Good guys and bad guys

Are Lutherans the good guys and Pentecostals the bad guys? This was one of the question that were posed at the defence of a thesis at Uppsala University on Friday morning. A friend and colleague, Johannes Habib Zeiler, defended his doctoral thesis:

Crafting Lutheran Pastors in Tanzania. Perceptions of Theological Education and Formation in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania

It was an interesting two hours conversation, mainly between the respondent (Johannes) and the opponent (Prof. Knut Holter, University of Stavanger).

The opponent began by giving an overview of the thesis and made sure that the respondent accepted his rendering. Johannes did and said:

It is obvious that we have read the same book.

After that the opponent said he would now change attitude. He revealed that he was equipped with a sledgehammer. He was prepared to use it if he found any cracks in the reasoning in the thesis. He could even consider making cracks in the construction himself. Of course the respondent and the audience laughed but I could also feel a sense of anxiety in the room.

After almost 1½ hour the opponent stood up and concluded that the thesis
in deed was a good piece of academic work.

After almost one and a half hour we were, however, relieved. Johannes was calm and relaxed throughout the disputation and gave good answers to the opponent. Johannes also admitted that he could have done things differently. (As a respondent you must show some humility).

Let me point out a few things that struck me. Johannes has conducted interviews with lecturers at Tumaini University Makumira, where Lutheran Pastors in Tanzania get there education. He has also interviewed a number of Bishops of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania. In order to get access to these informants he has made use of his contacts. He has met them both as a scholar and as a Lutheran Pastor from Church of Sweden. It has been important to build good relationships with them. This could however have interfered with his ambition to act critically, as a scholar. On the other hand, if he had not done this, he might have come across problems in even getting to talk with them. The opponent and some of the members of the committee, who ultimately would decide whether or not the thesis would be approved, raised some concern on this point. Johannes should have asked more critical questions and not relied on the informants so much. One of the committee members, Professor Eila Helander, University of Helsinki, also asked about the set of questions that Johannes had used in the interviews. They were nowhere to find in the thesis. Of course she was right, it would have been interesting to see them.

Another committee member, Professor Joram Tarusarira, University of Groningen, asked about the role of traditional African religion in the context of formation of Pastors. This could also have been interesting to find out. My remaining question is whether or not Johannes had asked the informants of this connection. It was obvious that they did not take up this issue on their own. Traditional belief systems probably play an important role. But again, how can you as a scholar get information about this if the informants don’t speak about it themselves? (I need to admit that I have no experience when it comes to interviews. I have mainly worked with written texts.)

What about the Pentecostals? If I understood the conversation correctly this is one of the finding in the thesis. Those who are responsible for the formation of Pastors in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania regard Pentecostalism as a threat. They want to safeguard the Lutheran identity from to many charismatic influence. These influences also come from within the Church. Johannes states:

This study shows that the informants are constantly negotiating and wrestling with the influx of ideas and practices from the ‘inside’, i.e. from dynamic Lutheran pastors in charge of charismatic and flourishing congregations across the country (Zeiler 2018:193).

To me it is clear that we face similar challenges at the Church of Sweden Institute for Pastoral Education. There is a conversation about our own chapel life and our different forms of worship, such as folk church inspired, low-church, high-church, charismatic and many other forms. If I as a teacher find that students prefer a more charismatic worshipping style, do I welcome that? Do I try to “craft” that student in a different way? Does our new Altar Book allow a charismatic liturgy and accommodate Pentecostal influences?

Johannes is coming to us in a few weeks’ time as a guest lecturer. He is going to teach about Ecumenism. I think I will ask some of these questions to him during that lecture.

Context is everything

The school year at the Church of Sweden Institute for Pastoral Education has ended. This week I have plenty of time to prepare for next semester. Some students that enrolled in January will come back in September. We will also receive a large number of new students. The Ministerial class for priests will count between 25 and 30 students. More than we have had since I started in 2015. We are thankful for that!

One of the lecturers I give have the title (in translation):

The exegesis rests in the hermeneutics

This is a quote from Professor Emeritus Kari Syreeni. When I did Biblical Studies we were busy with exegesis. Hermeneutics would come at a later stage. As part of Systematic Theology or even at the Seminary. But in order to understand the Biblical text we must understand that a hermeneutical approach is needed from the beginning.

When I look back at my own ministry I realise that I often preached as if there was a normative theology which is constant through history. After my years in southern Africa I have changed. I find the tension between the common and the particular fruitful. In a document from the Lutheran World Federation: The Bible in the Life of the Lutheran Communion A Study Document on Lutheran Hermeneutics, I read:

Thus, today we allow space for several groups within the church and society to find their options and experiences mirrored in the Bible and the community of faith. Many of these groups have been able to put into writing their hermeneutics, such as feminist theologies with several intersections of race, class and culture, liberation theologies, queer theologies, Dalit theologies and others. We are thus required to take into consideration the relevance and the meaning of a plurality of contextual resonances of the Bible. Yet, this poses other challenge to us. The principle of contextuality implies that what in one context is helpful might be disconcerting or destabilizing in another context (a practice suffered by non-hegemonic groups as long as their particular reading was ignored)”

I am not totally happy with the introduction of the paragraph:

We allow space for several groups …

We and them. Why do we always separate us from them? Having said that, I am happy that it is mentioned that different voices need to be heard. And my own voice is also important.

One of my book shelfs.

I looked in my book shelf and found that I have a number of old collections of sermons. And a few. The old ones are named after that author. The new ones have other titles. Either ‘women preach’ or ‘ecological sermons’. The new ones give account for their perspective. The old ones pretend that they supply the normative perspective.

So, these are some of the thought I will share with one group of students when the second semester, for those who started in January, begins. Before that, however, I will have some vacation.

Ordination in ELCSA-SED 25 June 2017

What a joyful event. The South Eastern Diocese of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Southern Africa got 13 new pastors on Sunday 25 June. I was privileged to be part of the service, which took place at the Diocesan centre at Umphumulo. This might be the last ordination service that Bishop P P Buthelezi leads. He will retire later this year. On this occasion he was surrounded by two other bishops namely Bishop Emeritus S P Zulu (one of his predecessors)  and Bishop Emeritus Dr M Biyela, former bishop of the Eastern Diocese.

Five of the candidates I have taught – either at the Lutheran Theological Institute (LTI) or at the School of Religion, Philosophy and Classics (SRPC) at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN). The main reason for my presence was however the ordination of Rev. Selom Klu. The first time I met him was in Kalmar in the South of Sweden. I think it was in 2010. He lived in Blomstermåla and was very active in Ålem Parish, where my wife worked as Parish Educator.

We moved to Pietermaritzburg in South Africa 2013 and in 2014 Selom also moved there. He lived at the LTI and continued his theological studies at UKZN. He was my student in homiletics and liturgy. When we moved back to Sweden in 2015 Selom remained in South Africa and last year he was accepted as a candidate for ordination into priesthood.

Selom is originally from West Africa and is now a full pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Southern Africa after a number of years in Sweden. The common feature here is of course the Lutheran Church. Selom was born into the Lutheran Church in Togo, became active in the Lutheran Church in Sweden and now in Southern Africa. With this blog post I want to share some highlights of the ordination service.

The first youtube clip is part of the Nicene Creed, which the candidates confess together.

Thereafter Bishop P P Buthelezi asks the candidates a few questions and they all answer yes.

Central in any ordination service is when the candidate gets the stole laid on her or his shoulders. (In Church of Sweden the bishop always literally does that part.) On the other hand priests in Church of Sweden do not get a bible, an altar book, a chalice and a paten. (One has to mention that the chalice and paten is just there as symbols. The rest is given to the candidate. This means that every candidate keeps chasubles in every liturgical colour. In Church of Sweden the chasuble belongs to the Parish and is kept in the church.)

The laying of hands is also a central part of the liturgy. In this case it is the bishops and the deans that lay hands on each candidate.

Each candidate is introduced to the congregation. It is the deputy bishop, Dean N Myaka, who introduces them and he describes Selom as a missionary with links to Church of Sweden.

Here follows some photos from the ordination service.

Rev. Selom Klu

Bishop Emeritus M Biyela, Bishop P P Buthelezi, Bishop Emeritus S P Zulu.

Directly after the ordination all the newly ordained walk in a procession to meet their congregants.

All the 13 newly ordained. Eight of them are self supporting ministers and the other five are full pastors. Among them are some of my students. Second from the left is Selom Klu. Sixth from the left Ntuthuko Nkosi. Next to him Nokukhanya Mngoma and thereafter Njabulo Madonsela. The tall pastor fourth from the right was also my student: Msizi Mkhathini. I was very happy to be there and 

participate in their ordination.

First real encounter with students – I like!

(En svensk översättning finns längst ner!)



The class began at 11 am. More than 10 students were gathered in room 107 when I entered with a projector. I was not going to be in charge of the lesson. Only “sit in”. To me this was a relief. How could I, after more or less a month in Pietermaritzburg manage to lead three hours of teaching at postgraduate level? I was quite happy that my colleague, Rev. Dr. Herbert Moyo, entered the room a few minutes after me. He began directly:

We cannot sit like this. We have to rearrange the tables and the chairs. Let’s put them like a cow horn.

So we did and suddenly the lesson started.

Can you please introduce yourselves? Your name, where you come from and why you take this module. You can also mention your denomination, if you want.

Already at that stage I had recognized three examples of the kind of pedagogy I like.

1)Let’s organize the room in a way, which promotes a student centered approach.

2)Allow everyone to get used to using their voices.

3)Give freedom to the students to choose if they want to expose their denomination or not.

I decided to make notes, just to find that I had a problem in spelling the names. Well, Kelebogile is a familiar seTswana name but other names were more difficult. A name like Nomaroma was new to me. Also Corin. But I hope I will learn as time goes.

Both country of origin and all the different denominations indicated that we are going to have interesting discussions in this group:

Zambia, Namibia, Swaziland, DRC, Kenya and of course a number of students from South Africa. And the teachers from Zimbabwe and Sweden.

The different denominations were:

Pentecostal, Methodist, Lutheran, Catholic, AFM, Congregationalist, Mennonite, Holiness Union Church (which was new to me).

I might have missed some. Some had also grown in one church and thereafter converted into another.

This of course took some time. Then Herbert moved to the next level. Three more questions:

1)What is Christian Education according to the perspective of your Church?

2)Why does your denomination have Christian Education?

3)What do you like or dislike about the way Christian Education is carried out in your Church?

And then he turned to me:

Anders, can you take over? I have to go and make some photocopies?

Brilliant! It definitely gave me a kick start as teacher and the task was not to huge for me. I must say that I enjoyed the exercise and it was so interesting to hear different students focus on different problems and also being quite honest about their own denomination.

How do you, as a minister of a congregation lead someone into the doctrine of the specific denomination without indoctrinating that person?
Why are we sometimes focusing too much on teaching congregants about our own denomination and forgetting the bigger picture?
If you as a leader focus too much on certain issues some congregants are not getting attention.

After this round of testimonials we were left with one hour only, which Herbert used for taking the students through the course outline and after that most of the students were dismissed. Only three stayed on. These were the master students. (The rest are doing their honours). The master students need to submit more extensive assignments but the course will still be a combined honours and master course.

The main book is Pedagogy of the Oppressed, written by Paulo Freire. It is obvious that Herbert has not only read it but also understood it and integrated it into his teaching style. He walks the talk. I am happy to be his colleague.

Första riktiga mötet med studenterna. Jag gillade det!

Lektionen började kl 11. Drygt 10 studenter hade samlats i sal 107, när jag kom in med en dataprojektor. Jag skulle inte leda lektionen. Bara ”sitta med”. För mig var det en lättnad. Hur skulle jag, efter ungefär en månad i Pietermaritzburg, kunna undervisa tre timmar på denna nivå? Jag var därför nöjd när min kollega, Dr. Herbert Moyo, kom in i rummet någon minut efter mig. Han började direkt:

Så här kan vi inte sitta. Vi måste möblera om. Vi sätter stolarna och borden som ett kohorn.

Vi gjorde så och så var lektionen igång.

Kan ni presentera er själva? Namn, var du kommer ifrån och varför du valt denna kurs. Om du vill kan du också säga vilket samfund du tillhör.

Redan där kände jag igen tre exempel på en pedagogik jag gillar.

1.Låt oss möblera rummet på ett sätt som främjar ett elev-centrerat förhållningssätt.

2.Möjliggör för alla att vänja sig vid att använda sin egen röst.

3.Ge frihet åt varje student att själv avgöra om hon/han vill röja sin samfundstillhörighet.

Jag bestämde mig för att föra anteckningar men hade problem med att stava namnen. Visst, Kelebogile är ett välkänt namn på seTswana men andra namn var svårare. Ett namn som Nomaroma var nytt för mig. Liksom Corin. Men jag hoppas jag lär mig med tiden.

Både ursprungsland och de olika samfunden skvallrar om att vi kommer att få intressant diskussioner i denna grupp:

Zambia, Namibia, Swaziland, DRC (Kongo Kinshasa), Kenya och såklart ett antal studenter från Sydafrika. Och lärarna från Zimbabwe och Sverige.

De olika samfunden var:

Pingstkyrkan, metodistkyrkan, lutherska kyrkan, katolska, AFM (Apostolic Faith Mission – också pingströrelsen), kongregationalistkyrkan, mennoniterna, Holiness Union Church (som jag inte hade hört talas om förut)

Jag kanske har missat någon. Några hade också vuxit upp i ett samfund och sedan konverterat.

Detta tog lite tid. Sedan fortsatte Herbert till nästa nivå. Tre nya frågor:

1.Vad är kristen undervisning enligt din kyrkas perspektiv?

2.Varför har ditt samfund kristen undervisning?

3.Vad gillar respektive ogillar du i det sätt på vilket ditt samfund använder kristen undervisning?

Sedan vände han sig mot mig:

Anders, kan Du ta över? Jag behöver gå och göra några fotokopior?

Lysande! Det gav mig definitivt en rivstart som lärare och uppgiften var inte heller för stor för mig. Jag måste erkänna att jag gillade övningen och det var mycket intressant att höra hur olika studenter fokuserade på olika problem och hur de även var ganska ärliga angående sitt eget samfund.

Hur leder man som präst in någon i ett specifikt samfunds lära (doktrin) utan att indoktrinera den personen?
Varför fokuserar vi ibland för mycket på att undervisa församlingsmedlemmar om vårt eget samfund, så att vi glömmer helheten?
Om en ledare fokuserar för mycket på visa frågeställningar är det lätt gjort att visa församlingsmedlemmar inte får den uppmärksamhet de behöver.

Efter denna runda med vittnesbörd hade vi bara en timme kvar, som Herbert använde för att gå igenom kursplanen och efter det lämnade nästan alla studenter salen. Bara tre stannade. Det var master-studenterna. (Resten gör en magister). Master-studenterna ska ju lämna in en mer omfattande uppsats men kursen är ändå kombinerad för både magister- och master-studenter.

Huvudbok är Pedagogik för förtryckta, skriven av Paulo Freire. Det är uppenbart att Herbert inte bara har last den utan också förstått den och integrerat den i sitt undervisningssätt. Han lever som han lär. Jag är glad att få vara hans kollega.