugliest' church

With less than a week to go for Christmas day, workers are busy giving finishing touches to the Christmas decorations inside St Mark’s Cathedral. They are tying sprigs of poinsettia to each pew and hanging the last holly garlands (plastic, alas). The tree, a new fibre-optic one donated by a member of the congregation, is up and laden with ornaments, as is the crib in the Nativity scene. “The decoration begins on the first Sunday in Advent [the four weeks leading up to Christmas], and we keep adding to it,” says Anjana Samuel, convener of the music and programme committee.

The decorations are but one part of the Christmas festivities at St Mark’s, one of the oldest churches in Bangalore. Situated in the heart of the city, the cathedral was built in 1808 as a place of worship for the soldiers and officers of the British army stationed in Bangalore Cantonment. At that time, it was a plain structure. A chronology of the cathedral’s history says it was called “one of the ugliest buildings ever erected. With its yellow-washed walls and low roof it resembles nothing so much as a Bryant and May’s Match Box!”

The yellow-washed walls remain but there is nothing remotely ugly about the cathedral now. A dome was added a few years after it opened, and when the interiors were redone after a disastrous fire in 1923, St Mark’s got a pulpit and font made in Genoa, Italy, beautiful stained glass windows, and a cross and candlesticks from Oxford, among other things.

The imposing pipe organ was a gift to the cathedral from the parents of the famous English cricketer Colin Cowdrey in 1928. Bought for Rs 33,000 then, it is now worth Rs 10 crore, says senior organist

E D George, adding that Rs 2-3 lakh is spent annually on its maintenance. The organ, made of Burma teak, has 1,000 pipes made in England and is one of the few of its kind in the country, says George, a former music teacher at Bishop Cotton’s School.

Christmas celebrations at St Mark’s, says its pastor Reverend Daniel Ravikumar, begin from the first Sunday in Advent, with special sermons. On the first Sunday, an ecumenical service is held, to which members of other denominations are invited. At this year’s service, nine choirs from other churches took part. During Advent, church members also visit the poor and distribute food and clothing, a custom started in 1961 by the late Harry Daniels, the first Indian priest at St Mark’s. Special Christmas programmes by Sunday School children and senior citizens are also held.

All this culminates in the Christmas Eve service close to midnight on the 24th and, of course, the service on Christmas Day. These, along with Easter, are the best-attended services every year, with the cathedral putting up shamianas outside for the spillover. There are “festival Christians” who come just for these services, says Ravikumar wryly. The 1,500-family-strong congregation, he adds, has been growing, perhaps because of the influx into the city.

One of the most awaited events on the St Mark’s Christmas calendar is the special carol service, on the fourth Sunday in Advent. The one-hour service is followed by a parish dinner on the church grounds, with a bonfire to fight the winter chill. This year’s dinner saw three Santas arriving in a horse-drawn carriage, says Samuel, the convenor of the programme. “Each year we have a different theme and this time it was Hawaiian Christmas,” she says. Samuel is also a member of the 35-member choir, which begins practice for Christmas three months in advance. Apart from the carol service, the choir also goes on carol rounds to the houses of church members, for at least two nights. Typically, the group starts out at 7.30 pm and returns only by 8.30 the following morning!

All this makes for a packed schedule for active members of the congregation, like Samuel. But Christmas remains her favourite time of the year. “We are able to touch the lives of many people and it holds a lot of meaning for me,” she says. It is, after all, the season for peace on earth and goodwill to mankind.