THE ROMANI NATION

The Romani flag is the international flag of the . It was created by the General Union of the Roma of in 1933, and approved by international representatives at the first World Romani Congress in 1971, held in , . The flag consists of a background of blue and green, representing the heavens and earth, respectively. The flag also contains a red chakra, or spoked wheel, in the centre, representing the migratory heritage of the Romani people.

BIG YEAR ASSIGNMENT – TERM 3 DENISE BRANNAN

1 INTRODUCTION

So, there I was back in the early 1990’s sitting in Staines Pentecostal Church waiting for the service to begin and in walked three visitors eager to join us in our worship. They looked a bit different, slightly rugged and spoke with an interesting dialect. It turns out that they were Christian Romani gypsies looking for a Pentecostal church to worship in. Over the next year or so, they came joined by their wives, children and friends. It was great turning up on a Sunday morning to see an array of vans parked in gypsy fashion. The growing number of gypsies joined us each week and we had a great time worshipping together. Little did I know that the Lord would touch my heart and years later I would be studying their culture!

As you have probably guessed, this essay is about the Romani nation, their migratory history and the revival that broke out throughout Europe in the 1950’s which continues today. The Romanis are a reached people group, Hallelujah the Lord is doing amazing things in and through them.

ETHNO LIGUISTIC GROUPS

Based on the Joshua project (1) information there are 44 world gypsy groups with a world population of 17,162,000. In the UK 6 of these cluster groups live in society making up 227,300 people out of the total population. The UK people groups are:

CLUSTER POPULATION LANGUAGE SPOKEN

The Scottish traveller 4,100 - Scottish cant

Irish traveller or Shelta 6,200 - Shelta cant

Romani Vlax 62,000 - Romani Vlax

Romani Welsh 62,000 - Welsh

Gypsy Irish 21,000 -English

It is interesting to note that Surrey has the fourth largest population of Gypsies and travellers in the whole of the United Kingdom! They are the largest minority ethnic group in Surrey. (2)

ROMANI HISTORY – THE MIGRATION OUT OF INDIA

The Romani people have a migratory heritage having travelled to either escape invasion or as a direct result of war. So where was homeland? And how have they ended up settling in the UK?

From research, linguistic and genetic evidence indicates that the Romanis are of Indian origin. It is believed that the primary reason the Romanis emigrated from India in the 10th century was due to the Muslim expansion toward the West, initiated particularly by Seljuk Turks. Between 1000 and 1027, India was invaded by Mahmud of Ghazni who was attempting to spread the Muslim religion. Thousands were killed and many were taken captive. Most of the Indian troops left India through the Himalayan pass and through the Middle East either as prisoners of war or travelling to escape conflict. They first arrived in Europe at the end of the thirteenth century having been conscripted into the Turkish battalions. This was at a time when the (1) www.joshuaproject.net

(2) www.sabp.nhs.uk - Surrey traveller community relations forum (traveller information pack) 2

Ottoman Turks were taking over the Byzantine Empire with the strategy of spreading the Muslim religion and extending their political influence.

INTO SLAVERY – THE BALKANS

At the time the Romanis arrived, Balkan society was mainly agricultural, but as the economy gradually moved into a market based one, it became dependant on the artisan skill of the Romanis. The landowners, aristocracy and the monasteries, applied increasingly strict measures on their Romani work force, to prevent them from leaving to the point that slavery became widespread lasting over 500 years.

By the mid nineteenth century, there was a call for the abolition of slavery. This was brought on by the economic and social changes in society. More efficient farm machinery was introduced by the Industrial revolution making the ownership of a slave more of a liability than an asset.

In 1855 a bill was passed for the abolition of slavery. There were around 600,000 slaves freed at this time.

J A Vaillant who had written his book on the Romanis said this:

‘those who shed tears of compassion the Negroes of Africa, of whom the American Republic makes its slaves, should give a kind though to this short history of the Gypsies of India, of whom the European monarchies make their ‘Negroes’. These man wanders from Asia will never again be itinerant; these slaves shall be FREE’ (1)

THE MOVE INTO THE REST OF EUROPE including the UK

Not all Romanies were taken as slaves, perhaps half of the Romani people were while the other half of the population continued moving into the rest of Europe.

The first Romanis into Europe were very different from the local population, being dark skinned, wearing unfamiliar clothing and spoke a language not understood by the locals. They were neither Christian, Jew nor Muslim and were a people without a country of their own. Europeans came up with various notions that they were either offspring of the Jews or Christian vagabonds. The first Romanis were identified with Cain and were believed to be cursed never to settle. Some believed that they were criminals from different European societies. Either way they were treated with hostility and were subject to ethnic cleansing, forced labour and the abduction of their children.

The first record of Romanis in England was in 1505 where they were met with the same hostility as the rest of Europe. In 1530 a law was introduced expelling the Romanis from England. This led to the further expansion of the nation, where many were transported to America. By 1554 a law had been formed making it illegal to be an immigrant Gypsy and anyone found to be was hanged.

Those Romanis who were looking to the Church to find a faith in God were rejected by them. The Archbishop Petri of Sweden decreed in 1560: ‘The priest shall not concern himself with the Gypsies. He shall neither bury their corpses nor christen their children.’ (2)

(1) 1857- Histoire Vraie des Vrais Bohémiens. Paris: Dentu & Cie

(2) www.treetruth.sowebs.org

3 Priests in Magdeburg were ordered not to baptize Gypsy children without obtaining higher authorization.

Gypsies were rejected by the Church for two major reasons. Firstly the church was afraid that the Europeans would turn against a decision of accepting Gypsies into the Church and secondly they were threatened by the Gypsies superstitions. During the 19th century, in Bulgaria, the Orthodox clergy declared it a greater sin than theft to give alms to the Gypsies.

Muslim and Christian preachers treated the Romanis as outcasts. They were not allowed to participate in church and religious functions even when they professed to be converted to the religion of that country. Gypsies who were true to the faith were made to sit and listen outside an open window of the church or mosque.

The Catholic clergy used its great power to heighten the persecution of the Romanis by decreeing that sympathizers were themselves subject to punishment even death.

THE HOLOCAUST

During world war 11 the Nazis attempted to eradicate the Romanis in a plan to have a Gypsy free Europe. One of the largest mass murders in history destroyed over half of the Romani population in Nazi occupied Europe. In Romani the Holocaust is referred to as the ‘Baro Porrajmos or ‘great devouring’ of human life. It can also mean ‘rape’ as well as ‘gaping’ as in shock or horror.

‘The motives invoked to justify the death of the Gypsies were the same as those ordering the murder of the Jews and the methods employed for the one were identified with those employed for the other.’ (Novitch, Ghetto Fighters House, Israel, 1968:3)(1)

Since the end of World war 11 nobody was called to testify on behalf of the Romani victims of the Holocaust at the Nuremburg trials and no war reparations have ever been paid to them as a people. Even in Eastern Europe today, Romanis are prime targets of racial violence by neo-Nazi activists.

HAS MUCH CHANGED TODAY

Romanis and other gypsy ethnic minorities are amongst the most misunderstood and socially excluded groups in the UK. Throughout history they have suffered discrimination and hostility and even today prejudice and hatred are openly expressed. In May 2005 the BBC wrote a news article entitled ‘Gypsies are Europe’s most hated’. In this article Dr James Smith, co-founder of the Beth Shalom Holocaust Centre in Nottinghamshire stated that: ‘their plight is often forgotten and they remain ‘demonised’…Up to half a million were killed. Yet even after the Holocaust, gypsies remain perhaps the most hated minority in Europe’ (2)

A MORI poll in 2003 found that 35% of the population admit to prejudice against Gypsies and

Travellers, while 38% believe such prejudice exists. 32% cited newspapers and 42% cited television as among the most important influences. In 2003, the former Commission for Racial Equality (CRE) launched a consultation strategy for Gypsies and Travellers. In the document, it stated that: ‘Extreme levels of public hostility (are) fuelled in part by irresponsible media reporting of the kind that would be met with outrage if it was targeted at any other ethnic group.’ (3)

(1) We are the Romani people – Ian Handcock (2) www.treetruth.sowebs.org 4 (3) www.sabp.nhs.uk - Surrey traveller community relations forum (traveller information pack)

The British medical Association believes that the ‘Gypsy’ traveller community to be the most ‘at risk’ with the lowest life expectancy and highest child mortality rate.

THE SILENT REVIVAL

But where there is persecution there is God! The plan of the enemy to destroy and scatter a nation has been lovingly redeemed by the Lord. And now a scattered nation is calling out for the rest of the world to hear the good news of Jesus, positioned throughout the world and ready to share.

The Christian Revival amongst the Gypsies has been called the ‘Silent Revival’ probably because not too many people outside of the Gypsy people know about it, or perhaps don’t care. It began in Northern France in the early 50’s, led by a man named Clement le Cossec a Pentecostal pastor. It was during one of his services that God miraculously healed a sick gypsy baby and the news spread throughout the sites in France. Soon Gypsy people were turning up in their droves to this small church. Clement resigned as pastor and dedicated his life to the gypsy people of France.

The Good news very quickly spread throughout France and born again gypsies prepared preparing to take the message across Europe. The last country in Europe to be evangelised was England. Revival broke out in the 1980’s in Darlington, North England and quickly spread to Leatherhead in Surrey. The Christian Gypsy movement was formed and became known as the Light and Life Movement. This movement is spreading all over the world. As one gypsy man puts it ‘thousands of people have gone Hallelujah’ (1)

The spread of the gospel message amongst the gypsies in England began with a non gypsy couple called Leslie and Irene Lamb who, instructed by God, visited the Yorkshire gypsy site of a couple named Davey and Norah Jones. For eight years the Lambs visited and shared the gospel message until the felt their task had been completed. In the book ‘Travelling Light’ it quotes Davey saying ‘they were so gentle. I always say to people that this couple wore us down with love.’

Before they left they shared a vision from the Lord with Davey:- ‘God is going to use one of them to start a movement with your own people. I believe it is going to be a man and he’ll see many gypsies turn to Jesus Christ and commit their lives to him’. (2) They arranged one last meeting with Davey and Nora at their own home in Yorkshire where they also invited the French missionary workers of Clement le Cossec. In the winter of 1981 they met and it was here that Davey gave his life to Jesus. Nora became a Christian some months later.

The next few years that followed were tough as Davey was the only known born again gypsy in Britain in the 1980’s. Because of their beliefs they were isolated by their own people and were encouraged by the French Gypsy Christians to find a local church, which they did in Darlington. From then on Davey began preaching the message from the back of his van visiting gypsy sites up and down the country. It was another 8 years before revival broke out.

Davey encouraged the new converts to find a local church who would support them and their families. His desire was not to be a separate Christian group but to live and grow alongside the locals, showing themselves as a transformed people. In some churches half the congregation were now gypsies and their culture and way of doing things began to clash. Locals felt intimidated by the large groups of gypsy families turning up each Sunday. Many of the gypsies

(1 & 2) Travelling Light by Sue Locke 5 could not read and struggled to follow the service. In some churches the gypsies were told to stand at the back of church and in other churches the gypsies were locked out altogether. It was suggested by some of the Pentecostal leaders that Davey should start his own church, something he never wanted but pressure built up to such a point that Davey began formulating a plan – to select gypsy preachers throughout the country and train them up for ministry. Davey Jones turned to Pentecostal ministers for advice and support and particularly to John Wildrainne, head of the bible college in Burgess Hill & head of missions for the AOG movement in Britain. From there on the Light and Life movement was formed.

IN CLOSING

Since 1952 the Revival has swept throughout Romani communities. Light and Life say that there are 8,000 members in Britain and 150,000 in France where there are 800 Rom preachers, 60 places of worship and a Rom Bible school. Thirty per cent of all Spanish Gypsies have become 'alleluyas', members of a similarly charismatic Pentecostal form of Christianity, dubbed by Spanish Romanis the Church of Philadelphia.

The dream of Davey Jones is that one day the Christian gypsies will make a significant impact on the Gorgios (non gypsy) population of Britain. I think perhaps this has already begun.

War, invasion and persecution have spread the Romani nation far and wide throughout the world. Now the Lord is doing an amazing work among them, and their own people are being sent out to reach not only their own nation but to us the ‘gorgios’ (non-gypsies) also. Although this is a slightly different take on the expansion of the world Christian movement (chpt. 4 Kairos book) it has proved to be a highly effective strategy none the less. Who the enemy has sought to destroy, the Lord is using to spread the message to and beyond a nation.

6 A REDEEMED NATION

Instead of a ‘Silent Revival’ let us join in with our Romani brothers and sisters and shout from the roof tops, the Lord our redeemer lives!

PROPHETIC DECLARATION

(Isaiah 61, NKJ)

Vs 1 - He has sent me to heal the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound

No longer are you under a yoke of slavery. We speak to all anger, depression and rejection - you have no place here any longer. Whom Christ has set free is free indeed. (Gal 5 vs 1)

Vs 3 - To give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; That they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified.

In Christ all oppression must go. You a nation scattered amongst other nations are now a planting of the Lord. Sent forth to do His will bringing glory to His name throughout the world.

Vs 6 - But you shall be named the priests of the Lord, they shall call you the servants of our God.

You are no longer slaves but sons of God adopted into His family. Your identity is in Christ, you are heirs of God. (Gal 4 vs 6-7) You have been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ (Eph 1 vs 3)

Vs7 - Instead of your shame you shall have double honour.

No longer will you wear a garment of shame but you shall receive double honour. You shall abide in the presence of God, when you call He will answer you, he will be with you in times of trouble, He will deliver you and honour you. (Psalm 93)

Vs 9 - all who see them, shall acknowledge them that they are the prosperity whom the Lord has blessed.

We see you and acknowledge you; you are a blessing of the Lord. You and your descendants will be recognised as people the Lord has blessed.

Vs 11 - For as the earth brings forth in bud, As the garden causes the things that are sown in it to spring forth, so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before ALL the Nations

We declare that righteousness and praise will spring forth from your nation, The Romani people, All will stand and see the glory of the Lord in this day.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

WEBSITES www.joshuaproject.net www.sabp.nhs.uk - Surrey traveller community relations forum (traveller information pack) www.grthm.co.uk – Gypsy Traveller History Month www.countrysidematters.org.uk www.leicestershiretogehter.org- Fact sheet & historical dates www.lightandlifegypsychurch.com - Light and Life Gypsy church www.bbc.co.uk – Romani roots, settling down www.socyberty.com – Article on the Light and Life movement www.treetruth.sowebs.org

BOOKS

We are the Romani People - by Ian Hancock, University of Hertfordshire press

Romani Culture and Gypsy identity – University of Hertfordshire press

Travelling Light, the remarkable story of Gypsy revival – Sue Locke

Bible – New King James

Bible – The Message

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