Kasisi mwanamke wa kanisa letu aliwasalimia watoto baada ya ibada ya asubuhi.

A simple way to parse it is:

• Kasisi mwanamke wa kanisa letu = the female priest/pastor of our church
• aliwasalimia = greeted them
• watoto = the children
• baada ya ibada ya asubuhi = after the morning service

So the overall order is basically:

• subject noun phrase
  • verb
    • object
      • time phrase

That is a very common Swahili sentence pattern.

In Swahili, it is very common for a noun to be followed by another word that further identifies it.

So kasisi mwanamke is literally something like:

• priest/pastor, female
• or more naturally, female priest/pastor

The second noun mwanamke is specifying the gender of kasisi.

Yes, it is understandable and natural enough, especially in learning contexts.

But depending on region, denomination, and style, speakers might also say things like:

• kasisi wa kike
• or other church-specific terms

So kasisi mwanamke is a straightforward descriptive phrase, but it is not the only possible way to say it.

Here wa means of and links the priest to the church:

• wa kanisa letu = of our church

This is called the associative or possessive linker, and its form changes according to noun class.

In this sentence:

• kasisi mwanamke wa kanisa letu = the female priest of our church

In Swahili, possessives usually come after the noun:

• kanisa = church
• letu = our

So:

• kanisa letu = our church

The form letu agrees with the noun class of kanisa. You do not put the possessive before the noun the way English does.

It can be broken into parts like this:

• a- = she/he
• -li- = past tense
• -wa- = them
• salimia = greet

So aliwasalimia means:

• she greeted them
• or he greeted them, depending on context

In this sentence, because the subject is kasisi mwanamke, it clearly means she greeted them.

Good question. The -wa- inside aliwasalimia is an object marker meaning them.

So the verb already contains the idea of greeted them, and then watoto names who them refers to:

• aliwa-salimia watoto = she greeted them, the children

In Swahili, this is very common, especially when the object is:

• animate
• specific
• already identifiable in context

So it may feel a bit repetitive from an English point of view, but it is natural in Swahili.

Watoto means children. Its singular is:

• mtoto = child
• watoto = children

This is part of the common human noun pattern:

• singular often with m-
• plural often with wa-

That is also why the object marker in the verb is -wa-, referring to a plural human object.

Because kasisi refers to a person, it normally takes human/animate agreement in the sentence.

So even though the word itself does not look like a typical m-/wa- noun, the verb still agrees with it as a singular person:

• a- = he/she

This is very common with many Swahili words for people.

Baada ya means after.

So:

• baada ya ibada ya asubuhi = after the morning service

A useful pattern to learn is:

• baada ya + noun = after + noun

Examples:

• baada ya chakula = after the meal
• baada ya kazi = after work

This literally means service/worship of morning:

• ibada = service, worship
• ya = of
• asubuhi = morning

So:

• ibada ya asubuhi = morning service

English often uses a noun directly before another noun, but Swahili commonly uses the X ya Y pattern instead.

Swahili does not usually have separate words that directly match English a/an or the.

So a noun like kanisa, watoto, or kasisi can mean:

• a church / the church
• children / the children
• a priest / the priest

The exact meaning depends on context. In this sentence, the full phrase makes the nouns definite enough that English naturally translates them with the or our.

Yes. Swahili word order is somewhat flexible, especially with time expressions like baada ya ibada ya asubuhi.

For example, you could place that phrase earlier for emphasis. But the version given is very natural:

• Kasisi mwanamke wa kanisa letu aliwasalimia watoto baada ya ibada ya asubuhi.

Ending with the time phrase is a normal, neutral way to say it.