KINSHASA — Worshippers gathered at a whitewashed church in a Kinshasa neighborhood for a Good Friday service conducted under the Zairean Rite, the only Vatican-approved liturgy shaped by local culture. Catholics in the Democratic Republic of the Congo used the rite, which incorporates song, dance and ritual elements into its liturgy, to mark the Easter observance.

Inside the church, congregants dressed in colorful wax fabrics filled the pews as priests carrying ceremonial spears processed through the sanctuary. The singing and dancing that accompanied the service involved the entire congregation, including the priests themselves. Worshippers used their hands as well as their hips as part of the liturgical celebration.

"Dance is an integral part of our culture. African culture is a culture of movement," said Cola Emmanuel Lubamba, vicar at the Church of Paroisse Sainte Clair.

The Zairean Rite was approved by the Vatican in 1988 and remains the only officially sanctioned Catholic liturgy adapted to reflect a specific local culture. Under the rite, Jesus is depicted as an African man, and Congolese cultural elements are incorporated into the Mass with the stated purpose of bringing Congolese people closer to God.

Many Catholic worshippers across the DRC use the adapted liturgy, which draws on African traditions to frame the structure of the Catholic Mass.

The church where the Good Friday service took place stands in a Kinshasa neighborhood otherwise marked by slum housing and open sewers. The whitewashed building served as a gathering point for worshippers observing the day through a form of worship rooted in both Catholic doctrine and Congolese identity.

The DRC is a mostly Christian country, with around half of its population of 120 million people identifying as Catholic, giving it the largest Catholic population on the African continent.