Bishops say “OXI” to neofascist Golden Dawn movement

In 1940 the Fascist dictator of Italy, Benito Mussolini, sent an ultimatum to Greece, demanding that they allow Italian troops to occupy Greece. The Greek response was a single word, OXI (“NO”).

This event as been commemorated since then by a public holiday, called OXI Day, and is observed by people of Greek origin around the world as well as by those in Greece itself.

The Greek resistance to Mussolini was the first Allied victory of the Second World War, and though Greece was eventually occupied by the Axis powers, the Italians required the assistance of German troops to do it, and it may be argued that this resistance delayed the German invasion of Russia, and meant that their invasion got bogged down in the autumn rains, and was halted by the Russian winter, and thus the Greek OXI changed the course of the war.

This post is not intended to be a lesson in military history , however. I am more concerned about the present, when Greeks are again needing to say NO to fascism.  As one newspaper headline puts it: A Fascist party in full cry. Black-shirts smashing migrants’ homes. Swastikas on the streets. No, not Germany in the Thirties: Greece 2012.

Or, as another newspaper reports, “Fascist gangs are turning Athens into a city of shifting front lines, seizing on crimes and local protests to promote their own movement, by claiming to be the defenders of recession ravaged Greece.”

The “recession-ravaged” epithet also recalls parallels with the rise of Nazism in Germany, which was struggling against austerity measures imposed by the victors in the First World War through the Treaty of Versailles. And other commentators have also pointed this out:

When German Chancellor Angela Merkel visited Athens last month, a few Greek Army reservists in fatigues greeted her with chants of “Get out, Nazis!” Like other Greeks, they are furious over the drastic budget cuts Germany and other eurozone countries are demanding in exchange for billions in bailout loans. The protesters compared the situation to Nazi Germany’s brutal occupation of Greece during World War II, when more than 400,000 Greeks died. But investigative journalist Dimitris Psarras hears other echoes of the past. “The economic crisis that Greece is facing today is similar to the one faced by Weimar Germany,” he says. “Just as Germany struggled to pay reparations imposed by the victors of World War I, Greece is now struggling to pay off giant debt racked up by its own corrupt political system.” Even Prime Minister Antonis Samaras has used the reference. In Weimar Germany, paramilitaries from the far right and far left fought in the streets. Germans struggled through head-spinning economic and political crises. Then, in 1933, after parliamentary elections that gave the Nazi Party the biggest share of the vote, Adolf Hitler came to power. Now Greece may have its own version of the Nazis, Psarras says, the Golden Dawn Party. He has researched the movement for more than two decades and just released a book, The Black Bible of Golden Dawn.

And what is the Church doing about all this?

Some might say that this is “politics” and that the Church should stay aloof from politics, but I can see distinct parallels with apartheid in South Africa, where after a lot of vaccilating and arguments about “religion and politics don’t mix” a number of Christian leaders did say publicly (in 1968, 20 years after the National Party came to power to promote apartheid) that the apartheid ideology was worse than a heresy; it was a false gospel, a pseudogospel of salvation by race rather than grace. Extreme nationalism, and the exaltation of race or ethnicity against all other values, is a form of idolatry.

There have been disturbing reports that some priests are supporting Golden Dawn, and thus leading their flock astray, but many bishops have been true to the faith. That is why we pray at every Divine Liturgy that God will “grant them for Thy Holy Churches in peace, safety, honour, health and length of days, rightly to define the Word of Thy Truth.”

The fullest and most comprehensive statement that I have seen so far is from The Holy Eparchial Synod of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, which issued a communiqué which included the following resounding OXI:

Statement of the Holy Eparchial Synod
of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America

The Holy Eparchial Synod of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America in its Fall 2012 session expresses once again its deep concern over extremist language used in all spheres of public and private life. We exhort all the people with the admonition of the Holy Apostle Paul: Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one (Colossians 4:6). We deplore the use of any racist, xenophobic, fascistic, hateful speech, imagery and behavior.   Noting that the one of the great gifts of living in a democracy is the right to free speech, we nevertheless commend responsibility, civility, and indeed love in choosing our words and modes of expression. The people of Greece said “NO” to fascism in World War II and consequently suffered tremendously under the Nazi occupation. We call upon all people to say “NO” to the hatefulness of all forms of totalitarianism and embrace the true philanthropy and philoxenia (love of the stranger) that is the message of the Gospel. As a leader in Interfaith and Inter-Cultural Dialogue, the Greek Orthodox Church, by the grace of God, prays and works for peace, respect, and reconciliation among all people.

It’s time for Orthodox Greeks to remember OXI Day and say

Augustine of Hippo and “legitimate” rape

A few weeks ago an American politician sparked a furore by speaking about “legitimate rape”.

“First of all, from what I understand from doctors [pregnancy from rape] is really rare. If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down… I think there should be some punishment, but the punishment ought to be on the rapist and not attacking the child.” – Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO), on KTVI-TV, August 19, 2012

I don’t know whether he has explained what he meant. I find it difficult to imagine any circumstances in which rape could be regarded as “legitimate”. But it also sparked off a theological discussion on the interpretation of some things said by Augustine of Hippo ‘Let It Be Unto Me’: Akin, Rape, and the Early Church | (A)theologies | Religion Dispatches:

Virginia Burrus: As soon as I began hearing the news reports of Akin’s remarks, I was haunted by similarities with the thought of the late Roman theologian Augustine…

Augustine’s discussion at the very beginning of his famous work City of God of the rape of Lucretia, a traditional Roman tale that he revisits in the context of real or anticipated wartime rapes of women of the Christian community.

Lucretia was a Roman woman renowned for her extreme virtue, known to have killed herself after she was raped in an effort to restore her honor by making it clear that she in no way colluded with her rapist. That itself is sufficiently telling testimony to the burden that rape places on its victims! But Augustine—in one of his lowest moments—makes it worse. For what he does is essentially to blame the victim nonetheless, much as Akin seems to do. He suggests (while acknowledging that only Lucretia herself could have known this) that Lucretia must have been “so enticed by her own desire that she consented to the act” (City of God 1:19). And in this she is, in Augustine’s eyes, condemned.

The theological point here is whether this is fair to Augustine.

Some have pointed out that it isn’t, and that the last thing that Augustine does, or wants to do, is “blame the victim”.

What Augustine Really Said about Rape – Lincoln A. Mullen:

So why then does Augustine bring up Lucretia? Lucretia is an example of a classical Roman woman who both was raped and committed suicide, and thus she is a locus classicus for both Christians and pagans. Professor Burrus writes that Augustine ‘suggests (while acknowledging that only Lucretia herself could have known this) that Lucretia must have been “so enticed by her own desire that she consented to the act’. But Professor Burrus has inexplicably left off the question mark from Augustine’s rhetorical question. What Augustine really says is this: ‘What shall we call her? An adulteress, or chaste? There is no question which she was. Not more happily than truly did a declaimer say of this sad occurrence: “Here was a marvel: there were two, and only one committed adultery.” Most forcibly and truly spoken’ (1.19). Indeed, Augustine is unequivocal in his claim that Lucretia bore no blame whatsoever for the rape.

But Augustine still has to deal with the question of suicide. So Augustine finds fault with Lucretia for committing suicide, not for being raped. In the passage that Professor Burrus discusses, Augustine is a rhetor arguing through every hypothetical situation. If Lucretia did not consent to the rape, Augustine says, then she should not have committed suicide and killed an innocent person. Even if (for the sake of argument) Lucretia did consent to the rape, to kill a person guilty of adultery is not justified. The language of chapter 19 makes it obvious that Augustine is discussing suicide, not rape. But to make it even more obvious, Augustine continues for the next eight chapters on the topic of suicide before he returns to the topic of rape (1.20–27).

Augustine elaborates on Lucretia’s motivations. He makes it plain that Lucretia did not commit suicide because she was secretly guilty of consenting to her rape but because of ‘the overwhelming burden of her shame’ (1.19). The pagans argued that Christian women who were raped should also feel ashamed and commit suicide. But Augustine praises Christian women for not feeling ashamed: ‘Not such was the decision of the Christian women who suffered as she did, and yet survive. They declined to avenge upon themselves the guilt of others, and so add crimes of their own to those crimes in which they had no share. … Within their own souls, in the witness of their own conscience, they enjoy the glory of chastity.

There are wheels within wheels here.

Mullen points out that Burrus, in attempting to refute Akin, has misrepresented Augustine.

And it’s the last point that interests me. I don’t think Akin needs much refutation and the arguments used in the article quoted are unlikely to convince Akin’s supporters.

This illustrates a tendency among western theologians to misrepresent early Christian writers, and to portray them as saying things about modern problems thaat they did not actually say. Similar things have been said about St John Chrysostom and antisemitism, for example.

I can understand why the enemies of Christianity might want to do this. I find it more difficult to understand why Christian theologians would want to do so.

 

Twenty-five years ago we were received into the Orthodox Church

Twenty-five years ago today we were received into the Orthodox Church on the day of the Synaxis of the Archangel Michael and the other Bodiless Powers.

After being received into the Orthodox Church by Fr Chrysostom Frank, 8 November 1987: (Back) Methodius (Stephen) Hayes, Fr Chrysostom Frank, Katherine (Val) Hayes. (Front) Julia (Bridget) Hayes, Nicholas (Simon) Hayes, Raphael (Jethro) Hayes

We were received into the Orthodox Church in Johannesburg on 8 November 1987 (Michaelmas) by Fr Chrysostom Frank who had recently returned from the USA to be chaplain of the Society of St Nicholas of Japan, a newly-established Orthodox mission society.

Synaxis of the Holy Archangel Michael and the other Bodiless Powers

At that time the Society was meeting at St Matthew’s Anglican Church Hall in Fairmount, Johannesburg, for Saturday Vespers and the Divine Liturgy on Sundays, and the Church of St Nicholas, which had its beginnings then, recently celebrated its own 25th  anniversary.

Our road to Orthodoxy had been quite difficult, however.

I had first become interested in Orthodoxy when I was studying theology at St Chad’s College, Durham, England, and had the opportunity to attend a Seminar on Orthodox Theology for non-Orthodox theology students. It was held at the Chateau de Bossey in Switzerland, where we had a week of lectures, and then went by bus to Paris where we attended the Holy Week and Pascha Services at the St Sergius Institute in April 1968.

I was then Anglican, and the thing that got me hooked was the Easter Kiss. That was before the “kiss of peace” became fashionable in Anglican churches. At St Sergius the priest stood in front of the congregation and one of the other ministers kissed him with the greeting “Christ is risen” and the response “Indeed he is risen”, and the minister then stood on the priest’s right, and the next person greeted both of them, and so it went on until everyone had greeted everyone else. It took 45 minutes. And it was followed by the reading of the Paschal Homily of St John Chrysostom, which encapsulates the essence of the Gospel in less than one page of text.

Holy Week at St Sergius in Paris, April 1968. The priest is Fr Alexander Kniazeff.

That whetted my interest in Orthodox theology, and I began to read books of Orthodox theology. One of the first was The world as sacrament by Fr Alexander Schmemann, later published in an expanded version as
For the Life of the World: Sacraments and Orthodoxy by Alexander Schmemann

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

If there is one book that would recommend to anyone wanting to know about the place of the Christian faith in the world we live in, this is it.

Back in the 1960s Western theologians were divided into those searching for the secular meaning of the gospel, and those who were seeking to respiritualise it. I found both equally rebarbative, and Schmemann articulated what I had been trying to say.

I returned to South Africa and remained an Anglican for another 15 years. I got involved in theological education, training self-supporting priests and deacons in the Anglican diocese of Zululand. Then I became Director of Mission and Evangelism in the Anglican Diocese of Pretoria, but that only made the theological problem more acute. An evangelist is one who proclaims the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ. But in Western theology the tendency to argue about the gospel rather than proclaiming it seemed to be growing stronger. As St Paul said, in a somewhat different context, if the trumpet gives an uncertain sound, who will be prepared for the battle? (I Cor 14:8). It was becoming more and more apparent to me that the only place to find the orthodox theology that I believed in was in the Orthodox Church.

St Sergius Church in Paris, Holy Week 1968

I wrote a letter to Fr Alexander Schmemann, since he had written the books that had convinced me, to ask his advice, but he had died a year or two before, and so my letter was passed on to a South African student at St Vladimir’s Seminary, Jonathan Proctor (now a priest in St Paul, Minnesota). He told me there was an English-speaking parish in Melrose, Johannesburg, with an English-speaking priest, Fr Chrysostom Frank.

St Sergius, Paris. Procession at the cemetery, Good Friday 1968

We drove the 60 kilometres to the Sunday services, but could not afford to do so every Sunday, so on alternate Sundays we went to the Catholic Church in Queenswood, which was just 3 kilometres away, and was reputed to be one of the liveliest Catholic parishes in Pretoria, with lots of house churches and things like that. But though it was closer to home geographically, it felt less like home spiritually.

After a few weeks of this, we asked Fr Chrysostom what we should do to join the Orthodox Church. He said we should write a letter to the local bishop. So we did.

We waited for a reply from His Eminence Metropolitan Paul Lyngris, Archbishop of Johannesburg and Pretoria, but none came. Eventually Fr Chrysostom asked the bishop. Yes, he had received our letter, but there was a problem. A couple of months before we had arrived, another former Anglican priest had been received into the Orthodox Church in the same parish. He was Athanasius (David) Hamilton. The Archbishop was worried that the Anglicans might complain that the Orthodox was proselytising if we were received into the Orthodox Church, and so he had sent our letter to the Patriarch in Alexandria and asked for his advice. The Patriarch decided to refer it to the Holy Synod. This seemed a bit much. A synod of bishops from all over the continent discussing whether one family of five could join the Orthodox Church!

In the mean time, Fr Chrysostom went to study overseas, at the same St Vladimir’s Seminary, and the priest who replaced him could only speak Greek, and Pantanassa reverted to being a primarily Greek-speaking parish. Before the Holy Synod could meet to discuss our letter to ask if we could join the Orthodox Church, the Patriarch died, and so the Holy Synod was more concerned about arranging for the election of a new patriarch. What happened to our letter, we’ll probably never know. Perhaps in a century or three someone will find it mouldering in the archives in Alexandria.

So for the next couple of years we were in a kind of ecclesiastical limbo, belonging nowhere. Many years latter Val and I confessed to each other that there had been times during those two years when we had contemplated going to the railway line over the road from our house and thowing ourselves under a passing train. Perhaps it was the holy guardian angels who protected us from that.

We still sometimes visited the local Roman Catholic Church of Christ the King in Queenswood. Once we asked the priest if we could talk to him, and he said “Phone me to make an appointment.”

One Sunday in Advent 1986 we went to Mass and they talked about “Shelter seeking” that evening, to which the congregation were invited, so Val went to ask the priest if we could go to it, even though we were not members, but we weren’t able to ask anything more about it because someone else started talking to him. We decided to go to it anyway. They had said that it would start at 7:30, but nothing seemed to happen, and there were just people hanging around outside the church talking. Then someone came and asked us if we were waiting for the Shelter Seeking, and when we said we were, they said the others had probably already left, and they would lead us, so we followed them to Sunnyside, and they were lost too, so we separated, and then found the house where they were doing the shelter seeking, but it was finished by the time we got there, and we were only in time for tea, so we never found out what shelter seeking actually was. At tea we got into conversation with someone, and thought perhaps that would be an “in” to this rather closed church community, but it turned out that it was his first time there too, and he had never found out what shelter seeking was either.

When the new Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria and All Africa (Parthenios III) was elected a group of us in Johannesburg and Pretoria approached him for his blessing to start a mission society, with Fr Chrysostom as chaplain, and he gave his blessing. Fr John Meyendorff, the Dean of St Vladimir’s Seminary, impressed on Fr Chrysostom that one of the first things he should do, on returning to South Africa, was to receive us into the Orthodox Church, since we had been waiting so long. We had expected some kind of catechumenate and teaching, but Fr Chrysostom said that could wait till afterwards, and so after all the waiting, in the end it was quite a rush.

Fr Chrysostom said we could have new saints names, and gave us a book of saints so that could choose some. The book seemed rather odd. I was surprised to discover that Lord Byron, the English poet and libertine, was an Orthodox “saint”.

I picked Methodius, because I was still interested in mission and was studying missiology, and he was a missionary saint. Val chose Katherine, because she was close to her birthday. Bridget chose Julia of Carthage, because she was far away from her birthday — with her birthday in January being so close to Christmas, she wanted an excuse to celebrate some other time of the year. Simon chose St Nicholas of Myra (not of Japan), and Jethro chose St Raphael, whose day it happened to be when we were chrismated.

When I was ordained as a deacon, however, the bishop gave me the name Stephen again, and that seemed appropriate, since he was one of the first deacons, and it seemed to be a sign that I should remain a deacon. When Bridget went to Greece to study, she found the name Julia very useful, since “Bridget” is a difficult name for Greeks (in Greek it looks something like “Mpridzet”). And a few years later, when Jethro was at school, his name Raphael was considered cool, since it belonged to one of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

But our Slava is St Michael and all the Bodiless Powers of heaven. The Slava is the feast of the patron saint of the family, when the first members of the family were baptised. Some years we have been able to celebrate it fully, with guests, and with a priest coming to the house. Other years, just by a few prayers. It seems to be a custom worth preserving and encouraging in Africa, where for many people ancestors are important.

Troparion – Tone 4

Commanders of the heavenly hosts,
we who are unworthy beseech you,
by your prayers encompass us beneath the wings of your immaterial glory,
and faithfully preserve us who fall down and cry to you:
“Deliver us from all harm, for you are the commanders of the powers on high!”

Kontakion – Tone 2

Commanders of God’s armies and ministers of the divine glory,
princes of the bodiless angels and guides of mankind,
ask for what is good for us, and for great mercy,
supreme commanders of the Bodiless Hosts.

A discursive journey into the highways and byways of English

By Hook Or By Crook: A Journey In Search Of English by David Crystal

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A discursive linguistic and geographical ramble through Wales, and bits of England bordering on Wales, with occasional excursions to other parts of the world.

I really enjoyed it as a bit of bed-time reading on nights when I wasn’t too tired, which is why it took me a long time to get through it. But then I have worked as a proofreader and editor, and so there is a sense in which words are my business. Others might not have the same interest in such things.

I found some bits more interesting than others. One that was most fascinating to me was the story of John Bradburne, who was probably the most prolific poet in the English language. Shakespeare wrote about 84000 lines, Wordsworth about 54000, and Bradburne at least 170 000.

I had never heard of John Bradburne before, and pictured him as some kind of recluse, sitting in rural England, doing nothing else but writing poetry. Surely one would have no time for anything else?

But I was wrong.

He lived a varied and interesting life. He joined the Roman Catholic Church in 1947, spent some time with various religious orders, travelled to various countries, and eventually decided he wanted to be a hermit, and pray. He had three wishes: to to serve leprosy patients, to die a martyr, and to be buried in a Franciscan habit. He achieved all three, and on the twentieth anniversary of his death in 1999 some 15000 pilgrims visited the scene of his death at Mutemwa in Zimbabwe.

If you want more details, perhaps you should read the book, though you could probably Google for them.

That forms part of Crystal’s chapter on Southern African varieties of English, headed “the robot’s not working”. A nice pun, because “robot” is derived from the Slavic word for work, or worker.

I was a bit disappointed that Crystal did not even speculate on its origin, and to make up for his deficiency, I’ll put forward my own theory. For those who don’t know, “robot” is the South African term for what, in most other English-speaking countries, are called traffic lights. How did it get to be called that? My theory is that since, in the early days, the flow of traffic at intersections (British English = “junctions”) was controlled by policemen, when the policemen were replaced by a pole surmounted by coloured lights, some wag may have referred to it as a “robot policeman”, and the name stuck. After all, in Britain traffic-calming humps are sometimes called “sleeping policemen”. And when the robot’s not working, sometimes flesh-and-blood traffic cops step in to take over.

Crystal started off investigating Welsh accents when Welsh people were speaking English, but he covers a lot more than that. Some may find his discursiveness distracting, but I enjoyed it. He discusses Indian English, and American English, and European English, all of which affect spoken and written English.

If you find words, meanings, accents, names and their history, interesting, then you’ll probably enjoy this book.

View all my reviews

Communication without community: American religion and the world

Fifty years ago Marshall McLuhan was saying that electronic media were turning the world into a global village. Television brought events like the Vietnam War and the Six-Day War into the homes of millions of people around the world. And that still happens, as the world learnt of the devastation caused hurricane Sandy in the north-eastern USA. But Marshall McLughans vision of globalisation didn’t quite come true as he envisaged it, and much of that commmunication is one way. When the USA catches cold, the whole world sneezes. I saw all sorts of expressions of sympathy for people in the USA from Facebook friends and others in other online forums, but while they had all heard of hurricane Sandy, most of them had never heard of typhoon Son Tinh, which killed almost as many people.

And so when blogger Macrina Walker wrote Bad Religion | A vow of conversation:

I recently read Ross Douthat’s Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics and thought that it might be an idea to say something about it. I hadn’t intended reading it as the nation referred to in the subtitle is the U.S.A. and I tend to get irritated at the way American concerns dominate so many conversations.

she immediately qualified it by adding this:

However, when a (South African) friend started posting quotes from it on Facebook, my interest was piqued and I realised that America has, after all, been exporting its bad religion around the world for a long time now. Or, perhaps more responsibly said, that the societal forces that give rise to developments in American religion are also present elsewhere, although the details, and even some of the trends, may vary. One of the key questions in my mind as I read the book was how what Douthat describes both does and does not relate to South Africa.

Another South African friend, Allan Anderson, who has spent the last couple of months in months in North America, writes on a similar topic on Facebook, from a somewhat closer vantage point:

TO ALL MY AMERICAN “CHRISTIAN” FRIENDS:
You don’t like Romney the Mormon pastor but you will vote for him coz you hate Obama the African American Christian. Please unfriend me first if you want to share anti-Obama posters on Facebook. This is supposed to be a social network and I sure don’t want to socialise with the venom I see here.

The phenomenon he describes is surely an instance of the “Bad religion” that Douthat writes about, and it is something that I too have noticed. There is very little to choose between most US presidential candidates. Obama showed that his “change you can believe in” was quite unbelievable. Under Obama’s administration the US government is still killing people in the Middle East and elsewhere, just it did under George Bush and Bill Clinton before him. Guantanamo Bay is still open. Where the candidates differ is in the nastiness of their supporters. Romney supporters are, on the whole, far, far nastier than Obama’s, at least to judge by their pronouncements in internet forums. And many of them claim to be Christian.

As viewed in online forums, American political campaigning seems to be all about vilifying the people you don’t like, rather than saying what you do like or want. Well, in that respect, South Africa is no different. Read any Sunday newspaper and it’s all about personalitires and nothing about policies. They’ll tell you who’s in and who’s out, but will tell you nothing about what they stand for and what their policies are. The difference is that I don’t see lots of people saying online that all true Christians should support Zuma or Malema or Zille or whoever.

I nevertheless think that Macrina’s key question is an important one — how does the bad religion that Douthat describes relate or not relate to South Africa, and other countries as well.

Back in the 1980s American bad religion swept into South Africa from the USA like a storm surge. If it wasn’t visitng speakers from the USA, it was audio and video tapes of their teachings, distributed by local churches in South Africa, and listened to by thousands on their car tape players in traffic jams, in study groups and the like. And, thougyh on a smaller scale than in the USA, a lot of this material was broadcast on radio and TV as well. It helped to shape a kind of generic Protestantism that is widespread today, not only in South Africa, but throughout the continent.

Yet the American “bad religion” that was imported was also modified. It was intrerpreted in terms of local culture and local theology. I noticed some of these differences at the recent Anglicans Ablaze conference in Johannesburg Anglicans Ablaze | Khanya:

…the biggest difference was perhaps that expressed by Bishop Graham Cray, from England, speaking on Transformed by the Holy Spirit, when he said that Christians are being called out of “consumer Christianity which exists to bless me, to a missional Christianity which is called to bless others”.

Anglicans Ablaze Conference, Johannesburg, October 2012

The elegance of the hedgehog

The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This ia a book about life seen through the eyes of the 54-year-old concierge (caretaker) of a block of flats in Paris, inhabited by rich people.

Renée grew up in a rural area, in a peasant family. She left school at 12, and her husband Lucien died some years previously, so she lives in her lodge with her television and her cat Leo (named after her favourite author, Tolstoy), and she fills her spare time reading. As a result she is probably more well-read and better informed than most of the residents of the flats, who, however, barely notice her.

One of the residents, however, has something in common with Renée. This is 12-year-old Paloma Josse, who feels oppressed by her parents and elder sister, and has a similar love of reading, and so is better informed in some ways than the rest of her family. She hates the idea of growing up to be like them, and so plans to commit suicide on her 13th birthday. In the mean time, she records her profound thoughts, and movements in the physical world that she observes.

In some ways, the book reminded me of Sophie’s world by Jostein Gaarder, which I read a few years ago, at least in the sense that the viewpoint characters, Renée and Paloma, express their philosophy of life.

I really enjoyed this book a lot, and I think it has a great deal to say about life and human relationships in South Africa, where the gap between rich and poor his as great, if not greater, than in France, and is probably still growing.

There is a sense in which it catches the essence of ubuntu, and it reminded me of an old man, Africa, who has been painting our fence for the last few weeks. He wanders around, asking to do odd jobs, and begging for a crust of bread if there is no work available. I imagine many people in the middle-class suburbs where he wanders regard him in much the same way as the residents of the posh Paris flats looked on Renée the caretaker, hardly seeing him at all.

Siliki Africa Mokgotlo

I thought I should write him a reference. He has done quite a good job of painting our 90 metres of fence. A while back he repaired and painted our roof. I looked it up and discovered that it was 12 years ago, and was quite shocked to see how long ago it was. Perhaps we’ll have another handyman job for him in 12 years’ time, but by then we’ll probably both be dead. So in the meantime, if anyone living in Tshwane has some painting or handyman-type jobs they need doing, perhaps you could think of Siliki Africa Mokgotlo, and give him a ring at 073-618-2288. No, he’s not as well-read as Renée the concierge, and won’t keep you entertained with philosophy and insights into literature, but Renée’s observations of the people who observe her probably apply equally to the rich people that Africa meets. Because of his age, he works slowly, but he is thorough.

View all my reviews

Canadian bishop visits South Africa

Last week Bishop Georgije of Canada visited Johannesburg for the patronal festival of St Thomas’s Orthodox Church in Sunninghill, in the north of Johannesburg. He was accompanied by a priest, Fr Zlatibor Djurasevic, and a layman, Dr Goran Popovic.

It has become a regular custom for a bishop from the Holy Synod of the Serbian Orthodox Church to visit St Thomas’s Church at the time of its patronal festival, and a different bishop comes each year. On arriving, Bishop Georgije was met by the parish priest, Fr Pantelejmon Jovanovic, other clergy of the Archdiocese of Johannesburg and Pretoria, and the local parishioners.

Bishop Georgije of Canada, Fr Pantelejmon Jovanovic (Rector of St Thomas’s Church), Fr Zlatibor Djurasevic of Canada, and Fr Athanasius Akunda (Rector of St Nicholas of Japan Church, Brixton) at Vespers

On Saturday evening, 20th October, Bishop Georgije served Vespers and Litiya, again with other clergy of the local Archdiocese who were able to attend, and then spoke in the hall about the publishing activities of the Serbian Diocese of Canada.

Bishop Georgije serving Litiya at St Thomas the Apostle Orthodox Church, with clergy from the Johannesburg Archdiocese, 20 Oct 2012

Among the other books on display was a quadrilingual book of the Divine Liturgy, in Greek, Slavonic, Serbian and English. Bishop Georgike presented signed copies of this to all the clergy who had served with him at Vespers. Fr Pantelejmon also had copies of the newly-printed Readers Service, in English and Zulu, which had been printed in Serbia. Five hundred copies of the Readers Service had been printed as a gift by the Eastern Orthodox Missionary Society of Father Daniel Sysoev. The Society was inspired by and formed in memory of Father Daniel, a missionary priest in Russia, who was murdered three years ago.

Bishop Georgije giving signed copies of the quadrilingual Liturgy book to Fr George Cocotas and Fr George Coconos of the Archdiocese of Johannesburg and Pretoria — three Georges.

On Sunday morning 21st October Bishop Georgije concelebrated the Divine Liturgy with the local bishop, Metropolitan Damaskinos, Archbishop of Johannesburg and Pretoria.

 

 

St Nicholas Church 25th anniversary celebrations

Last week we had a weekend of festivities to celebrate the 25th anniversary of St Nicholas Orthodox Church in Brixton, Johannesburg. I’ve already written something about the history of the church here.

The celebrations started with Vespers at 6:00 pm on Saturday 13 October, where there were also some visiting clergy from other parishes.

Clergy who served St Nicholas anniversary Vespers: Deacon Stephen Hayes, Fr Athanasius Akunda (the parish priest), Fr Pantelejmon Jovanovic and Fr Elias Palmos (photo by Jethro Hayes)

After Vespers we went to the Founders Grill in Florida for a celebratory dinner, and our choir member Harry Tambourlas and his jazz trio entertained us with music, as did some members of the parish who sang various songs.

Anniversary Dinner at the Founders Grill in Florida: good food, good music and good company

On Sunday morning His Eminence Metropolitan Damaskinos, Archbishop of Johannesburg and Pretoria, served a hierarchical Divine Liturgy, and tonsured several readers, and blessed the altar servers.

Archbishop Damaskinos distributing Antidoron at the end of the Divine Liturgy

 

St Nicholas Orthodox Church, Brixton: 25th anniversary

This week the Orthodox Church of St Nicholas of Japan in Brixton, Johannesburg, will be celebrating its 25th anniversary.

It held its first public service on 24th October 1987, though it was not then in Brixton, nor was it, at that stage, a parish. The service was Vespers, held in St Matthew’s Anglican Church Hall in Fairmount, Johannesburg, and it was arranged by the Society of St Nicholas of Japan, a mission society, which hoped to start several new parishes.

In March 1988 the Society moved to holding services in a chapel at St Martin’s-in-the-Veld Anglican Church in Dunkeld, and in 1990 we moved to the chapel at the Russian House in Yeoville, Johannesburg.

The chapel at the Russian House in Hunter Street, Yeoville, Johannesburg, 1990

The Russian House Chapel at least meant that we did not have to schlepp everything for the service out of a store room and back again afterwards, as we had had to do at St Martin’s, but it was too small for the growing congregation, which by this time had decided to form itself into a parish, also with St Nicholas of Japan as patron, and elected a parish council separate from the committee of the mission society.

The parish council set out to look for a more permanent meeting place, and eventually found one at 156 Fulham Road, Brixton. It was the Brixton Tabernacle, which had formerly belonged to the Full Gospel Church. After some alterations to make it suitable for Orthodox worship, we began holding services there in November 1990.

St Nicholas of Japan Orthodox Church, Brixton, in the early 1990s

At the time that the Society of St Nicholas started most Orthodox Churches in South Africa were “community” churches, that is to say they were established and run by ethnic communities (kinotites) and they functioned more or less as ethnic chaplaincies, using the language of the particular ethnic community, such as Greek, Serbian etc.

St Nicholas was intended to be a mission church, and multi-ethnic, with services mainly in English. St Nicholas of Japan was chosen as the patron saint because he was a Russian missionary who went to Japan, but started a Japanese Church, not a Russian one. So the aim of the society and the parish of St Nicholas was to be a South African Orthodox Church, which people of any ethnic background could join. And there was a steady stream of people joining the Orthodox Church at St Nicholas. Among those who joined in the early days were Sean Noel-Barham and Zwelinzima Nyathela, who were chrismated on 25 April 1992.

Chrismation of Sean Noel-Barham and Zwelinzima Nyathela by Fr Chrysostom, Holy Saturday, 1992

After being chrismated, they went in procession around the font and, since it was Holy Saturday, the Epitaphios.

The newly-illumined servants of God led by Fr Chrysostom in procession around the font and Epitaphios (funeral shroud of Christ)

The Church of St Nicholas has had four parish priests in the 25 years of its history:

1. Fr Chrysostom (Gary) Frank from the USA (1987-1996)
2. Fr Bertrand (Iakovos) Olechnowicz from the USA (1998-2001)
3. Fr Mircea (Mihai) Corpodean from Romania (2002-2008)
4. Fr Athanasius (Amos) Akunda from Kenya (2008-present)

In 1996 Fr Chrysostom left to join the Roman Catholic Church, and for the next year St Nicholas was without a permanent priest, and on many Sundays we had the Reader’s Service (Obednitsa, Typika), though priests from neighbouring parishes came to help with such services as the Presanctified Liturgy in Lent, and served the Divine Liturgy on some other days, though on Sundays they were busy in their own parishes. In many ways St Nicholas became stronger as a community in the year without a priest.

We celebrated Holy Week with the next-door parish of SS Cosmas & Damien in Sophiatown but Gustav Prinsloo was nevertheless baptised on Holy Saturday by Fr Alexandros Gianniris, who said he found St Nicholas’s music “addictive, like cigarettes”. We gave him a tape of the parish music disguised as a cigarette packet (complete with addiction warnings) as a farewell present when he left to become Bishop (now Archbishop) of Nigeria.

At the beginning of 1998 we got a new priest, Fr Bertrand Olechnowicz (later known as Fr Iakovos) from Pennyslvania in the USA. Sadly one of his first duties was to conduct the funeral of Gustav Prinsloo, who had been baptised nine months previously. He was killed in a car accident while going home from church one Sunday. After the funeral service in church at Brixton the congregation travelled 250km to Petrus Steyn in the Free State for the interment, and many people were so impressed by the funeral that that there were 11 baptisms the following Pascha.

Fr Iakovos Olechnowicz at the funeral of Gustav Prinsloo in Petrus Steyn, January 1998

Father Iakovos returned to the USA at the end of 2001 and the then Archbishop of Johannesburg and Pretoria (Metropolitan Seraphim), asked Fr Mihai Corpodean, who had come to serve the Romanian community in South Africa, to look after St Nicholas as well. That meant that many Romanians from Johannesburg joined in regularly, and for big occasions, like Christmas and Easter, some came from as far afield as Cape Town.

Fr Mihai also introduced some Romanian liturgical customs — I was ordained as deacon while he was in the parish, and learned the Romanian pattern of censing from him, or at least the Romanian modification of the Russian-American pattern established by Fr Chrysostom. Also, the Romanian version of the prayers at the Poskomide (Preparation Service) listed just about every possible way in which a person could die. I think nearly everyone was moved when he prayed, at the Great Entrance, “for those for whom no one is praying any more”.

Fr Mihai serving the Divine Liturgy at the Epitaphios on Holy Saturday

As a multi-ethnic parish St Nicholas has been rather eclectic in such things, drawing on customs from different parts of the Orthodox world. On Holy Thursday and Good Friday we have had the Greek custom of the bringing out of the cross, and the taking down from the cross, which doesn’t seem to be part of Russian practice. And at Pascha we have the Russian style Easter kiss, which many of the Greek parishes seem to neglect. We have adopted the Serbian custom of the Slava, which seems to fit in very well with the understanding of the importance of ancestors in many parts of Africa. And perhaps from these different strands, a truly African Orthodoxy can be woven.

Fr Mihai and his family left in 2008 to go to New Zealand. Fr Athanasius Akunda, who was then Deputy Dean of the Catechetical School in Yeoville, was asked to look after St Nicholas as well. Some of the students from the Catechetical School also attended the services, and after the School closed, some of the former students still join us occasionally.

Holy Saturday 2011, with Deacon Irenaeus, Fr Athanasius and Deacon Stephen

Father Athanasius was originally from Kenya, and introduced some customs from Kenya too, such as praying for students at the beginning of school and university terms. He also encouraged the parish youth to meet more regularly and be more active, and there are now people meeting in houses for Compline, and visiting and praying for the sick and bereaved.

Holy Saturday 2011. Fr Athanasius scatters bay leaves as the people sing “Arise O God, judge the earth, for to Thee belong all nations” (Photo by Jethro Hayes)

Father Athanasius has also taken teams of people from St Nicholas to mission congregations to help in teaching the Orthodox Christian faith.

Receive the light of Christ: Fr Athanasius passes on the light from the Paschal candle at Pascha (Photo: Jethro Hayes)

The light of Christ is not simply to be shared within the Church of St Nicholas, but is to be taken out into the world.

Receive the Light of Christ: the light is shared at Pascha (photo: Jethro Hayes)

In spite of being a small parish, St Nicholas has not only received ministry from four different parish priests who have come from elsewhere in the world, it has also raised up people from within its own ranks who have ministries within the church community and beyond it.

Deacon Irenaeus (Brian) MacDonald and his wife Cathy (photo: Jethro Hayes)

Deacon Irenaeus now serves in the Church of the Virgin Mary (Pantanassa), which was the “mother” church of St Nicholas. Cathy MacDonald works for Twilight Children, which tries to help street children. Father Kobus van der Riet serves in Eldorado Park and in other parishes in the diocese. Father Andrei Kashinsky is a parish priest in a small village in Russia. Olga d’Amico is now Sister Paisia, in a monastery at Serres in Northern Greece.

Fr Costa and Eleni Couvas, Maro and Costa Neocleous

Costa Couvas was ordained and is now studying in Greece; he and his wife Eleni live in Athens. Eleni’s parents, Maro and Costa Neocleous were active members of St Nicholas for many years, and now live in the USA.

Azar and Georgia Jammine

Azar Jammine has served as chairman of the parish council for many years, and also sings in the choir. His wife Georgia is the choir director, and keeps us all singing. Azar is also one of South Africa’s top economists, and that too is a ministry, though outside the walls of the temple.

Our parish priest, Father Athanasius Akunda

These are just a few of the people and events that have contributed to and made up the life of the Church of St Nicholas over the last 25 years.There is room for comments below if you think that anyone else deserves special mention.

We have experienced joy and sorrow; the joy of welcoming new people in Holy Baptism, and the sadness of bidding them farewell at funerals. But whether in joy or or in sorrow, we have received the light of Christ, and as our Lord Jesus Christ said, “Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven.” Or, as we sing at every Divine Liturgy: One is holy, one is Lord, Jesus Christ, to the glory of God the Father. Amen.

We will be celebrating with Vespers on Saturday 13 October at 6:00 pm, followed by a dinner party (at a cost of R280.00 per person).

On Sunday 14th October Archbishop Damaskinos will be joining us for the Divine Liturgy, and new Readers will be tonsured, and altar servers blessed. All welcome at both services, and if you can’t come, at least pray for us.

Anglicans Ablaze, Part II

For the last couple of days I’ve been attending the Anglicans Ablaze conference in Bryanston, Johannesburg, mainly as part of my research into
the history of the charismatic renewal in Southern Africa.

I’ve already blogged about it here,but here are a few more observations, and some pictures.

There was a sprinkling of old fogeys, like me, who probably remembered the charismatic renewal of the 1970s, but there was a large majority of young
people, most of whom could probably barely remember the apartheid era.

Some of those who attended the Anglicans Ablaze conference this week.

The charismatic renewal is alive and well in the Anglican Church in southern Africa, and probably more healthy than it was in the past.

Many speakers said that the old sense of renewal on the one hand and social justice on the other has been cast into the past.

Also, in the past, outside a few places like Zululand and the Eastern Cape, the charismatic renewal was perceived as predominantly white. Now it
quite clearly isn’t.

One thing that wasn’t explicitly mentioned, but was strongly implicit throughout, is that it is now unashamedly denominational. Back in the
1970s the charismatic movement was strongly ecumenical, with many speaking of the Holy Spirit breaking down barriers between denominations,
especially between Pentecostals and non-Pentecostals.

That went sour in the 1980s, with the rise of the Neopentecostal denominations, which many Pentecostals and charismatics joined. Perhaps it was ironic that the conference was held on the premises of a Neopentecostal church.

I don’t remember anything like Anglicans Ablaze happening back in the 1970s and 1980s. There were ecumenical conferences, but never denominational ones. Yes, groups like IViyo in Zululand held conferences, but they were a particular organisation, and did not include all
Anglicans.

Sisters of the Community of the Holy Name in Zululand at the Anglicans Ablaze conference

And a youth leader reported from the Provincial Youth Council, which had met shortly before, saying that the youth were not the church of tomorrow
but the church of today, and wanted teaching so they could be more certain of their Anglican identity.

Many of those who chaired plenary sessions and introduced speakers were young people, who seemed far more confident than those of earlier generations. The theme was “a generation rising up”, and indeed it is.

A speaker from Nigeria, Grace Samson-Song, pointed out some of the differences between the generation rising up and previous generations:

• 10 years ago only doctors and drug dealers had cell phones
• when did you last see a roll of film?
• green was the colour of a crayon, now it’s a lifestyle
• how many of you don’t have anything made in China in your house?
• reality TV – you watch TV differently
• most viewers of porn on the Internet are boys aged 12-16
• but social media have overtaken porn as the most popular sites

In spite of this growth in the use of social media by the generation rising up, there were very few tweets on Twitter with the #AnglicansAblaze hashtag, of the percentage of young people there matched the proportions in the populatio0n as a whole.