Över en halv miljon

Min tanke var att hålla koll på min blogg och se när jag passerade en halv miljon besök. Men jag missade ögonblicket. Nu säger statistiksidan att jag är uppe i 515 779 besök sedan jag startade 2007. Men stämmer det? Och är det personer eller är det botar? Misstänksam blev jag när jag såg att jag hade 28 111 visningar den 1 juni. Visserligen skrev jag då en bloggpost om Dr Agnes Aboum, som var den första kvinnan som var moderator för Kyrkornas Världsråd och som just gått ur tiden. Jag skrev bloggposten på engelska. Men ändå! 28 111 visningar – det låter otroligt.

Det är ganska ofta som jag blir förvånad över att personer har läst mina bloggposter. Tydligen når den längre än jag tror. Det är i och för sig uppmuntrande. Jag försöker skriva blandat. Om sådant som är viktigt och angeläget men även om saker som har mindre betydelse – som exempelvis hur många visningar jag har.

Detta år har jag märkt att jag skrivit mindre. Det beror säkert på att mitt arbete tagit mycket tid i anspråk. Jag har dock inte tänkt lägga av. Ofta är det avkoppling att skriva och inte sällan fungerar det som ett sätt att reda ut tankarna kring något som berör mig.

Det är med stor ödmjukhet jag konstaterar att människor läser. Låt mig uttrycka ett enkelt tack för detta engagemang.

Dr Agnes Aboum

Dr Agnes greats the German State President, Frank-Walter Steinmeier,
at the 11th General Assembly of the World Council of Churches, in 
Karlsruhe i Germany in 2022. (Photo: Albin Hillert, WCC).

Yesterday Dr Agnes Aboum, former moderator of the World Council of Churches, died. She was 73 years. Such a loss for the ecumenical movement. She was elected moderator at the 1oth General Assembly in Busan, South Korea, on 2013 and she resigned last year, at the 11th General Assembly in Karlsruhe in Germany.

She was born in northwest Kenya in a family with four brothers. She came to Sweden in 1976, learned Swedish and earned a doctorate in missiology.

We met a couple of times. Both in Busan and in Karlsruhe. I remember Dr Agnes as a strong leader who at the same time was humble. As a moderator of the WCC you need to be firm. In Karlsruhe there was a priest who had talked several times in the plenary. When he raised his card for yet another comment, Dr Agnes told him, mildly, that he had spoken enough and that she must allow others to get a chance. If my memory serves me well, I think he sat down and smiled.

The World Council of Churches has issued a press release with more information.

After her return to Kenya last year she was appointed as a lay canon of the Anglican Church of Kenya. On Youtube she speaks about this and says:

It is a new chapter in my spiritual pilgrimage of justice and peace.

This pilgrimage has now come to its goal. May she rest in peace!

No to exploitation

Today the start of the Season of Creation and Thursdays in Black were in focus at the 11^th Assembly of the WCC. There are several links between those two concerns. Usually combined in ecofeminism, which points to the fact that those (we?) who are in power – in this patriarchal world – exploits the earth in the same way as they (we?) exploit women. The earth is often referred to as Mother Earth.

The morning prayer was beautiful. Especially when representatives from the eight regions of WCC had brought water to the Assembly and came with the water in different forms of jars and poured into a bowl. I was especially moved by the women from Middle East. I know how scars the water resource is in that part of the world.

In the first plenary the moderator, Dr Agnes Aboum, interviewed to young delegates. One of them was Julia Rensberg from the Swedish part of Sápmi. She came well prepared. But she speaks in a very gentle way. Nevertheless, her message was crystal clear. Indigenous people have seen the effects of climate change for a long time. In Sápmi the rise of the temperature has already reached 3 degrees centigrade. I hope that a strong dedication will come out of this Assembly.

After the plenary I went to a place where a huge tapestry is placed. It is part of the Thursdays in Black campaign. Together with other ambassadors for Thursdays in Black I was there because a photo was planned to be taken. Hopefully we can do much more in Sweden in the coming years.

Patriarchal structures and mindset lead to exploitation of women (and other humans). I lead to exploitation of indigenous people and of Mother Earth. Let’s say no to that.

Photo by Mike DuBose/WCC

Please read about the tapestry and the stories behind the different pieces of art. They are available at the wesite of the World Council of Churches. The link is here.

Three strong voices at the WCC Assembly

Photo: Albin Hillert, WCC

Today the opening of the 11^th General Assembly of the World Council of Churches took place. It is fantastic to be with almost 5 000 other Christians from the entire world. Colourful!

I want to highlight three of the speakers. The first one was the report of the Moderator, Dr Agnes Aboum. What a strong leader for this enormous, ecumenical organisation. One could really sense her passion for justice and peace. She spoke about …

… Jesus’ compassion for stigmatised minorities, for those for whom little compassion is visible today.

After her the outgoing acting General Secretary, Prof. Ioan Sauca delivered his report. The person sitting next to me said, that it was a hot report. And I agree. He did not shy away from controversial issues.

For instance, he defended the decision not to exclude the Russian Orthodox Church from the World Council of Churches, which some member churches had asked for. He said that the WCC is needed as a place for dialogue. But at the same time, he clearly took the side of Ukraine.

Human sexuality was another issue that he spoke to. Of course, in a diplomatic way but still, he was clear that everyone must respect the dignity of every human being, to defend and affirm human rights of all. In the context of human sexuality this means that many churches must revisit their theologies.

Antisemitism was also in the report, and he clearly stated that the WCC …

… oppose, reject, condemn, and denounce all forms of antisemitism.

At the same time, he took a strong stance for the Palestinian people. And used the same words, saying that the WCC ...

... support equal human rights for Palestinians and oppose, reject , condemn and denounce situations when these are not respected.

The third speaker I want to mention is the Federal President of Germany, Frank-Walter Steinmeier. He made a strong impression when he thanked the WCC that the council had accepted German churches as members already in 1948, only three years after WWII.

He also discussed antisemitism, Russia’s war on Ukraine – and he really criticised the Russian Orthodox Church. At the same time, he mentioned that more that 100 Russian Orthodox priests had opposed the war.

Later today the opening prayer gathered all participants in the prayer tent. Beautiful and very spiritual. With much singing and dancing. I am so privileged to be part of this.

Dr Fulata Lusungu Moyo

So far this day has been full of impressions and encounters. So many old and new acquaintances. Friends of course and seminars. We started with morning prayer in S:t Peter’s church. Ignatian spirituality. 20 minutes meditation and I was together with Jesus outside Jericho meeting with Bartimaios, son of Timaios. A Blind beggar. But his name and family history has been recorded. Fascinating! After a nice lunch with good friends from Malmö I have listened to Martin Junge, General Secretary of the Lutheran World Federation, organizing some 70 million Lutherans in more than 150 countries. He mentioned the revolutionary impact of Martin Luther’s nailing of the 95 theses and said that Luther wanted people at that time to understand that they were relying on false security spending their money on that. Not so difficult to apply on today’s society. His topic was: Church as part of the society. After that a panel discussed foreign Aid in the future. Sten Rylander (I have mentioned him before and will come back later), Erik Lysén, Director of the International Department at the Church of Sweden Head Office and last (but definitely not least) Dr Agnes Aboum from Kenya. She is a member of the Central Committee of the world Council of Churches. They agreed on the importance of a strong Civil Society, free media and the upholding of the Rule of Law.

Anyhow, the best lecture today was given by Dr Fulata Lusungu Moyo. She was born in Malawi but is now working at the World Council of Churches as Programme Executive for a programme called: Women in Church and Society. The theme of her presentation was: “Who is missing at the table?” She started by saying that she has a problem with the concept of “table” and prefers to talk about the court yard, a place in Malawi where decisions are being made. Still she asked questions about the table and about the menu. In conferences and round table talks all over the world women are represented but who sets the agenda? (And by the way, she said: most of those tables are not even round!) She admitted that things have changed but added that sometimes they haven’t changed much. She took us through the history of the Ecumenical movement seen through women’s perspective and it was an eye opener. Like the Decade of Churches in Solidarity with Women (1988-1998) which ended up as a Decade of Women in Solidarity with Women or even Women in Solidarity with Churches. She touched upon domestic violence (and there she was very critical way that kind of violence is called domestic as it had to do with the private sphere, while it is part of a structural violence – which has to do with the public sphere. I could go on describing important issues that she mentioned. I am happy to have met her and listened to her and I have to go home and think of how my new task in South Africa can be inspired by what she and many other women are saying. One aspect is definitely the need of meetings were men also talk about the role of the man in society. What is our identity? But this I shall blog more about another time. Now I need to catch up and join for the manifestation later tonight!