The Church is universal

This morning I attended the Gottesdienst (Service) in Stadtkirche Karlsruhe. It belongs to the 

Evangelische Landeskirche in Baden. This denomination is unified, which means that it is a merger between the Lutheran and the Reformed. Some of the German landeskirchen are that. The unification of the church in Baden took place in 1821. 

The service was held in German, and I was surprised that I could follow rather much, even the sermon. The theme was about the gifts that God gives to us. This was also the theme in Church of Sweden last Sunday, when I led the Eucharist service in Vindhemskyrkan in Uppsala. Such a coincidence. Our choir – Fyris Kammarkör – sang that Sunday, and the Choir Leader, Nils Pålbrant, asked me if I could suggest a song. I looked in some books and found a German hymn, translated into Swedish by the renown hymnwriter Per Harling. I had never seen the song before, but I felt that the text was in line with the theme.

Today we sang exactly that hymn in the service. Isn’t that amazing? And I must say, that the preacher today said a few things that I also touched upon last Sunday. Especially that the gifts are given to the community and not to us as individuals. It is biblical, so I take it for granted that preachers should draw that conclusion. It is still reassuring to realise that we are in line with each other.

Two new elders were installed, and it felt nice to be part of that, too. And also, to be part of the Eucharist which we shared in a different manner, forming full circles in front of the altar and receiving soft bread in pieces and wine or juice in small cups.

After a few planning sessions in preparation for the start of the preassembly I ended by taking part in a ceremony with the indigenous preassembly. We were approximately 60-70 people in a circle and the meaning of the ceremony was to acknowledge that the whole assembly takes place in a specific space. Led by representatives of different indigneous peoples from all over the globe, including sami people from my part of the world, we greeted soil, water, fire and wind. All was closed with the blessing. I felt privileged to be part of this. Now it feels good to rest and tomorrow I am prepared.

 

 

 

No singing in South African churches

During the week I have read some news about the reopening of South African churches. The President, Cyril Ramaphosa, has obviously made an announcement that churches may start with worship services again. According to IOL news this was announced by the President together with the General Secretary of the South African Council of Churches, Bishop Malusi Mpumlwana. The bishop was quoted:

play music, don’t sing

In the Policy Guide that the SACC has issues there are many recommendations. It doesn’t forbid singing. It states:

The singing of hymns may need to be considered VERY carefully. Two meters is not far enough apart for hymns to be sung. Similarly, responses need to sotto voce (intentionally lowering the voice) to avoid expressing any saliva.

Thabo Makgoba, Anglican Archbishop.

One of the church leaders within the SACC, Anglican Archbishop Thabo Makgoba summarises the policy to his followers on his blog:

… a limit of 50 on services, disinfecting surfaces between services, physical distancing in churches, the avoidance of shared hymnals and prayer books, the wearing of masks during services, restrictions on singing (because it has proved to play a big role in spreading the virus), avoidance of the common chalice at Eucharist, no gatherings after services and rigorous hygiene in church toilets.

I have especially noticed two former SACC leaders, who are critical. Peter Storey, who was the President of the SACC 1980-83 is not happy at all. He writes:

Allowing public worship ill-advised and dangerous

John de Gruchy, another well-known South African Theologian, writes on his blog:

The fact that most Christians throughout the world have been prevented from going to church buildings has not meant that the church has stopped being the church.  The first Christians did not have church buildings; they gathered in homes for prayer and fellowship, and they did so in order to go into the world to proclaim the good news about Jesus.  That is why at the end of the Eucharist we are sent into the world to love and serve. It is misleading, then, to say that once the pandemic is over, we can go back to church when we never stopped being the church.

According to News 24 the SACC says that they did not “coerce government into allowing places of worship to open”. I guess this is a very sensitive issue. So the question is:

Will South African Christians be able to do this?

And in the same breath I need to ask the same question to our own church because we also gather in many churches. I have participated some Sundays, but we have also prayed at home at times. I am reluctant. In our own city, Uppsala, the number of infected people seems to increase again. Is the right thing to close churches again?

Societas Homiletica – day three!

Duke Chapel. Or Cathedral?

Sunday meant late morning. The Church Service started only at 11 am. Some of the participants went to a Southern Baptist church for worship. Others to the chapel on campus, Duke Chapel. (With the size of a cathedral.) I decided to take part in the latter.

The Church was almost full. There was a choir singing and a well prepared sermon by the dean of the chapel. The congregation is interdenominational. Mainline. One thing happened, which I have never experienced. After the service, that took approximately one hour a short communion service started in a small side chapel. We were around fifty persons gathering there. Starting with the Eucharistic prayer with a liturgy similar to the one we have in Church of Sweden we shared the body and blood of Jesus Christ and all was done in fifteen minutes. I saw that many of us Swedish participants took part in the communion. I guess we are used to weekly Eucharist. It was a precious moment although I prefer to have the Eucharist included in the main service.

The side chapel where we celebrated Holy Communion.

The rest of the day was filled with a key note address, workshops and paper presentation. The terminology is interesting. Even if the presenter don’t have a physical paper in her or his hand, it is still named a paper presentation. This happened for instance when Lis Valle shared a video with the heading

Queering Preaching

It was a moving recording of a service where she, as a sermon, had danced a burlesque dance. Rather provocative but also touching. Why is it that some artistic expressions are welcomed in church but others are not? Food for thought!

In the same session Anuparthi John Prabhakar spoke about the Dalit community in India and how worship in this context looks like. A group that traditionally have been prohibited to worship in the temple, because they were untouchable. They had their own religion, using the shade under the trees as their temples. The Deity could possess any person and use this person as a priest – not like in a Hindu temple, where only the Brahmins could talk. So, the religion became very corporate and democratic. When Protestant mission came they built churches and ordained pastors, which meant they were copying the Hindu style, which made the Dalit community uncomfortable. John’s suggestion was that the Church must reconnect to the Dalit roots.

Both the Queer and the Dalit example is about exclusion or inclusion. How do we preach in a way that not only welcome people but also affirms?

The day ended with group reflections. So helpful to reflect together with homileticians from all over the world. The conference and the conversations give me much material to bring back to my own teaching at the Institute.

Rewarding visit to Gothenburg

We always enjoy being on the west coast of Sweden. The second largest city of our country, Göteborg (Gothenburg in translation), is friendly and has always been multicultural. People traditionally have a good sense of humour. Unfortunately I have to avoid sharing some of the jokes. They are usually impossible to translate to another language.

We went there on Friday and spent a nice evening with my eldest brother and his wife. Saturday morning we joined the Lerum Parish and their two buses headed for Åh Diocesan Conference centre. The parish, where my brother serves as Rector, went for a Parish outing with games, food and workshops. We ended with a Holy Communion service.

Two things are important to mention (among others). First, we had promised prayer, contextual bible study, singing and dancing in our workshop. Swedish people generally describe themselves as stiff (when it comes to dancing) and shy (singing or praying). This was, however, not our experience yesterday. I was so happy to see the participants, especially some elderly ladies, and their excitement about dancing and singing. When we asked everyone to say a prayer, somebody said loudly:

Now it will become silent!

But that did not happen. Almost everyone said a prayer. Our interpretation is that members of the Church of Sweden want to participate. They are not shy. They are not often invited to participate.

Second, the concluding Eucharist service started with dance. A group of children and their leaders danced in front of the altar and we were invited to take part.

After spending the evening with good friends, we joined them for the Sunday Service in Bergsjön Lutheran Church. Bergsjön is a well-known part of Göteborg. There are many social problems there. People from more than 100 nationalities live there and there is a lot of poverty and unemployment. The congregation functions very well in this context. Part of the Church is a second hand shop. The congregation also give all kind of support to immigrants in general and refugees in particular. There is a clinic with medical doctors, lawyers go there voluntarily etc.

Before the service started we took a short walk in the neighbourhood and paid a visit to the Syrian Orthodox Church where our host-family have friends. It's an impressing church. But we did not stay more than a few minutes before we walked back to the Lutheran Church.

So, we enjoyed a High mass with lots of nationalities and prayers in Arabic and Tigrinya as a complement to Swedish.

When we had tea and coffee in the hall after the service we shared table with a refugee from Iran, who had been in Sweden eight years and two persons from Syria, who had been in Sweden two days.

This weekend gave us so much. Meeting family, friends and people who come from other parts of the world – it is so enriching.

Children and adults dancing in front of the altar.

Prayers in different languages

The risen Jesus Christ above the altar, priest and lay ministers.

The Sunday School sings!

The Anglican - Roman Catholic International Commission

Wednesday evening we visited the Emaphethelweni Priory (Dominican) here in Scottsville, Pietermaritzburg. The occasion was a seminar around ARCIC (The Anglican - Roman Catholic International Commission). In the commission, which is now named ARCIC III there are two representatives from Africa. Both were present at the Emaphethelweni Priory on Wednesday. Professor Teresa Okure, a sister of the Society of the Holy Child Jesus, and professor of New Testament and Gender Hermeneutics at the Catholic Institute of West Africa, Port Harcourt, Nigeria was one of the persons. The other one was Bishop Suffragan Nkosinathi Ndwandwe from Natal Diocese, Anglican Church of Southern Africa. We often fellowship together in the morning Eucharist in the Cathedral of the Holy Nativity.

It was interesting to learn more about this commission. From the start (1967) it was quite successful but later on the process slowed down due to disagreement over the ordination of women and also around human sexuality.

The two speakers focused especially on the Eucharistic division. With distress they told us about their last meeting, when they visited an ecumenical communion where people freely shared in the Eucharistic fellowship (even Roman Catholics). The members of the commission however were told (I can’t recall by whom) that they were not allowed to take part. We could see how hurtful the experience had been.

Sr Teresa is showing how they were blessed in the Eucharist service instead
of receiving the Body of Christ. She uses Bishop Nkosinathi in this small roleplay.

Interestingly enough, when I greeted Prof Okure, we directly realized that we had a common friend, Hans Engdahl. I know that he and Prof Okure have done some academic work together.

After the two speakers had talked we were allowed to ask questions. I especially remember one participant who spoke about the dying churches in Europe. He reacted to the way that Europeans dominates ARCIC. No representative from Latin America, only two from Africa and maybe also two from Asia but a whole bunch of people from Europe. How can this be, when the churches in the global south are growing and dying in Europe?

A relevant question! Let’s hope that ARCIC IV will respond to that. There are important questions to deal with. If I understood it correctly the commission doesn't discuss issues on human sexuality, because the Anglican Communion is also divided within itself. I still believe that the church leaders need to start discuss exactly those kind of questions.

As much as I hope the human sexuality could be put on the agenda, I also realize that not all African Christians would like that. I am puzzled how issues around human sexuality and family can be so provocative. The only answer is that it has to do with power. Even more important than, to discuss those issues openly. One the one hand is the unity of the church, which is important. On the other is the life of for instance homosexuals in our midst. Which is equally important. I believe that the unity of the church is of utmost importance also for minorities. But questions around power need to be asked all the time. For whom? By whom? Also when we discuss the Eucharist! For whom?