The courage to disappear

Tonight we attended

the third annual Steve de Gruchy Memorial Lecture

Guest speaker was Prof. Beverley Haddad. It was in many respects a memorable evening. I have been to a number of similar lectures. Tonight the hall, which was big, was filled to capacity. Not only people from the School of Religion, Philosophy and Classics were present. There were also many staff and students from the Cluster partners; Seth Mokitimi Methodist Seminary, St.Joseph 's Theological Institute (Roman Catholic), Lutheran Theological Institute, Evangelical Seminary of Southern Africa, and the Congregational House of Formation.

Of course we bought a copy. Signed!

But of course: most of all the evening evolved around the legacy of Steve de Gruchy, as the highlight of the evening was the launch of a new book:

Beverly Haddad (Ed), Keeping Body and Soul Together. Reflections by Steve de Gruchy on Theology and Development. (Pietermaritzburg: Cluster publications, 2015)

Beverley Haddad, who also was a colleague of Steve de Gruchy for many years. They worked together in the ‘Theology and Development Programme’. (One of the programmes that Church of Sweden is supporting at our university). Beverley has far as I can see, done a great job. But I have of course not read the book. I will certainly come back when I have done that.

Back to title of this blog post. Steve de Gruchy disappeared in a very tragic way. The 21 February 2010 he was drowned in a river. I have never met him but I have heard a lot about him and also read some of his texts, to the extent that I feel that I am getting to know him.

Photo: Kristina Göranzon

Beverley started by saying that there are many myths around Steve de Gruchy, since fewer and fewer of the students have met him. Sometimes he is portrayed as a saint. To her, as a close colleague, he was no myth and certainly no saint, she said. But a very good friend!

He disappeared. So did also Beverley last year when she took early retirement. To me this became very obvious, when I listened to the lecture. A memorial lecture! A lecture about times that have passed …

This could have been the case, had it not been for Beverley’s energy and commitment. The way I understood her lecture, she wanted to pose questions to today’s young generation of theologians at the university. And the most burning one was:

Is social transformation still at the heart of the Theological Project?

Maybe I need to explain the term ‘Theological Project’. Our School is a result of several mergers. So Theology is now together with Religious Studies, Ethics, Philosophy, Classics and maybe other disciplines. Nowhere in the School is there any structured space which can be called a ‘Theological’ one. Therefore we speak about the ‘Theological Project’. It is carried by individual staff members in mutual commitment and I am still struggling to understand how this entity or phenomenon is constituted and by whom.

Never the less: most of the people in the audience, albeit not all, where theologians. To us the question was a wake up call. Do we really care for the context in which we live? Or are we just engaged with internal church issues? Beverley quoted Archbishop emeritus, Desmond Mpilo Tutu, who after 1994 said, that

Now the churches can go back to be churches

I have never heard of this quote and was a bit chocked. Wasn't that what the churches really did during the struggle? Were churches!

Tonight's lecture drew most of its inspiration from Latin-american liberation theology. Also a bit surprising! Maybe Steve de Gruchy also did that.

Beverley spoke about the ‘See, Judge, Act’ method but added a first step namely ‘Faith Commitment’, which makes it into the ‘Pastoral Cycle’. Later in the lecture she also, referring to Latin-america, added a fifth step: ‘Celebrate’.

The faith commitment means that we ask whose perspective is important, whom we want to journey with. The answer is, that we must journey with the poor and marginalized. We need to have an

Epistemological privileging of the poor

What we often do, in our churches is that we have an

Epistemological privileging of the ordained

This Beverley repeated four times. In as much as she herself is an ordained Anglican priest, she is very suspicious about the way clergy use their power and forget whom they are to serve.

Another part of the lecture built on the Brazilian theologian Carlos Dreher at Centro de Estudos Bíblicos (CEBI). Beverley referred to one of his books:

Carlos A. Dreher, The Walk to Emmaus (São Leopoldo: Centro de Estudos Bíblicos, 2004)

He uses the narrative in Luke 24:13-35 where Jesus walks with two disciples to Emmaus. Seven steps are found in the narrative, which we as theologians could make use of, when we seek to be part of a transformational leadership:

1. Recognising the culture of silence

2. Walking together and listening

3. Analysing the reality of those we work with

4. Using the Bible at the right moment

5. Practice opens the eyes

6. The courage to disappear

7. Ultimate goal – enabling others to become active subjects

When I took part in a bible workshop in Nairobi last year, we did study this narrative and the facilitators were from CEBI. But todays lecture gave other ‘aha-moments’. Maybe it is because we also are in the process of leaving Pietermaritzburg and South Africa later this year. That is why the sixth step became important tonight:

The courage to disappear

However, I don’t want to disappear for the sake of just leaving. I think I am on my way to something else. I also believe God is with me on that journey. Presently I do not know where we will live in six months’ time and I do not know if I will have a job or what I, if I get a job, will work with.

But one thing I know: I want to work with a theological method that has social transformation at the heart. And I want to understand that the epistemological privilege rests with the poor and marginalised. And not with the ordained.

Church of Sweden - what kind of organisation are we?

What kind of entity is the Church of Sweden (CoS) when engaged in activities with partners internationally? Are we a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), a Faith-Based Organisation (FBO) or something else?

Steve de Gruchy
died in 2010
while tubing
on the Mooi River
 with his son.

In 2012 a book was published in Honour of Steve de Gruchy, former Dean of our School:

Living on the Edge. Essays in Honour of Steve de Gruchy Activist & Theologian. 

The book is edited by James R Cochrane, Elias Bongmba, Isabel Phiri, and Des van der Water. Cluster Publications. Pietermaritzburg.

In one of the essays "Faith Amid Turbulent Currents on a Living River" Gary Gunderson writes about the ARHAP (African Religious Health Assets Programme). This programme distinguishes between FBO’s and FFE’s. FFE stand for: Faith Forming Entity. Gunderson writes:

FBO’s are nearly always organized around a temporal, functional purpose that tends to downplay the most distinctive thing of relevance to those in them, which is to express the faith nurtured in their particular FFE.

As an employee of the International Department of the CoS I sometimes ask myself questions based on this distinction. If we go back in the history of the CoS we have traditionally tried to hold together the two: we are both an agency that seeks to transform the lives of people through the kind of temporal programmes that Gunderson speaks about. At the same time we are a church, with all its implications.

The Facebook page of our international department does not even describe us as an FBO. It says that we are an NGO. To me, that is a concern.

'Svenska kyrkans internationella arbete' means
'the Church of Sweden's International Work'.

The FFE concept is useful to me. It shows that there is a tension between different aspects in our international work. I believe it has to be. Other churches have solved this by having one organisation for aid (like the Norwegian Church Aid) which is not the same thing as the Church of Norway.

My points here are:

1. The Church of Sweden International Work is definitely not a non-governmental organisation (NGO). I hope this will be changed on the Facebook-page.

2. I agree that we need to live in the tension between being a faith-based organisation (FBO) and a faith forming entity (FFE).

3. It takes two to tango. Church relations are important if we are going to live up to our vision to be both an FBO and an FFE. In our Church relations we connect to roots both in the congregations of the CoS and deep down in our partner churches.

In the School of Religion, Philosophy and Classics at the UKZN we try to keep this together. Many of my colleagues describe themselves as at the same time church people, activists and academics. Yes, there are tensions from time to time but it is impossible to separate those aspects. As the CoS we have a lot to learn from this.

Fourth Sunday of Advent and contextuality

For the first time we attended church in the closest Anglican church, St. Aphege’s Church. The service on a Sunday starts at 7.30 and by 8.45 we were out. 

Children were invited to light the candles in the beginning of the service. 

Janet Trisk led the service. She is both a canon (I think) and linked to my University. The first time I listened to her was at a conference with the Theological Society of Southern Africa in Bloemfontein 2010. She read a paper with the title:

Beauty for Ashes: Responding to Violence

It is published in the book:

Living on the Edge. Essays in Honour of Steve de Gruchy, Activist& Theologian. Eds. James R. Cochrane, Elisas Bongmba, Isabel Phiri & Des van der Water. Cluster Publication, Pietermaritzburg 2012.

This cross also speaks about beauty!

Her point is that much theology has been preoccupied with death, suffering and violence. But there are also other strands. Maybe a more motherly or feminist perspective! Today, though, she was preaching about Joseph and how he tried to deal with the pregnancy of Mary in a responsible way. The message to us was to combine justice and mercy. To walk the extra mile, if possible. It was a nice service and a good sermon. The congregation is multi-cultural but also, as far as I could see, dominated by middle class South Africans. I missed a perspective in the sermon and that should have been a reflection that the poor and oppressed already walks more than the extra mile. But I guess she preached contextually to middle class people (and I am of course one).

This painting I found in St- Alphege's. Contextual.
A Black Jesus being sentenced to death.

Not so contextual was a song about advent, snow and winter time. It is around 30 degrees centigrade today.

Something else on the contextual note. St. Alphege  became the Archbishop of Canterbury in 1005. He went to Rome to receive his so called Pallium (a circular band about two inches wide, worn about the neck, breast, and shoulders, and having two pendants, one hanging down in front and one behind.A symbol of the jurisdiction delegated to a metropolitan or primate by the Holy See). On a website called Catholic Online we can read the following:

He [St. Alphege] returned to England in time to be captured by the Danes pillaging the southern regions. The Danes besieged Canterbury and took Alphege captive. The ransom for his release was about three thousand pounds and went unpaid. Alphege refused to give the Danes that much, an act which infuriated them. He was hit with an ax and then beaten to death.

Although he lived in England it is rather contextual. Many South Africans have given their lives in the struggle against Apartheid.

Speaking about Danes a good friend from Denmark uploaded this photo on my facebook time line. Thank you, Lone!

We are truly blessed this Christmas. All our five children are visiting us.
Together with a son-in-law-to-be. (Not in the picture, though!)

Lastly I would like to make a contribution to the Swedish discussion from the Archbishop election about Whether or not Jesus is a truer reflection of God than Mohammed. I like the take Sidney Carther has on the question. For God everything is possible, but I only know one name. The Son of Mary!

Every star shall sing a carol,
Every creature high or low.
Come and praise the King of Heaven
By whatever name you know.

God above man below,
Holy is the name I know.

When the king of all creation,
Had a cradle on the earth.
Holy was the human body,
Holy was the human birth.

Who can tell what other cradle?
High above the Milky Way;
Still may rock the King of Heaven,
On another Christmas day.
     
Who can count how many crosses?
Still to come or long ago.
Crucify the King of Heaven,
Holy is the name I know.

Who can tell what other body?
He will hallow for his own.
I will praise the son of Mary,
Brother of my blood and bone.

Every star and every planet,
Every creature high and low.
Come and praise the King of Heaven,
By whatever name you know.