June 2019 “This month’s cover artwork is from an oil on canvas painting by Samoan artists Malu and Lealofi Siaopo from the Leulumoega School of Fine Arts in the Congregational Christian Church, Samoa - a member church of CWM, . Titled ‘Tsunami’, the painting seeks to portray the agony and suffering of the devastating earthquake and tsunami that claimed nearly 200 lives in September 2009. The two faces were used by the artists to symbolise the vulnerability and helplessness experienced by not just Samoans, but also Pacific Islanders in general. According to a May 2019 report by the European Commission, the Pacific is one of the most disaster-prone regions in the world in terms of the recurrence, severity and scope of natural disasters, with high exposure to cyclones, earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, tidal surges, landslides, droughts, forest fires and volcanic eruptions, in addition to epidemics.” June 2019

2 CONTENTS

3 DEVOTIONAL 5 Foreword 6 Subverting Empire’s Claims To Say What Love Looks Like 9 Subverting Empire’s Claim That Borders Are Sacrosanct, That Migration Is A Crime 11 The Promise Of An Abundant Life

14 AT A GLANCE

18 VIEWPOINTS 19 Empire: How And Where Are We Being Subversive? 23 Healing Relationships: Hope For A New Spirituality 25 My PIM Journey 27 Reflections On ‘2019 Easter Sunday In Sri Lanka’ 29 Religious Diversity, Political Conflict, And The Spirituality Of Liberation 34 The Landing 35 In Conversation With...

37 TAKE A LOOK 38 Book Review

40 SEEN & HEARD

44 YOUR SAY 46 Behind The Scenes: Resistance Rites And Indigenous Peoples’ Voices 47 From A Valley Of Dry Bones Into A Playground 48 What Is Having A Voice If Not To Advocate For Others And Yourself 50 Testimonies About God’s Grace During CWM Missionary Retreats 52 Are You Hearing Me? 54 “Misguided Sentimentality?” A Personal Reflection On Notre-Dame De Paris Fire 58 Ask And You Shall ‘Believe’ 60 Africa Day Is Useless/Ways DEVOTIONAL FALLEN IS BABYLON

Reading Bible in the context of empire DEVOTIONAL FOREWORD

Then I saw another angel flying high in the air, with an eternal message of Good News to announce to the peoples of the earth, to every race, tribe, language, and nation. He said in a loud voice, “Honour God and praise his greatness! For the time has come for him to judge all people. Worship him who made heaven, earth, sea, and the springs of water!” A second angel followed the first one, saying, “She has fallen! Great Babylon has fallen!”

(Revelation 14: 6 – 8).

The book of Revelation is a story of inspiration for those who live on the margins of society and a message of sobriety, even warning, for those who believe that absolute power resides in human crafty schemes and politics. The dispirited and broken-hearted will discover that God has a plan for their vindication and the high and exalted will know that the “mighty (have) fallen and the weapons of war perish” (2 Sam 1: 27). The message is essentially about the coming of a “new Jerusalem” (Rev 21: 2), “another world” (Arundhati Roy) where a flourishing environment and peace, goodwill and justice for all define God’s creation.

Babylon has fallen! The author of Revelation, who lived in the midst of the terrifying power of empire and its persecution of any and all who resisted her, makes this claim twice. Within a few years of this prophetic pronouncement, Rome had indeed fallen. Empire was humbled by the resistant spirit of movements within its colonised lands, movements like the one stirred up by Jesus of Nazareth. And yet, everyone, including the prophet of this message, cried when Babylon fell (Rev 18). What is meant to be a time of celebration for the oppressed victims of empire is equally a time of desolation. No one seems to win.

So, we come, in our era of empire, to announce the good news to a hurting world that Babylon has fallen! This is a statement of encouragement and hope for the weary, the battered and bruised of our time. It is also a warning of the great pain and sorrow inflicted on everyone, both the oppressed and the oppressor, when systems and structures are allowed to divide and eventually destroy society. ‘Babylon has fallen’ is therefore an invitation to all to embrace a different way of being in community, opening the way to a new epistemology, marked by the experience of life is fullness by all.

How can we say Babylon is fallen? We do so because in the face of dominant powers we believe in the ultimate power of God, who is counter-creating in our midst a new heaven and earth, who in the company of peasant girls is working to bring the powerful down from their thrones (Luke 1: 52) and to bridge the divide by challenging the oppressors to confess wrongdoing, make reparation and open the door to the new (Luke 19: 1-10).

We have the witness of the biblical text to remind and inspire us that Babylon has fallen. The claims, powers and blandishments of empire are empty and bring not blessing but curse. As we approach the text we realise in glaring details that empire is behind the text, in the text and in front of the text. However, thankfully, the dynamic of God’s people, in the midst of empire, shapes the drama of both testaments and our interpretations of the text.

How can we say Babylon is fallen? We do so by being part of what subverts it, and reveals its shame, its charade and its life-denying vices. In 2010, CWM embarked on developing a theology and programme of mission which took empire as its main interlocutor. As we survey the threats to life and to God’s sovereignty, in 2019, we felt it was timely to revisit our theology of mission in the context of empire and to once again call this to the attention of our member churches and partners.

CWM offers this set of bible studies as a new resource to enable conversations about how God is stirring up life-changing and system-changing moments and movements in our midst. Excerpts of the Bible Studies are featured in this issue of INSiGHT for study, discussion and, above all, action as we invite the world beyond Babylon to break in upon us in hope, light and joy.

Rev Dr Collin Cowan General Secretary Epiphany 2019

5 | INSiGHT DEVOTIONAL Subverting Empire’s claims to say what love looks like

The claims of empire: Article 13

Empire makes its claims not only on ‘land’ but also on WE AFFIRM that the grace of God in Christ enables ‘being’. It seeks to occupy the personal space as well sinners to forsake transgender self-conceptions and by as the public space, and to especially dominate and divine forbearance to accept the God-ordained link cow minorities it sees as ‘abnormal’ or subversive of its between one’s biological sex and one’s self-conception power and norms. As a result, it also seeks to co-opt as male or female. the majority to its values and attitudes. The church, which used to be outside of empire, has become deeply WE DENY that the grace of God in Christ sanctions complicit in this and is a particular force occupying self-conceptions that are at odds with God’s bodies and souls. revealed will.

From the Nashville Statement: “I would like to remind and warn all organisations and [This statement was drafted in late August 2017, institutions that campaign and pretend to protect during the annual conference of the Ethics and homosexual interests … we are going to arrest whoever Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist is involved and charge them in courts of law … Those Convention, at the Gaylord Opryland Resort & who teach such things do not like us, brothers. They Convention Center in Nashville, Tennessee. The brought us drugs and homosexual practices that even statement was published online on August 29, 2017. It cows disapprove of”. - President of Tanzania John was signed by more than 150 evangelical Christian Magufuli, June 2017 leaders] The governor of Dar es Salaam, Paul Makonda, urged Article 7 his citizens to start reporting people that they WE AFFIRM that self-conception as male or female suspected to be LGBTQ to the police so that they could should be defined by God’s holy purposes in creation be rounded up. “I have information about the and redemption as revealed in Scripture. presence of many homosexuals in our province,” He added: “Give me their names. My ad hoc team will WE DENY that adopting a homosexual or transgender begin to get their hands on them next Monday.” self-conception is consistent with God’s holy purposes in creation and redemption. Re-reading our texts:

Article 8 When David had finished speaking to Saul, the soul of Jonathan WE AFFIRM that people who experience sexual was bound to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul. 2 Saul took him that day and would not let him return attraction for the same sex may live a rich and fruitful to his father’s house. 3 Then Jonathan made a covenant with life pleasing to God through faith in Jesus Christ, as David, because he loved him as his own soul. 4 Jonathan stripped they, like all Christians, walk in purity of life. himself of the robe that he was wearing, and gave it to David, and his armour, and even his sword and his bow and his belt. 5 WE DENY that sexual attraction for the same sex is David went out and was successful wherever Saul sent him; as a part of the natural goodness of God’s result, Saul set him over the army. And all the people, even the servants of Saul, approved. original creation, or that it puts a person outside the hope of the gospel. 30 Then Saul’s anger was kindled against Jonathan. He said to him, ‘You son of a perverse, rebellious woman! Do I not know Article 10 that you have chosen the son of Jesse to your own shame, and to WE AFFIRM that it is sinful to approve of homosexual the shame of your mother’s nakedness? 31 For as long as the son immorality or transgenderism and that such approval of Jesse lives upon the earth, neither you nor your kingdom shall be established. Now send and bring him to me, for he shall surely constitutes an essential departure from Christian die.’ 32 Then Jonathan answered his father Saul, ‘Why should he faithfulness and witness. be put to death? What has he done?’ 33 But Saul threw his spear at him to strike him; so Jonathan knew that it was the decision of WE DENY that the approval of homosexual his father to put David to death. 34 Jonathan rose from the table immorality or transgenderism is a matter of moral in fierce anger and ate no food on the second day of the month, for he was grieved for David, and because his father had indifference about which otherwise faithful Christians disgraced him. should agree to disagree.

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35 In the morning Jonathan went out into the field to the 36 The strict Victorian-era laws brought in by British appointment with David, and with him was a little boy. He colonists often clashed with decades, or even centuries said to the boy, ‘Run and find the arrows that I shoot.’ As the boy ran, he shot an arrow beyond him. 37 When the boy came to of complex local cultural attitudes to sexuality. India, the place where Jonathan’s arrow had fallen, Jonathan called in particular, had traditionally maintained a flexible, after the boy and said, ‘Is the arrow not beyond you?’ 38 non-prescriptive view of sexuality and gender roles. Jonathan called after the boy, ‘Hurry, be quick, do not linger.’ But the British administrators paid little attention to So Jonathan’s boy gathered up the arrows and came to his local attitudes when they criminalised same-sex master. 39 But the boy knew nothing; only Jonathan and David knew the arrangement. 40 Jonathan gave his weapons to the relations in 1860, and declared the country's boy and said to him, ‘Go and carry them to the city.’ 41 As soon centuries-old old custom of transgender hijras to be as the boy had gone, David rose from beside the stone heap[e] "unnatural." and prostrated himself with his face to the ground. He bowed three times, and they kissed each other, and wept with each This colonial legislation continues to be in force in a other; David wept the more. 42 Then Jonathan said to David, ‘Go in peace, since both of us have sworn in the name of the number of CWM contexts. In Africa in: Botswana, Lord, saying, “The Lord shall be between me and you, and Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia and Zambia. In the between my descendants and your descendants, for ever.”’ He Caribbean in Guyana and Jamaica. In East Asia in got up and left; and Jonathan went into the city. Malaysia, Myanmar and Singapore. In the Pacific in Kiribas, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands Saul and Jonathan, beloved and lovely! In life and in death they and Tuvalu. In South Asia: Bangladesh. were not divided; they were swifter than eagles, they were stronger than lions. 24 O daughters of Israel, weep over Saul, who clothed you with crimson, in luxury, who put ornaments of Religious powers are organising against LGBTQ gold on your apparel. How the mighty have fallen in the midst people and their human rights. There is an odd of the battle! Jonathan lies slain upon your high places. I am inter-faith ‘alliance’ over this agenda where distressed for you, my brother Jonathan; greatly beloved were conservative leaders of different religions act together you to me; your love to me was wonderful, passing the love of women. How the mighty have fallen, and the weapons of war to deny the rights of LGBTQ people to full perished! personhood. This is often happening in contexts and with communities which would be suspicious of 1 Sam 18: 1 – 5, 20: 30 – 42, 2 Sam 1: 23 – 27 inter-faith action. Sacred texts are marshalled to terrorise and to justify oppression while other texts are There can be nothing more imperial than denying the silenced. This is to use the text in Imperial ways, realities, complexities and relationships of other: My because we do not own the text or its many meanings. theology says you cannot be gay so you must not be It is easy to dehumanise our opponents in the midst of gay etc. This is at the heart of the Nashville Statement this issue in churches at the moment, yet this will and others like it. And these supposed faith always result in sin and separation, and especially the affirmations tie up with and feed into repressive and sin and separation of homophobia. violent policies, like those in Tanzania and elsewhere round the world. It is natural and right that all people who enter the sacred text find dimensions of themselves. This is Lying behind much of this repressive legislation was what makes our texts eternal and never new. This is British colonial legislation imposed on countries not threatening but deeply moving. Especially, when it during the Imperial era. From 1860 onwards, the comes to the story of David and Jonathan which is empire spread a specific set of legal codes and unashamedly open about the range, reality and common law throughout its colonies, among them complexity and simplicity of deep and intimate love, laws proscribing male-to-male sexual relations. The especially between people of the same gender. Texts British Empire drafted these penal codes with a moral, like this one in Samuel invite us back to meeting religious mission in mind. The intention was to protect people in their God given complexity, to reassessing local Christians from “corruption” and correct and our attitudes and to confront systems which demand Christianise “native” custom. Of the 71 countries with people conform to norms imposed by the such a law still on the books in 2018, at least 38 of de-humanising power of Empire. There is debate them were once subject to some sort of British colonial about the nature of their love for each other. Queer rule. Enze Han, author of "British Colonialism and the readings interpret it is as it appears, an homoerotic Criminalisation of Homosexuality" said the laws were same-sex relationship. Heterosexist interpreters will partly the product of a strict Victorian moral code, not countenance this and insist it is a platonic which defined any sexual activity not for procreation brotherly relationship. But, surely none of us can deny as taboo. "(The British also) had this conception that how deeply loving it is, and is perhaps the one time the 'Orient', the non-Western subjects, were overly when David’s love is honourable and not exploitative, erotic and over-sexed, and that's the reason why they as it is with Bathsheba, Michal and Abishag. were worried young colonial officers going abroad would be corrupted by those sexual acts".

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Queer readings are inconvenient to Imperial readings The key to seeing the new things that Jesus is doing in of the text, which is precisely why the church should our world depends on making room for those who be open to such readings. The love of David and Jesus dwells amongst: the poorest and the Jonathan is Queer not because it is surely homoerotic marginalised in our societies. Our living in but certainly because it is subversive. Queer is to community with diverse people tests whether we are describe ways of being, loving, relating and doing loving like Jesus and reveals the changes Jesus seeks which are subversive and counter-imperial. The to make in our world. There are vital and urgent relationship is drawn against Saul, Jonathan’s father contributions to the mission of God which only and Israel’s king, who sees David as a threat and wants LGBTQ people can make, especially as they challenge him dead. This is the experience of many queer folk, churches to embody Jesus’ life of radical love. LGBTQ that they are seen as threats and fear and face violence people should not be cast away by religious and even death. This means that the forces of the state communities but be affirmed in all parts of our are ranged against David and Jonathan. So are the communities, including the church. forces of patriarchy. When Saul turns on Jonathan, he names Jonathan’s mother as the perverse and Areas for discussion and reflection: rebellious one (v.30). Saul is the very embodiment of imperial and patriarchal power and intolerance, so any If you were a contemporary of David and Jonathan, reading of this text has to be in opposition to this. what would you advise them to do about their Thus, Jonathan and David, in their love for each other, relationship? On the reading of the text do you think embody the counter loving alternative to the it was just platonic? repression, control and order of empire and Patriarchy. This counter love is Queer, and it deeply Why would it matter if David and Jonathan were gay? and powerfully resembles God’s counter love, which is Can’t we let people find themselves in the biblical text Queerest of all. as they are and see we are all included in the redemptive work of God? Rev Dr Collin Cowan, the General Secretary of CWM writes: What are the issues around LGBTQ in your place? What is at stake in your opinion? If our communities are drawn fully and deeply from all kinds of people then we can speak authentically ‘I invite CWM member churches to recognise in the and believably of Christians loving the world. In such LGBTQ members of its churches, families, communities we see it is homophobia which needs to communities and nations equal persons God loves change, not LGBTQ people. The love we all long for, fully and calls to follow freely as they are and bring an a love which doesn’t judge, is inspired by the grace end to the culture of homophobia in churches’, (Rev each receives in being affirmed fully as followers of Dr Collin Cowan). How do you respond to this? Christ. Inclusive communities empower because they send people into doing justice sensitised by the needs The ‘fallenenss’ of Babylon is not sexual diversity but of those we live amongst. sexual violence. The church is just as fallen. With whom can we begin to rebuild the loving communities Christ calls us to be?

June 2019 | 8 DEVOTIONAL

Subverting Empire’s claim that borders are sacrosanct, that migration is a crime

The claims of the empire: Re-reading our texts:

Migrants have become easy targets for politicians and [God spoke to Job] the media. And the manipulation of tension and suspicion is a smoke screen to prevent powerful people Ruth said, ‘Do not press me to leave you or to turn back from and systems being unmasked. These are some of the following you! Where you go, I will go; where you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God my God. claims and quotes: Where you die, I will die— there will I be buried. May the Lord do thus and so to me, and more as well, if even death parts ‘Many Gang Members and some very bad people are me from you!’ 18 When Naomi saw that she was determined to mixed into the Caravan heading to our Southern go with her, she said no more to her. 19 So the two of them went Border. Please go back, you will not be admitted into on until they came to Bethlehem. When they came to Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them; and the women the United States unless you go through the legal said, ‘Is this Naomi?’ 20 She said to them, ‘Call me no longer process. This is an invasion of our Country and our Naomi, call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt bitterly with Military is waiting for you!’ Donald Trump on the me. I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty; Migrant caravan from Honduras heading to the US why call me Naomi when the Lord has dealt harshly with me, Oct 29th 2018 and the Almighty has brought calamity upon me?’ So Naomi returned together with Ruth the Moabite, her daughter-in-law, who came back with her from the country of Moab. They came "We have no country if we have no border," Trump said during to Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest. the third presidential debate on Oct. 19, 2016, reiterating his desire to build a wall. "We have some bad hombres here and we're gonna get 'em out … You wouldn’t believe how bad these The migrations at the heart of the Book of Ruth hinge people are. These aren’t people, these are animals, and we’re on the same injustices and tragedies as today. Naomi taking them out of the country at a level and at a rate that’s and her family leave Bethlehem because of famine and never happened before.” May 16, 2018 leave Israel for Moab as climate refugees. They then return as economic migrants after the deaths of "It's certainly not our goal to separate children, but I do think it's clear, it's legitimate to warn people who come to the country Naomi’s husband and sons. Ruth has to risk unlawfully bringing children with them that they can't expect prostituting herself for her mother in law. They risk that they'll always be kept together," US Attorney General Jeff all for their families and become a test of the Sessions Sept 2018 generosity and justice of their neighbours, like all migrants. The people of Bethlehem don’t fare as well “Africa will have ten times as many young people as Europe. If Europe doesn’t do anything, they are going to kick in our door.” as the people of Moab, who seem to accept without Viktor Orban Hungarian Prime Minister—March 15, 2018, difficulty Elimelech, Naomi, Mahlon and Chilion, who even marry Moabite women, Ruth and Orpah. Yet Let’s not forget, the Syrian who comes to us has still his Syria, when Ruth and Naomi arrive in Bethlehem no one the Afghan who comes to us has still his Afghanistan […] But if seems to mention the duties Naomi’s family have to we lose our Germany, then we have no more home!” Björn them, and even when Boaz takes Ruth for himself, he Höcke, head of the far-right party Alternative for Germany (AFD) confesses he has known for sometime that they are family.

Ruth 1: 17 - 20

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Yet he has been content to let her work like a beggar in the fields and to offer herself for sex in his bed. But Ruth’s arrival as a migrant into Bethlehem becomes a vital link for the coming of Jesus, not just as his great-great-great grandmother, but because it gives him an ironic claim on a home town which the ‘heavenly migrant’ then escapes because of political violence.

UN and regional human rights experts met in March 2018 to consider the rise in xenophobia and urged States, civil society organisations and activists to work to overcome violence and hatred.

“Vile discourses of explicit hate and ideologies of racial supremacy have moved from the fringe to the mainstream. Racial, ethnic and religious bigotry fuels human rights violations, including extreme violence against minorities, and against refugees, migrants, stateless persons, and internally displaced, including people of African descent, with a particularly acute effect on women, and sexual and gender diverse populations. This bigotry is unashamed,” said a statement issued by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

The experts said “the assault on the human dignity of millions around the world had reached alarming proportions”. It cited examples such as crowds of youths marching to neo-Nazi chants in Charlottesville, Warsaw, and Berlin, to the racist and xenophobic attitudes of politicians in the highest levels of office worldwide; from the ethnic cleansing of Rohingya Muslims, to the excessive use of military force to police communities of African descent in different parts of the world.

They said urgent global attention must be paid to the structural economic, political and legal conditions that stoke racism and xenophobia among populations that perceive minorities and non-nationals as threats. “Putting an end to the forced displacement and cultural extinction of racial, ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities “It also means confronting the fact that the rise of populist and indigenous peoples that results from government and nationalism is a product of widespread loss of faith in multinational corporation-driven extraction and construction establishment politics that privilege elites, as well as the projects, is just as urgent as addressing the resurgence of offensive, xenophobic rhetoric of extremist ideologues,” the neo-Nazism,” the statement concluded. experts said. http://www.panapress.com/Rise-in-racism,-xenophobia-is-ala “This is especially evident in the context of backlash in different rming,-warn-UN-rights-experts--12-630543034-34-lang4-inde regions of the world to refugees and involuntary migrants, x.html where gaps in existing international legal frameworks combine with short-sighted national policies to reinforce chaotic and Areas for discussion and reflection: dangerous movements. This chaos heightens anti-migrant anxieties.” What are the factors driving migration in your It is incumbent on states, including through the ongoing context? Are migrants welcome in your place? Why? negotiations for the Global Compacts for Migration and on Refugees, respectively, to provide legal pathways for migration Who has spoken out for migrants and listened to and to take the other concrete steps necessary to create an them? Who has stood up to the bigots in your place? international framework that prioritises substantive equality for all, they said. How have churches been engaged in the issues? Only The experts said the language of discrimination and intolerance in terms of pastoral care for refugees, or not even that? had now become common-place in the media and even in mainstream national political discourses, and they called on Empire has done all it can to invade borders, and States and other actors to redouble their efforts to address the makes sure that money and capital can easily cross factors contributing to the increase in racial discrimination and inequality. borders. But yet it whips up fear and hate around the migration of people, especially the people its systems “Putting an end to racial profiling by law enforcement agents is impoverish. Do you have any reflections on why this just as urgent as putting an end to violent hate crimes is? perpetrated by private actors,” the experts said. “Denouncing xenophobic Muslim bans implemented through immigration policies that rely on offensive and flawed assumptions about Migration reveals the xenophobic heart of empire. Are entire religious groups, is just as urgent as denouncing explicit there communities of love, life and tolerance which Islamophobic or anti-Semitic statements made by political reveal Babylon has fallen? Could yours be one of leaders. them?

June 2019 | 10 DEVOTIONAL THE PROMISE OF AN ABUNDANT LIFE by Rev Dr Latu Latai, Malua Theological College

Deuteronomy 15:7-11 (NIV) 7 If anyone is poor among your fellow Israelites in any of the towns of the land the Lord your God is giving you, do not be hardhearted or tightfisted toward them. 8 Rather, be openhanded and freely lend them whatever they need. 9 Be careful not to harbor this wicked thought: “The seventh year, the year for canceling debts, is near,” so that you do not show ill will toward the needy among your fellow Israelites and give them nothing. They may then appeal to the Lord against you, and you will be found guilty of sin. 10 Give generously to them and do so without a grudging heart; then because of this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in everything you put your hand to. 11 There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be openhanded toward your fellow Israelites who are poor and needy in your land.

The structure of a Samoan house or fale is symbolic of the open nature of Samoan generosity and hospitality. The fale which is open without walls reflects an open invitation for people coming in and out of the house. Outside the fale there are no fences, and it is hard to distinguish the boundaries between one’s land and his or her neighbours.

I remember when I was a young boy, when my Mom ran out of salt or sugar, she would quickly summon me to our next door neighbour with a banana leaf to borrow some for our evening meal. I felt no embarrassment then, as this was quite the norm. There was an openness about the way Samoans lived then. Communal life was about sharing. Although you had little, no one was left hungry or without a home. One who is limamau meaning tightfisted, was regarded with resentment. Life then maybe seen as simple but people still experienced the abundance of life in their rich environment and communal sharing.

The Samoans today still persistently believe that poverty does not exist in their society, as this is not encouraged in the Samoan culture. If a Samoan is poor, then he or she must be lazy, because there is always an abundance of land to grow food and free access to the sea to fish.

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Today, I sometimes speculate as the voices of despair at the high cost of living are increasingly heard, and poverty is steadily rising at the same rate as European or papalagi houses with concrete walls erected, substituting the open Samoan fale. Iron fences to protect one’s properties, becomes a common sight here and there. This is the challenge for us; how can we help make that promise a reality for many who are left out? Indeed our way of life has changed dramatically within our span of a lifetime. In our modern world, capitalism This morning we are reminded again of our crucial offers us a prosperous life of abundance in material mission as Christians. As we hear Moses preaching to wealth. Some have already tasted the sweet benefits of the Israelites before they enter into the promised land, this promise. However, we are also seeing that the we hear clearly God’s despise at systems that create prospects of economic globalisation for many have yet poverty and slavery. In Chapter 15 of our reading, God to materialise. deals radically with issues of economics and poverty. The first section looks at the cancellation of debts after Our generation is so entrenched in the western every seven years. The second section which we’ve lifestyle that our way of life now depends on imported heard a portion of looks at God’s message of goods. The neo-liberal economic theory of supply and generosity and care for the poor. And the last section demand that promises wealth to trickle down to the looks at the freeing from slavery. average person is only a dream for the many. Interestingly enough, poverty, debt and slavery are We are caught in what some have called the TINA serious concerns facing our small islands in the syndrome – acronym for There Is No Alternative. Our Pacific, as well as many developing regions in the governments believe that globalisation is the only way world today. Poverty increases as our governments forward and the new catchword is “development”. And struggle to pay off accumulations of foreign debts. Our in our race to become ‘developed’, we have become young people and children are now prone to slavery in self-centred, close hearted and tightfisted. Brexit, cheap labour and sex trade industries. In Samoa, one Donald Trump, the denial of Climate Change, the of the fastest growing non-government organisations Refugee crisis - these represent the kind of values that is Samoa Victims Support, which now houses young seek to dominate our world. children, girls and women – victims of domestic violence and sexual abuse. Values that are more inward than outward, individualistic rather than communal. And in such a These problems, once unheard of in our so-called world, many are trapped in a system based on “paradise” now fill the pages of our local newspapers. Darwinism - that only the fit will survive. Problems that arise out of desperation, born out of sin, not necessarily the poor person’s sin or laziness, but In the Bible however, Jesus has promised everyone an sin that is perpetrated upon them by others, or by the abundant of life. “I have come that they may have life surrounding systemic evil that infects institutions and and that they may have it more abundantly.” But how the culture in general. Sins of greed and power that can we see Jesus’ promise of abundant life for many in create cycles of poverty that have trapped many. Sins our world today? based on systems that man has created.

June 2019 | 12 DEVOTIONAL

In our passage this morning, we hear God seeking to Tafu’e and her husband were amongst hundreds of eliminate poverty and slavery by instituting his Samoan missionary couples who pioneered the economics of grace on the nation of Israel in order to evangelisation of the Western Pacific from 1839 to diffuse and derail those cycles of poverty. First by 1979, in places like Rotuma, Vanuatu, Loyalty Islands, cancelling debts, freeing slavery and instilling in the New Caledonia, Tuvalu, Tokelau, Niue, Kiribati and all people a generous and open heart. the way to Torres Strait Islands and Papua New Guinea. In 1905 Tafu’e and her husband were “If there is one among you a poor man of your ordained in Malua and posted to Papua New Guinea at brethren, within any of the gates in your land which a village called Toaripi. In 1911 her husband sadly died the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not harden from Malaria. Tafu’e instead of returning to Samoa, your heart nor shut your hand from your poor brother, continued to work on her own at Toaripi. In 1913, the but you shall open your hand wide to him and wife of LMS missionary Ellice in a letter addressed to willingly lend him sufficient for his need, whatever he women in Samoa, gave an inspirational account of her needs.” work. She reported that missionary Dauncey who was in charge of the district expressed his joy with the Brothers and Sisters in Christ, as Christians we see work of Tafu’e. She wrote that “she has 89 boys and 76 that one of God’s primary characteristics in the Bible is girls in her school. The church there is well. More are that He is a God of mission. Hence God calls the being added to those who are eager for Jesus. Sundays Church to be an instrument of his mission in the are observed and several dark practices have been world. To always share and relate to the context of the wiped out freeing them.” For the next 16 years Tafu’e world. Our mission today is to do more and more with continued working on her own until she died on 30 salvation in its totality; Salvation, not only for the soul September 1929. According to reports, she fell from but for the wellbeing of people here and now. Mission her fale popo or copra house. A copra house was therefore, is contextual and situational, to reconcile where coconut kernels were dried in preparation to be and to transform; to free people from all forms of sold as copra. injustice, fighting against systems that have exploited, enslaved and impoverished many. The story of Tafu’e is inspirational for me, not only because of her commitment and faith, but because she Eschatologically, we believe and anticipate in the broke conventional boundaries. She was a woman coming of the kingdom, but we also believe, that in the working on her own – she could never do that in incarnation of God in Jesus Christ, the kingdom can Samoa. Secondly she was industrious – she died be experienced now. For many in our world today, that making copra to help people in the village where she experience of the kingdom, and of Jesus’ promise of was working. abundant life seems a distant reality. This is a challenge for us as a Church, as Christians and as Our world might be changing, and new challenges international faith organisations such as CWM. arise, but I believe that our mission, our calling is still the same. Jesus Christ gave us that mission, and He I would like to end with an account of a Samoan also laid out how we should go about doing that woman named Tafu’e who served as a missionary with mission. To serve others in order that they also receive her husband in Papua New Guinea in the early 20th the promise of an abundant life. Unto to Him be century. honour and praise. Amen.

13 | INSiGHT AT A GLANCE AT A GLANCE

In May, it was handed over to the local church, who IN OTHER NEWS invited UCCSA to dedicate the building. Rev Pillay preached from Revelations 3:7-13, reminding the #PrayForHongKong congregants that the Petrusville building project is a Amendments to Hong Kong’s extradition law which testimony of God opening doors that no one can close. allows fugitives to be sent to China has met with Now that the doors are open, worshippers should go widespread street protests for its review. In mid-June, out to the world and be the church in the world, he lawmakers were forced to reschedule a planned debate said. on the controversial bill “to a later time” after protestors parked themselves outside government Conversations on “Ministry in the Margins” headquarters and blocked key downtown routes. Join More than 50 people became more aware of and better us in prayer and solidarity for our brothers and sisters understood the national picture for ministry in in Hong Kong Council of the Church of Christ marginal communities, and developed ideas for in China (HKCCCC) during this turbulent time as developing their own practice in the UK recently. they grapple with human rights issues, challenges and Organised by United Reformed Church (URC), uncertainty of their country’s future. and funded by Council for World Mission (CWM), the “In the Thick of it” event was held in Yorkshire Dales Pray that God will give the leaders hearts of humility from 22-23 May. Participants, who were engaged in to listen to voices from all sectors of society and mission and ministry in marginalised places, told their wisdom to accept suitable views that genuinely seek own stories and were listened to by people in different the welfare of the people. Pray also that the policy they contexts undergoing similar experiences. formulate will be comprehensive in addressing people’s fears, sentiments and concerns, to avoid more The event also facilitated honest conversations on violent resistance and casualties. Amidst conflicts, their challenges and solutions, mutual learning, pray that God will grant peace, self-control and networking and encouragement. Representatives from restraint, for all parties to be willing to dialogue charities, ministries and networks such as Together rationally and find solutions. May the words of for the Common Good, Church Action on Poverty, the Prophet Amos strengthen their hearts, and “let justice Catholic Association for Racial Justice, the Methodist roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing Diaconal Order, and the Joint Public Issues Team stream” (Amos 5:24). (JPIT) provided first-hand accounts of challenges facing Christians and others in diverse situations United Church of Zambia (UCZ) consecrates across UK. new synod complex UCZ has successfully completed a new Synod Complex In addition, URC voted unanimously to divest building in Lusaka. On 19 February, its Synod from fossil fuel companies when the URC Mission Headquarters organised a Thanksgiving and Council met from 13-15 May. The resolution was Consecration Service that opened the doors of the presented by Moderator of the URC National Synod of facility to the general public. Former Synod Bishop of Scotland Rev Dr David Pickering. He had prepared it the UCZ, His Grace, the Rev Bishop Sydney Sichilima with the support of Operation Noah, a Christian graced the occasion. charity working with the Church to inspire action on climate change. The URC also urged its trust bodies to Walking the talk for Cyclone Idai refocus the Church’s investment portfolio on When Cyclone Idai ravaged Zimbabwe, Malawi and renewable energy and clean technologies. Mozambique, the Uniting Presbyterian Church in Southern Africa (UPCSA) went further than Empowering children to champion children’s expressing condolences for families and communities rights mourning the loss. Their Presbyterian Churches The Karnataka Central Diocese in Bangalore received opened their doors and became drop-off points for 800 children and their accompaniers from Church of donations from all other churches, political parties South India (CSI)’s dioceses on 20-21 May. Unlike and private companies. They offered to receive the the typical children’s church camp, it aimed to donations at the Central Office (Tiyo Soga House) empower children to champion issues affecting their before forwarding all the aid to Zimbabwe. fellow children in the community and introduce salient parts of the draft CSI Child protection policy. Ten years of faithfully building a church Sessions were facilitated in four regional languages - The South Africa synod regions received a test of faith Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada - and used during a United Congregational Church of creative elements to ease participants into the learning Southern Africa (UCCSA) denominational journey. This included puppet shows, story-telling and Executive meeting more than ten years ago. During an enactment of contemporary situations of human the meeting, the then Gen-Sec Rev Dr Prince Dibeela trafficking. Parallel storytelling sessions also deepened and past president Rev Hendrick Pillay challenged their understanding about issues faced by children them to build a place of worship for Petrusville United with disabilities; children at risk and children in Congregational Church (UCC). UCC was situated in a conflict in their community. At the end, participants marginalised area and community and the building were invited to come up with action plans and share project took ten years to finally complete. suggestions for building a child-friendly church.

15 | INSiGHT AT A GLANCE

Engaging radically and envisioning creatively Presbyterian Church to feed Venezuelan This year’s Discernment And Radical Engagement migrants (DARE) Global Forum was held from 20-21 June in Moderator of the Presbyterian Church of Trinidad and Taiwan, in solidarity with the Taiwanese people and Tobago Rev Joy Abdul-Mohan saw that Venezuelan especially with our member church Presbyterian migrants trying to fill their empty stomachs in her Church in Taiwan (PCT) for their continuous struggle country were being enslaved, and it made her sad. She for democracy. has since promised that the Church will use its resources to alleviate the migrants’ hunger ¹ as part of During the opening service at Lo-Tong Presbyterian its outreach. In the long term, its goals include Church, CWM General Secretary delivered the keynote conducting language and educational programmes for address and launched “Scripture and Resistance” – Venezuelan children who initially are not integrated the second book in the “Theology in the Age of into the school system.² Worried about refugees being Empire” series. trafficked and the police’s alleged involvement, they plan to partner other churches to provide At the gathering, each presenter presented an accommodation along the south coast where the academic paper, attended and engaged with the Venezuelans will arrive. presentations by other participants of their stream, and submitted the revised paper for publication. There Argentina and Algeria make history by were six streams – earth, class, race, gender, stamping out malaria occupation, and artificial intelligence (AI) – this year. Through improvements in detection, diagnosis and The event, while fruitful, was not all about academia. treatment, Algeria and Argentina have been declared Participants better grasped the struggles of Taiwanese malaria-free by the World Health Organisation people, and how PCT is engaged in prophetic vocation (WHO) in what has been described as a “historic when they met jointly with the Taiwan Ecumenical achievement”. ³ This comes after warnings that the Forum (TEF) Steering Committee on 19 June. They global fight against malaria has slipped off the track in also visited Chilin Foundation and Museum of recent years, with cases rising in many countries worst Taiwan’s Democratic Development. The Foundation hit by the disease. Algeria is the second country in the aims to expand worldviews and enrich souls through WHO African region to be officially recognised as experience and reflection, while the Museum displays malaria-free, after Mauritius in 1973; and Argentina is the history of Taiwan’s democratic movement and the second country in the Americas to eliminate the archives the past 100 years of the movement. disease in 45 years, following Paraguay in 2018.

A human chain of hope WORLDWATCH Some 500,000 people joined hands across the Humanity Wins You Might Have Missed Demilitarised Zone separating South and North Korea, in a 500-km long human chain to call for peace.⁷ The event marked the first Free lunches for the needy in Singapore anniversary of the Panmunjom declaration for peace, No such thing as a free lunch? Not for the 1,000 prosperity and unification of the Korean peninsula, beneficiaries at the “Feed the City” event on 13 April in which was signed last year by North and South Korea Singapore.⁴ It was the first time “Feed the City” – a on April 27. It was also crucial for people to raise their community event started in 2015 by US-based mobile voices to maintain the momentum expressed last year app TangoTab - was held in Asia. The app, which feeds at Panmunjom after the dismal outcome of the Hanoi the needy when users dine in partner restaurants, was summit between North Korea and the US in February. launched in Singapore at the event. TangoTab has partnered F&B operators such as McDonald’s and A man who runs a Christian charity and led traditional cafe Ya Kun Kaya Toast in 500 locations London 2012's multi-faith chaplaincy team, here. Since 2014, it has donated over 3 million meals decided to “respond with friendship” rather to charity partners in the US. Over 270 cafes, than fear after the devastating Christchurch eateries and hotel chains in Singapore will also mosque shootings in New Zealand.⁸ Mr Andrew remove straws from their premises, or only Graystone stood outside the Medina Mosque on provide them upon request by July 1.⁶ This Worldwide Friday with a placard that said “You are my friends. I Fund for Nature (WWF) initiative is part of the will keep watch while you pray.” A photo was taken of group’s PACT (Plastic ACTion) business coalition and him, and images of similar acts at mosques in the supported by the National Environment Agency and Midlands and North East of England have also gone Zero Waste SG. It will continue to encourage more viral. brands to join industry-wide efforts to reduce excessive plastic waste, which includes reviewing product design and switching to sustainable alternatives.

1 http://www.guardian.co.tt/news/presbyterian-church-to-feed-venezeulans-6.2.854321.b0c95ccca7 2 https://www.trinidadexpress.com/news/local/the-presbyterians-will-help-venezuelan-migrants/article_e5edbbee-807f-11e9-928b-fb17253bb5ca.html 3 https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2019/may/23/argentina-and-algeria-stamp-out-malaria-in-historic-achievement 4 https://www.todayonline.com/singapore/1000-beneficiaries-get-free-lunch-app-feed-needy-launched 5 https://edition.cnn.com/2019/05/17/asia/taiwan-same-sex-marriage-intl/index.html 6 https://www.todayonline.com/singapore/hundreds-fb-outlets-singapore-stop-providing-straws 7 https://www.united-church.ca/blogs/round-table/chain-hope-across-dmz 8 https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-manchester-47595582 June 2019 | 16 PREFER TO READ A PRINTED COPY? Write to us at [email protected] and let us know your mailing address. We’ll send INSiGHT straight to your letter box. VIEW POINTS VIEWPOINTS

How and Where Are We Being Subversive? by Ljavakaw Tjaljimaraw from The Presbyterian Church in Taiwan (PCT)

Young Churches celebrating its 154th anniversary this I think Shoki Coe had proposed a year. My mother church happens to be proper methodology of doing theology I am grateful that as a first-generation the oldest among us, but like its East for East Asian churches, and even for Christian, young in age and faith, I Asian counterparts I just mentioned, it other non-Western churches around have the undeserved privilege to qualifies as a young church in the long the world. Not only that, I also believe address this meeting of history of Christianity. that it can be applied to the representatives from five East Asian theological renewal of Western churches, including my mother Being young churches means we are still churches. I also believe that it can be church, the PCT. It means a lot to me, growing physically, mentally, and usefully applied to our discussion but not just to me. Tackling the issue spiritually. There are always pains in the about empire today. In talking about of empire from the perspective of the process of growth and obstacles to how we can respond to empire, it is youth is a very meaningful topic for overcome. Roughly speaking, we five necessary for us to discern what really our gathering, because in a certain churches have each gone through a happened to us and our surroundings sense, we are all young enough to be passage from adolescence to a new stage and to understand what this means for called “youth”. We all come from very of learning how to be a responsible the concrete context in which we are young churches when placing our young adult. Learning to be a young placed. churches in the two-thousand-year adult responsible for not only its own history of Christianity. East Asian church, but also each other and the churches are by no means old world we live in. This is the reason why Malaysia churches that have been around since we gather today to discuss and address time immemorial. All of them can the issue of empire and the problems it The Presbyterian Church in Malaysia trace their origins to the late 19th causes. (GPM) was established in a century when the Western Muslim-majority country – or, an missionaries came to East Asia. Islam-dominated region if we enlarge We should not ask each other: how old Contextualisation our horizon. I think we are all aware are you? We should ask: how young that such a social environment is often are you? Yes, how young are we? The I was assigned a topic “How and Where “harsh” for Christian churches. The Presbyterian Church in Malaysia, also Are We Being Subversive (to Empire)?” I GPM as a small Christian known as the Gereja Presbyterian have to say this topic itself is very denomination has long been Church (GPM), traces its origin to subversive. Perhaps it is too subversive frustrated by government policies that 1881; it is 138 years young this year. for me, such that after being invited, for are not friendly towards churches. For The Presbyterian Church of Korea a long time I wasn’t even sure how and example, it struggles to maintain the (PCK) was founded in 1884, a few where to start. However, the term “how ethos and characteristics of the years later than the GPM; it celebrates and where” reminded me of the most Christian Mission Schools by its 135th anniversary this year. The notable theologian in the history of the protecting them from the pressures Hong Kong Council of the Church of PCT, that is, Shoki Coe. In the 1970s, caused by the government’s Islamic the Christ in China (HKCCC) was Shoki Coe put forth his “contextualising education policy. There are also founded in 1918; last year was its theology” that is highly regarded in the certain administrative restrictions on centennial. Chin people converted to ecumenical community. He argued that building churches and the church-run Christianity in the late 19th century as we should not simply “transplant” the institutions cannot access government well, while the first Presbyterian Gospel and Western theologies and try funds. Even evangelising among congregation was founded in 1956. to accommodate them to our societies certain groups of people in Malaysia is That means the Presbyterian Church and the local culture. Instead, theology prohibited by law. The GPM has of Myanmar (PCM) is the youngest should be contextually made and almost no say in amending among us; 63 years young this year. reflected, and it should respond to the government policies towards a greater The Presbyterian Church in Taiwan very concrete social realities, rather than degree of religious liberty. (PCT) traces its origin to 1865, float above our context. Besides the harsh external environment, the GPM has its own internal difficulties to overcome. 19 | INSiGHT VIEWPOINTS

For example, the GPM is in the Korean churches have experienced Internally speaking, besides the low process of transforming its identity massive growth since the end of the birthrate and the aging of the church, from a Chinese migrants’ church to an Second World War. Before 1945, about 2 two difficulties that PCT and PCK have indigenous Malaysian church. In this percent of the population was Christian; in common, in recent years the PCT transitional process, the use of in recent years, around 30 percent or has faced problems of managing the different languages in church more of South Koreans identify as church-owned universities and meetings and wider societal settings Christians. Among all Protestant hospitals as well as internal divisions presents obstacles to communication churches, the PCK is the largest one in on the same-sex marriage issue. and the growth of the church. terms of membership and congregations. Even though Christianity is not a majority religion in Korea yet, it has definitely become a significant minority, Myanmar achieving a high degree of influence in Hong Kong Korea politics. The Presbyterian Church of Myanmar In recent years, the Hong Kong (PCM) faces an even trickier situation That is why the PCK has played a leading Council of the Church of the Christ in than the GPM in Malaysia. The PCM is role on the Korean peninsula issue, China (HKCCCC) has been in a based in Chin state, which is the home earnestly but cautiously promoting situation characterised by political of the Chin people and one of inter-Korean reconciliation and seeking turmoil. As everyone knows, the autonomous regions within the the ultimate unification between the two political turmoil originates from the Myanmar federation. Myanmar as a Koreas. This is never an easy task. On inconsistency between the Chinese whole is a Buddhist-majority country, the one hand, the Korean peninsula is Communist Party’s definition of what in which around 90 percent of the like a wrestling ring, in which some of “one country, two systems” means and entire population is Buddhist, while the strongest powers in the world, the expectations of most Hong Kong Chin State is Christian-majority state including Russia, China, Japan and the people. Over the last two decades, the within the Buddhist-majority United States, turn up as uninvited world has witnessed how Hong Kong’s Myanmar with Christians making up players, while on the other hand, the democratic progress has been blocked, nearly 90 percent of its population. In PCK is trying to deal with a nuclearised the basis of the rule of law and good other words, Christians are an dictatorship that is probably the most governance in Hong Kong absolute majority in Chin state but an unpredictable in the world. Along with undermined, Hongkongers’ freedom absolute minority at the national level. this heavy burden, the PCK is worried of speech eroded, and the credibility of Furthermore, in the about the loss of its credibility in society, Hong Kong as a global financial city Christian-majority Chin state, the the low birthrate within and without the destroyed. Presbyterian Church is a minority Church, and the decreasing numbers of denomination, amounting to 7 percent young Christians. The influx of massive of its population. politically-driven capital flight and immigration from China into Hong As a minority ethnic group accounting Kong has degraded socio-economic for only 1 percent of the Myanmar Taiwan conditions, triggering a new wave of population, the Chin people face emigration from Hong Kong, significant challenges in protecting The Presbyterian Church in Taiwan especially among young people. their autonomy against pressures (PCT) shares some similarities with the Several Hongkong friends have asked from the central government. As a PCK. Neither as large as the PCK in scale me about the opportunities to migrate minority denomination in the Chin nor as politically influential, the PCT has to Taiwan. As a Taiwanese, I am, of state, the PCM suffers from a lack of still played an important role in cause, happy to hear my Hongkong human and material resources to set facilitating and deepening the friends are attracted to the prospect of up ministries for taking care of democratisation of Taiwan. With its living in Taiwan. But it is sad that they migrant workers, helping alcoholics commitment to be a prophetic church wish to leave Hong Kong, their and drug addicts rehabilitate their seeking to meet the challenges and needs hometown, because they no longer lives, and nurturing the youth and of a country suffering from continuous consider it a livable place. children. The lack of a lingua franca and multilayered colonialisms, the PCT and regional linguistic differences has made unremitting efforts in continue to cause problems in pursuing transitional justice, realising communication and publishing. These aboriginal self-government, and making problems encourage a provincial Taiwan into an internationally mentality among synods, threatening recognised de jure sovereign state. the unity of the PCM. Difficulties come from without and within. Externally speaking, Taiwan has resisted alone for three decades an increasingly assertive China that has Korea tried every means to overthrow Taiwan’s nascent democracy. Taiwan’s cries might Compared to GPM and PCM, the not go unheard, but most states in the Presbyterian Church of Korea (PCK) is world would like to continue doing situated in a social environment that business with China and so just stand by is much more conducive for the without lifting a finger. mission of Christianity.

June 2019 | 20 VIEWPOINTS

Different Empires At the same time, I consider that as one In my view, the early missionaries of the most long-standing and important showed us the “third way”, an When studying the situations of our missionary organisation, CWM has no alternative both to permissive five churches, we may soon become need to blame itself excessively for its submission and violent resistance to aware of an inconvenient fact: while missionary history, and that the empire. It is a time-tested inspiration we may all face empire, we don’t face contributions to East Asian churches for us to conduct mission in our the same empire. We can talk about and societies made by the early context of empire, for history has empire with one another in an missionaries deserve due credit and are proven that empires, be they native or abstract, conceptual way, but when it worth revisiting. Western Empire, did not last long, but comes to the concrete, contextual the enterprises founded by the level, each church confronts different When it comes to the context in which missionaries, that is, the East Asian empires. We are called to fight our churches were brought into being, it churches, are alive and still growing together, but embarrassingly find that should be noted, and could be denied by and prospering. we have no common enemy. Some no one, that empire had already existed churches may feel certain issues very before the so-called “Western Empires” From my understanding, claiming pressing, while others do not resonate came to Asia. The Burmese kingdom, ourselves to be the successors of the in the same way. Islamic sultanate, Qing Empire and the Protestant and Reformed tradition Confucian gentry, or Joseon Dynasty implies that we are called to be and Yangban aristocracy, in whatever “constructive radicals” in this world. Back to The Early Churches forms they appeared, these oppressive, Being constructive radicals means we life-denying regimes – or to put it in our will never satisfy ourselves with the Then, what can we do? I suggest we may terminology, “empires” – did exist status quo by overlooking the injustice draw some inspirations from the early before Western Imperialisms and that still prevails. That is why we keep church. What I am mentioning is not the missionaries arrived. In other words, the protesting and asking for reform. As biblical early church in the days of early missionaries were conducting Christians with Protestant and Roman Empire, but the very inception of mission in the context of empire. To be Reformed imprints, we are radical in our East Asian churches. While we may more precise, they were preaching the the sense that we believe in and look have no common enemy today, we do Gospel in the midst of two kinds of for another world that is better and share very similar experiences of empire – one kind was the native more beautiful than this world, but conversion at the very inception of our empire, the other the Western Empire. when trying to realise our ideals and East Asian churches. It was the time In short, they were situated in a context visions for this world, we do it in when the Western missionaries, of empire that was much more constructive ways. In this regard, the including those sent by the predecessors complicated and difficult than in our early missionaries set a good example of CWM, namely, the London time. for us. Unlike the then communists Missionary Society, came to Asia and and the contemporary met our forefathers and foremothers in Then, we may ask: sandwiched post-modernists, the early faith. in-between these two kinds of empire, missionaries sought to change this what could the early missionaries do? In world neither through revolution nor In 2010, CWM produced its theology fact, as we all come from young deconstruction, but through statement on “Mission in the Context of churches, we are still benefiting from empowerment – to empower the Empire”, which has become the core of what they did, and no doubt we can still powerless. CWM’s programs ever since. What remember clearly what they actually did particularly touched me is that the at that time. Their contributions are still remembered and commemorated today, statement reveals a profound sense of From Me Program self-critique and self-reflection. On the as my mother church PCT does to We Program self-reflective basis of “remembering we frequently within the church as well as in (that means CWM) are a product of public. However, we rarely link the path mission and empire going together”, the the early missionaries took to the Since solely relying on the Western statement firmly states that: “as we are context of empire in which we are missionaries as our forerunners did is no participants in God’s mission we are placed. longer possible or desirable, I would like called to live in opposition to empire (p. to propose the idea of “Mutual 10)”. The early missionaries did not Empowerment” as the basis for the permissively surrender to the native missionary work of our East Asian As the General Secretary for CWM, Rev empire nor seek to overthrow it with the churches in the context of empire. The Dr Collin Cowan, said in the foreword of help of the Western Empire. As we all basic rationale is that: if we are going to another CWM document “Unmasking know, they chose to empower the subvert empire, we should first get to Empire” that this statement pushed powerless through education and know our comrades. We should know forward a vision of mission that may medication. Our forerunners in faith the strength and weakness of our battle make many find inspiring but others responded quickly and fervently, viewing companions, to understand what they uncomfortable. I don’t know who might the Gospel as their most valuable need and what they can offer, and to feel uncomfortable, but I personally treasure. Why? Because they could smell learn something useful from their appreciate and admire the noble that what the missionaries preached was mission modes in their particular qualities revealed in the statement to the gospel of liberation, and that the contexts. consciously refine its missionary gospel of Jesus Christ was the gospel for methodology that was previously, more the poor, the oppressed, the or less, associated with paternalism into marginalised, and the powerless – most, one characterised by equal partnership. if not all, our forerunners in faith were exactly the people of this kind.

21 | INSiGHT VIEWPOINTS

To achieve this, I would like to suggest that every year each of our five churches select four promising evangelists or laypersons in their 20s or 30s and send one of them to each of the other four churches. At the same time, each of our five churches should devise a one-year program for the four promising youths visiting from the four churches to learn about and experience the host church. Taking my mother church, the PCT, as an example, we might arrange for the four youths to make long-stay visits to various urban, rural, and aboriginal congregations, to attend the annual meeting of the general assembly and even some presbyteries as observers, to visit the three seminaries, two universities, three hospitals, and one publisher and news press, and to serve as short-term volunteers in the service centers for labours and fishers. The other four churches could design similar programs based on their own local situations.

In this way, after ten years we will have a group of young leaders in our churches who knows their neighbouring comrades well; after twenty years we will have a leadership in our churches who have a deep understanding of how to cooperate with our neighbouring comrades. This will be the time that we can talk of a new phase, what I call “Withstand Empire”. In other words, “Mutual Empowerment” is a twenty-year, or even longer, preparation, with which we may be able to claim that we are ready to “Withstand Empire” together. This happened to be a “ME to WE” transition, if the two terms, “Mutual Empowerment” and “Withstand Empire”, are abbreviated by taking only the first letter of the words. This is only a preliminary idea, and as I am not a minister in our church, I barely know how to make it administratively feasible and practically workable. I contribute what I can contribute, and hope it would not be too naïve an idea. May God lead us and give you, the leaders of our five East Asian churches, the wisdom to realise His will.

June 2019 | 22 VIEWPOINTS Healing Relationships:

The commitment to healing relationships sits at the heart of CWM’s vision for the transformation of the world. The process of healing relationships is based on the hope for a new spirituality, which is anchored in God’s fundamental identity as the Creator. We affirm our belief in a God of life that is committed to the life of the world and to human flourishing. We believe that God wants all humanity, in whose image and likeness we are all created, to be more than we presently are and to be all that we were created to be. The God in whom this faith and commitment is located is revealed in the witness of the scriptures, particularly - the life and ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, in whose name and identity the church is founded.

The twenty-first century is being shaped against a backdrop of mounting conflicts between people across our tangled lines of religion, cultures and political ideologies and world views to name but a few.

Given the fragmentation of the world, the desire for a renewed push for healing relationships is not a theoretical or an abstract concept. Rather, it is a recognition that the world needs to be changed. For the church to be faithful to her identity and existence, we need to be committed to being a part of a creative process that is seeking to change both systems and structures, as well as human hearts and consciousness.

Healing relationships can be identified in a number of forms and represents the all embracing nature of God, who is making all things new (Rev 21:5). So whether in terms of climate justice, seeking to heal the relationship between human kind and the creation - which is God’s gift to us, for which we hold responsibility for its care and sustainability, or witnessed in inter-ethnic, cultural and national reconciliation between warring peoples, the cause of healing relationships remains a key commitment for CWM and its member churches.

Realising that our commitment to healing relationships is rooted in God’s grace and power, it should come as no surprise, then, that the hopeful intention for the changes we wish to see in the world and in all peoples, is founded on a relational and transformative spirituality that is God’s gift to us.

23 | INSiGHT VIEWPOINTS Hope for a New Spirituality by Prof Anthony Reddie, CWM Mission Secretary, Europe

God, in Christ, in the power of the Holy Spirit is pouring out God’s spirit onto all peoples (Acts 2:17), seeking to bring about transformation and healing.

A key feature of this healing and the spirituality that underpins it, is the relational quality of God’s work, in which CWM and its member churches are invited to participate. The reconciling work of Christ that brings God’s love to all human kind and fosters communion between peoples, represents the relational quality of Christian mission to which CWM is committed. The transformative mission of God is founded on an active, gracious love that is costly, rooted in Jesus’ sacrifice on the Cross, in which justice is a key feature of what we understand in terms of reconciliation and healing.

Too often, we note a kind of ‘false peace’ in which structural injustice and fractured relationships are covered over with a form of camouflage that seeks to disguise the true depth of human sin and the disregard for the other. The gospel of Jesus Christ reminds us that perfect love drives out fear (1 John 4:18) and that the mission of God that is seeking to bring about healing relationships cannot be accomplished on the false truths of compromising with injustice. Rather, the Church is called to bear witness to the truth and this means we must be committed to confronting injustice and all the factors and forms that limit the prospect of abundant life that Jesus promises in John 10:10. We are called to love ourselves and the neighbour, realising that this relational dynamic cannot occur outside of the contexts and cultures in which human beings and communities are rooted – for mission and human encounter are never lived in a vacuum. It is for this reason that our commitment to human flourishing must include climate justice and the care for God’s creation because it’s within the context of specific cultural settings that God’s mission is realised.

Given the present context of deep divisions between peoples and nations, people trafficking, climate change and economic injustice, we know that renewal will only occur when the Body of Christ is willing to make the supreme sacrifice of immersing itself in the suffering, tears and the broken-heartedness of the world. We are called to work in partnership with God to help realise the healing transformation of all creation for which Jesus came. (John 3:16). Let us step into this commitment with boldness and confidence, safe in the knowledge that in the name of Christ and in the power of the Holy Spirit, nothing can separate us from the love of God (Romans 8:38-39).

June 2019 | 24 VIEWPOINTS My PIM Journey by Rebecca Lalbiaksangi, Llanfair Uniting Church, Penrhys

My journey as Partner in Often we have our own way of doing our mission and stick Mission (PIM) started in to our own mindset forgetting that we are there to support, April 2003. It was such an empower and inspire the receiving church in their local exciting time for me to mission. It is important to be open and flexible. take this new big step. I worked in Madagascar for My time as PIM has taught me so many things. The way a eight years at Akany Church functions may be different but it was wonderful to Avoko Ambohidratrimo. help each other and support each other as God’s family. Owned by the Federation Bringing my experience and culture from Mizoram and of Protestant Churches, India to Madagascar and Wales, learning about other Akany Avoko is a centre churches, the people and culture and way of life was a for girls, and where tremendous experience. At the same time, we share what we children and young experience with our sending church during our home leave teenagers who are or in a newsletter which is very important too. This can orphans and some with open up new ideas too. I believe PIM is the living link, court cases are cared for. connecting and strengthening the relationship of at least It was such a blessing to two churches within the CWM member churches. Recently, be able to take part in nine people from Llanfair’s Bible study group visited raising the most Madagascar with us after hearing about Madagascar many Screen grab of Rebecca Lalbiaksangi in vulnerable girls. Despite times during the sessions. It was an eye opener for them to Wanstead, London - 23 July 2016 the many challenges, we see FJKM’s projects, other charities and meeting Malagasy have witnessed some girls people. As a family, we were invited many times to coming from a very difficult background but are now churches, schools and informal groups to talk about achieving so much success in their lives. Madagascar. Here in Wales, people are impressed and encouraged to hear the first Missionaries who came to I also worked in the AIDS project run by the Church of Mizoram and Madagascar are from Wales. We often Jesus Christ Madagascar. I was and still am impressed by reminded them that we are the fruits of their hard work and the church for taking the lead to raise awareness of prayers, and that it is our turn to come to them to give back HIV/AIDS far in advance before the problem breaks in what they gave us many years ago. Madagascar. I think this is the reason why the percentage of the HIV/AIDS rate is so low compared to the other I do hope that CWM is still planning to continue the PIM countries in Africa. Having worked with and counselling the Programme. This is the most direct way we learn from each people affected by HIV/AIDS in Mizoram, I enjoyed other, promoting an integration of God’s big family and working in this FJKM project. I also had a wonderful growing together. Here in Penrhys, there is always great experience being accepted in a group with People living with excitement when someone HIV/AIDS supported by the Malagasy government. is coming to help in the church. I got married to Miara, who is from Madagascar, in 2007. Our first daughter Hannah was born in 2008. In 2011, the Lastly, I thank God for three of us moved to work at Llanfair Uniting Church, giving me and my family Penrhys in Wales. Miara serves as a full time volunteer and an opportunity to serve works with me and the team at Llanfair. Llanfair Church is God and to be able to take the heart of the community and it serves the community in part in the mission for the various ways. Then Seren, our second daughter, was born in fullness in life through Wales in 2014. The girls play an important role connecting Christ for all creation. I us with other parents, children and the community. also would like to thank CWM, my sending Church During our time here at Llanfair, we received so much love Presbyterian Church of and care. This often reminded us of Jesus who asks us to India, Mizoram Synod and love one another. The Church sets an excellent example for FJKM for their assistance others on how to reach out to the community without being and prayers over the judgemental and to stay inclusive always. It is wonderful years. And also to Llanfair that everyone in the community accepts Llanfair as his/her Church and the church, including the children. Presbyterian Church of Wales for their endless As Partner in Mission, it is important to understand the encouragement and mission of where we serve and be a partner in fulfilling their support. May God mission. continue to bless each and every one of us as we continue to serve God.

25 | INSiGHT CWM’S PARTNERS IN MISSION PROGRAMME The Call To Mission

The call to mission is to everyone who desires to join in partnership with Jesus Christ in His work in the world. His vision that all may have life and life in abundance is a compelling one for all to hear God’s cry for humanity wherever people live outside of the experience of life in fullness. It is also an invitation to respond by offering hands, minds and resources.

To this end, Council for World Mission’s Partners in Mission (PIM) programme provides an opportunity to offer and receive partners to accomplish specific mission priorities as member churches or partner organisations respond to God’s call to mission.

The PIM programme is a coordinated approach to sharing people. The term ‘Partners in Mission’ refers to an individual who serves in a context outside of his/her own nation and member church, using skills, experiences and gifts which are needed in the new context that they serve. The term ‘Partners in Mission’ demonstrates the organisation’s About The PIM commitment to accompanying our members as partners. It recognises and affirms that each member has something to share and offer and that our members are already participating in God’s mission through the The Partner in Mission joins in and contributes to what the member church and in the world. church/ecumenical body is already doing or has planned to do. CWM facilitates the sharing of people with administrative, communication, logistical and management responsibilities through members of the He said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore, CWM staff team at the regional and global levels. ask the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest.” Luke 10:2 (NRSV) A PIM’s work in a particular context is designed to facilitate the accomplishment of mission priorities. Consequently, PIMs may be medical professionals, teachers, pastors, community development For more information about this programme, please contact the workers to name a few. For the short term mission engagement Mission Secretary in your region programme persons with an even wider variety of skills are welcome as projects lasting less than two years may be undertaken. The PIM makes Africa Region - Rev Dr Sindiso Jele himself/herself available to share skills, gifts and experiences to enrich A Suite 21 & 27 1st Floor, Block B Metropolitan Park 8 the places that they go to serve and open themselves to also be enriched Hillside Road Park Town Johannesburg 2193, South Africa by their own encounters where they serve with a view to contributing to D +27 11 486 9384 P +27 0114804850 Ext. 4850 their sending context upon return. M +27 71 061 0427 E [email protected] Through CWM’s short- and long-term engagement programmes we aim Caribbean Region - Mrs Karen Francis to help our member churches and partners to accomplish the goals they A 1st floor, UCJCI Building 12 Carlton Crescent, have identified in their own communities. This may involve addressing Kingston 10, Jamaica W.I. a variety of needs e.g. educational, medical, leadership development, P (876) 920 0931 M (876) 432-7057 socio-economic development. It may also involve sharing the resource of F (876) 906 3592 E [email protected] people who have the skills, qualifications and experience to respond to needs in another part of the world. East and South Asia Region - Rev Julie Sim A 114 Lavender Street, #12-01 CT Hub 2, The PIM relationship arises out of agreed commitments to send, receive Singapore 338729 and go. P +65 6887 3400 M +65 9011 5467 F +65 6235 7760 E [email protected]

Europe Region - Prof Anthony Reddie SENDING CONTEXT RECEIVING CONTEXT Offers an individual with Receives an individual with the A 11 St Georges Circus, LONDON SE1 8EH, skills, gifts and experiences requisite skills, gifts and experiences United Kingdom to a receiving context. to meet needs of the context in line P +44 (0) 207 222 4214 F +44 (0) 207 222 3510 with its mission priorities. M +44 (0) 79 5834 6379 E [email protected] The sending context, receiving context and the PIM play specific roles Rev Nikotemo Sopepa Pacific Region - and carry out specific responsibilities. A 78 Vuya Road, Veiuto, Suva, Fiji Islands. P +679 3311133 M (679) 942 4458 E [email protected]

The Partner in Mission Unit is located in the Caribbean region. SHORT TERM LONG TERM Contact details for the Coordinator: PROGRAMME PROGRAMME Relates to an engagement Relates to an engagement of less than two years of more than two years. Mrs Karen Francis - Partner in Mission Coordinator A 1st floor, UCJCI Building 12 Carlton Crescent, Kingston 10, Jamaica W.I. P (876) 920 0931 M (876) 432 7057 F (876) 906 3592 E [email protected] VIEWPOINTS Reflections on ‘2019 Easter Sunday

inby Jude Lal Fernando, Sri Irish School of Ecumenics, Lanka’ Trinity College Dublin

(This is an abridged version of the text I spoke at the memorial mass offered at St. Mary’s Pro-Cathedral, Dublin on 28 April, 2019 by the Archbishop of Dublin, attended by the President of Ireland, government representatives, members of the Sri Lankan community in Ireland, Muslim representatives and a large section of Irish Catholics.)

A relative of a victim of the Easter Sunday massacre in Sri Lanka mourns after a Sunday mass on April 28, 2019. (AP / Manish Swarup)

Dear Archbishop, Dear President Where is God now in this massive loss of lives, pain of injuries and deep pain of losses? God in whom we believe is I would like to thank you and all our friends in Ireland for not a god of death, but the God of life who sent Jesus to give extending your prayerful solidarity with the people in Sri us life, life in abundance. Therefore the blood of all the Lanka in this tragic moment. people killed not only on Easter Sunday but for decades in Sri Lanka, including the lives of 70,000 Tamils who were On Easter Sunday morning, when my wife and I contacted massacred 10 years ago in the last phase of the war cry out to my sister and niece who live a short distance away from St heaven and in it we can hear the voice of God. What do we Sebastian’s church in Negombo in Sri Lanka, my niece was hear? It is only by the way in which I – I as a believer in the in the nearby hospital, weeping inconsolably as she was with Resurrection – respond to suffering and death that I can find her staff members, desperately attempting to identify the meaning in both death and life. By surviving I become lifeless and disfigured bodies of her pupils. She is a primary responsible for the meaning of those who did not. school teacher. Her school alone lost seven pupils along with eighteen of their family members. It is only one amongst I believe that it is not the suffering, blood and death of Jesus hundreds of agonising stories. The faithful of this church is that saved us. The cross is not the will of God. With, but Sinhala-speaking. The congregation of St Anthony’s Church beyond the cross, is the daring, loving response of Jesus. He in Colombo, which was affected, is mostly Tamil-speaking, who vehemently opposed and condemned those who laid also bilingual. In the eastern province of Batticaloa, the heavy burdens on people, on that agonising cross, goes to the faithful of the Evangelical Zion Church were Tamil speaking. extent of forgiving his own tormentors. This response is Amongst others they lost fourteen children. The tourists who death-defying. It is lifegiving. It is God’s response to both were affected belonged to different nationalities, to different death and life. God proclaims life. faiths or no faith.

27 | INSiGHT VIEWPOINTS

Allah is the source of life. In his own life, the prophet How has the story played out? Muslim clerics or Imams Mohammed who stood for justice and unity, when he was have been prevented from attending the funerals. Joint ridiculed by opponents, forgave them: he reminded them of memorial ceremonies have been strongly discouraged. how Joseph treated his elder brothers and gave them Instead, retaliation has been encouraged under the amnesty. This is the creative response that transforms our deadliest narrative of Islam vs. Christianity. Churches are relationships and politics. closed. The mosques do not use public address systems to conduct their prayers. Affected Christian families live in We are all survivors in one way or another who are still alive deep sorrow. The Muslim community lives in fear and are when scores of people are no more. Our responsibility is unable to step out of their homes. Both Catholic and high and delicate. Words of condemnation of atrocities are Protestant leaders have to listen to the security advice of the not enough. Perhaps it is easy to do so in a mechanical and state that knows nothing but retaliation. ritualistic way. We have to join the journey of recreating life which is the most challenging, but rewarding task. The path of both Christian and Muslim faiths is not to react to suffering and death as the powers of the earth and their It is highly distressing to hear that one of the main agents want us to, through further militarisation and responses generated after the Easter Sunday killings in Sri vengeance, but instead we are called to give a daring and Lanka leads us further to the path of death and destruction. loving response to suffering and death that can give Not life but greater ‘security’ is the call. Further meaning to those who are killed. militarisation has been called for in a country where the density of soldiers to civilians is one of the highest in the The opposite of war is not the peace of armies that mass world. Since last Sunday the existing lethal global narrative: along borders and brutally divide people from people. The Islam vs. Christianity, or Islam vs. the West, or Islam vs. the opposite of war is creativity, a creativity that sees beyond Rest has been imposed on the country of my birth. First, rigid divisions, a creativity that people of faith – whether and for the first time, in a country where there have been no Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Muslim and so on – find Christian-Muslim clashes at all, there is now a path to unite audacious and loving. all the communities by naming a common enemy, our Muslim sisters and brothers. This is a new experience for We must stand against those who would say that Christians both communities who have undergone discrimination and have been persecuted by Muslims on the most holy day of oppression along with the Tamils under a mainly Sinhala the liturgical year. This is the rhetoric of death that many Buddhist state, a state that has violated every ethical far-right groups and political parties in historically principle in Buddhism, of course with the full support of the Christian-majority countries tell; it is the story of great most powerful states on earth, let me add. We are being led powers that have hidden agendas. But, we are an Easter by a sinister agenda of these powerful states who create this people; our story is holy; our story is of resurrection, destructive narrative to justify their wars and the lesser recreating new life, the breaking of barriers, of allowing our powerful non-state actors who reinforce this narrative with Muslim sisters and brothers to cry with us at the wasting of their violence and are perhaps covertly supported by the every and any life. most powerful states who promise us world peace. Let me conclude with a story of one of the families whose only daughter was killed on Easter Sunday’s blast in Negombo, the place I was born. She had been to the Vigil Mass. She was curious, so she went to the morning Mass. At her funeral, there was a small group of Muslim imams and Catholic priests and nuns and Protestant pastors who dared to come together. Her mortal remains were buried within 24 hours. It was the imam who led the prayers. Her mother was Catholic, father was a Muslim. The only little daughter was Muslim.

Let her story and thousands of similar stories across the globe give us the vision and courage to ‘passover’ this valley of division, destruction and death to a future of life-giving web of relationships.

May the Risen Christ and all the messengers of God (praise be upon them) be with all the people of Sri Lanka, in particular with all the survivors of war and violence, and

Pray for Sri Lanka - solidarity in Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany (Photo by Andreas Schwarzkopf) with the people of Ireland, in these hours of multiple trials and challenges.

June 2019 | 28 VIEWPOINTS Religious Diversity, Political Conflict,

There is no other region in the world, This conflict, however, has its roots not The branding of the Israeli state as where religion and politics interact, in the Middle East, but in nineteenth “biblical Israel” accelerated after 1967, collide, and conjoin like in the Middle century Europe. It was exactly 100 years when Israel occupied the West Bank East. The region I come from, called ago, on November 2nd 1917 that the including East Jerusalem, the Gaza the Middle East, is on the one hand British Lord Arthur James Balfour Strip, and the Golan Heights (50 years the cradle of three monotheistic promised the land of Palestine to ago). The name chosen for the war religions, Judaism, Christianity, and another British-Jewish Lord Rothschild. “Six days” had a biblical connotation: Islam, and is on the other hand a It wasn’t the Lord God who promised the like God who finished creating the region of diverse ethnicities, religious land to the Jews of Europe, but Lord creation in six days, Israel was able to minorities, and multiple identities. Balfour. This was not done out of finish its job by occupying the rest of Add to that the fact that the modern religious convictions, but rather part of Palestine and before they can rest. history of this region has been marked British Imperial expansion policy on the for over a century by colonial history, one hand, and of interior political 1967 didn't bring rest neither to the conflicting imperial interests, the necessity on the other. On the one hand Israeli nor to the Palestinians. On the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the European Jews were to colonise contrary. When the international regional instability. Palestine and to settle there serving community and the political British Imperial expansion and interests. leadership of both peoples failed in In this paper I will analyse three On the other, the sending of the achieving a just peace, people started different contemporary case studies European Jewish community to turning more and more to religion that will show the use and misuse of Palestine was supposed to solve an searching there for answers. The religion in contexts of political interior European issue, the integration longer the conflict remained unsolved conflicts. In the first case study I will or non-assimilation of Jews in Europe. with human intervention, the more it look at the latest debate at the United Nonetheless, religion played indirectly a started getting religious connotation. Nations Security Council regarding role behind this declaration. For many The outcome of the 1967 war gave a Israeli Settlement in the West Bank Zionist Christians in Great Britain the boost to Jewish religious nationalism and East Jerusalem. In a second case restoration of the Jewish people was a and to “messianic” extremist Jewish study I will look at the interaction precondition for the second coming of groups within Israel, who started between religion and state in the Arab Christ. A subtle anti-Arab and settling in the West Bank claiming it World in relation to power, and in the anti-Muslim theology was the other side as ancient “Judea and Samaria.” third I will look at the role Christian of this coin. The Balfour declaration was Judea and Samaria was not so much a Zionists play within the current issued at a time when the British army, geographical description but rather a context. While the first case study will stationed in Egypt, were ready to storm religious claim with a clear political focus on a Jewish Israeli case, the southern Palestine. The plan for a agenda. The Iranian revolution and second will look at a case within the National Home for the Jewish people the petro-dollar that flooded the gulf Arab-Islamic region, and the third is was thus one of the deals and outcomes region gave a boost to certain forms of an intra-Christian western case. After of the WWI. political Islam. Christian Zionism analysing these case studies, I will try experienced a revival and their to draw three important conclusions This plan was made possible in the followers started celebrating Israel from a liberation theology point of aftermath of WWII. It was in this victory as a direct Divine Intervention. view. context that in 1947 (70 years ago) the United Nations adopted the partition After Oslo and when political leaders Religion in the context of Occupation plan to divide Palestine into two states. were ready for a political compromise, A year later the State of Israel was the opposition utilised religion to The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is one established. The new state chose a empty that peace agreement. Rabin of the longest ongoing conflicts in biblical name “Israel” for itself. was killed by a religious Jewish Israeli modern history. person, and Hamas started a series of suicide attacks on Israeli targets. 29 | INSiGHT VIEWPOINTS and the Spirituality of Liberation by Rev Dr Mitri Raheb, President, Dar al-Kalima University College of Arts and Culture, Palestine

Expanding Israeli settlements in the including, inter alia, the construction you not to believe the lies presented in Palestinian land became a tactic of the and expansion of settlements, transfer this resolution. I ask each and every Israeli government who have been of Israeli settlers, confiscation of land, member of this council who voted for subsidising the building of settlements demolition of homes and displacement this resolution: Who gave you the through soft loans, tax exemptions, of Palestinian civilians, in violation of right to issue such a decree denying and a modern infrastructure. This is international humanitarian law and our eternal rights in Jerusalem? just the background for the first case relevant resolutions, …We overcame those decrees during study I would like to analyse. the time of the Maccabees and we will “Expressing grave concern that overcome this evil decree today. We On December 23rd 2016 the UN continuing Israeli settlement activities have full confidence in the justice of Security Council met to discuss the are dangerously imperilling the our cause and in the righteousness of expansion of Israeli settlement in the viability of the two-State solution based our path. We will continue to be a West Bank and East Jerusalem. A on the 1967 lines, “Recalling the democratic state based on the rule of resolution 2334 (2016) was adopted obligation under the Quartet Roadmap, law and full civil and human rights by 14 countries in favour and a US endorsed by its resolution 1515 (2003), for all our citizens and we will abstention. The resolution reaffirmed for a freeze by Israel of all settlement continue to be a Jewish state. Proudly the Security Council stand that Israeli activity, including “natural growth”, reclaiming the land of our Settlement have no legal validity and and the dismantlement of all settlement forefathers, where the Maccabees constitute a flagrant violation of the outposts erected since March 2001…”i fought their oppressors and King Internal Law. The full text reads as David ruled from Jerusalem.” follows: I was watching the debate live and And just before ending his speech, listened to the 14 council members something interesting happened that “The Security Council, talking about the fourth Geneva captured my full attention. Mr. “Reaffirming its relevant resolutions Convention and International law and Dannon pulled a Hebrew Bible, lifted … how important it is to abide by them. it up in his hand, and said: “This “Guided by the purposes and The US representative explained the holy-book the Bible contained 3,000 principles of the Charter of the United decision to abstain rather than veto the years of history of the Jewish people Nations, and reaffirming, inter alia, resolution by saying that settlements are in the Land of Israel. No one, no one the inadmissibility of the acquisition undermining Israel’s security and can change this history.” of territory by force, eroding the prospect for a two states solution, thus peace and stability. Once It wasn’t a surprise for me to hear “Reaffirming the obligation of Israel, all 15 Security Council members were such rhetoric from an Israel politician, the occupying Power, to abide given the floor, it was time for Danny but what struck me was the act of scrupulously by its legal obligations Dannon, the Israeli representative to the raising the Hebrew Bible at a UN and responsibilities under the Fourth UN to address the council. This is what Security Council with the aim of Geneva Convention relative to the he said: undermining International Law and Protection of Civilian Persons in Time the Geneva Convention articles. It is of War, of 12 August 1949, and “Mr. President today is a bad day for interesting to see the words and recalling the advisory opinion this council…This council wasted language Mr. Dannon uses in his rendered on 9 July 2004 by the valuable time and efforts condemning speech. Mr. Dannon is convinced that International Court of Justice, the democratic state of Israel for he owns the truth: “We have building homes in the historic homeland presented the truth time and again.” “Condemning all measures aimed at for the Jewish people. We have He is convinced of the justice of his altering the demographic presented the truth time and again for cause and the righteousness of his composition, character and status of this council and implore path. the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem, June 2019 | 30 VIEWPOINTS

He uses words like "historic homeland" and "eternal rights." He kept shifting between biblical Israel and the state of Israel of today as if they were one and the same: “Proud live and reclaiming the land of our forefathers, where the Maccabees fought their oppressors and King David ruled from Jerusalem.” And “This holy-book the Bible contained 3,000 years of history of the Jewish people in the Land of Israel. No one, no one can change this history.” Graffiti in Tel Aviv, Israel - March 2009 (Photo by David Miller)

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a Christian Zionism as a tool and even if it were true it does not political conflict over land and rights. of the Israel Lobby excuse the actions of the State of The UN Resolution clearly refers to Israel. Secondly Christians in the international laws applicable in The third case study I want to focus on is United States and in many other contexts of occupation. Mr. Dannon an intra-Christian debate. places have negative conceptions of doesn't address this issue. He avoids it Islam and Muslims. They operate out on purpose because there is no human During an international conference of a fundamental fear of Islam and excuse to it and there is no way that commemorating the 30th anniversary of Muslims along with the false one can excuse their colonial Kairos South Africa on August 20th. understanding that the conflict is at expansionist policy. The last resort to 2015, a delegation from Palestine was its foundation religiously formed; defend the Israeli settlement policy is present. One of the members of the that it is a conflict between Islam and God. delegation was Rev Dr Robert O. Smith, Judaism. This is so far from the at that time he was serving as the truth; it is a conflict over land; it is a Mr. Dannon is basically saying this: Program Director of the Middle East and political conflict over resources; it is a “We don't adhere to international law, North Africa at the ELCA and political conflict over we do not abide by the Geneva co-Moderator of the Palestine-Israel self-determination and decolonising Convention, we don’t care about the Ecumenical Forum of the World Council principles. It is not first and foremost bill of human rights, because we of Churches. Dr. Smith is the author of about religion although the possess divine and eternal rights.” “More desired than Our Owne Salvation: continuation of the political conflict Religion is here used to avoid a The Roots of Christian Zionism,” which brings us closer to very dangerous political solution and to religiously is his doctoral thesis at Baylor. religious conflicts. And finally legalise what is politically an Christians in the United States and in aggression. I asked myself: How did During the conference, Smith and two many other places and I’ve heard we arrive at a situation today where other Palestinians were invited to speak many South African friends this week divine rights trump human rights? Is at an evening panel organised by one of tell me are influenced by the Imperial it possible to violate the human rights the South African Palestinian Solidarity theology known as Christian Zionism. in the name of divine rights? Is it groups. In his short input, and after Christian Zionism is first and possible to use the biblical text to describing himself as a citizen of the foremost political activity. It is not white wash military occupation and United States and a citizen of the really a theology; it is not a the oppression of whole nations? Can displaced Chickasaw Nation, and as a commitment to doctrines and religious convictions lead to a severe current resident in Jerusalem, Robert principles of faith; it is a political violation of international law? The wanted to talk about the responsibility of ideology that supports Jewish control matter here is not about religious international Christians to the Christians over the land that now contains Israel convictions, but rather how religious of Palestine, and raised the question and Palestine...It is essential that all convictions are instrumentalised for about why the Christian community in of us understands that the Israel of political ends. And how Divine rights the world react to the suffering of the the Bible, the ancient Israelites, are are utilised to allow for the violation of Palestinian community the way they do not linked in any substantive or human rights and to avoid solving a and why do they allow Israel to behave material way to the contemporary political conflict. And while Jewish the way it does. He mentioned three modern Israel. The biblical narrative Israeli are given land to occupy in the reasons: of Israel has almost nothing to do West Bank and the Gaza Strip, with contemporary Israel other than Palestinian towns and villages are First, “I would say that the Christians in the intentional manipulation of being striped of any possibilities for the United States and I assume also in sacred texts to justify a political expansion or natural growth. This South Africa often do not know that project. We must reject the situation is a clear case of Christians are present in the West Bank theological justification for the discrimination, segregation, and and East Jerusalem and within the present acts of the State of Israel and apartheid and can't be defended by State of Israel. They have a false we must instead draw from our modern international standards thus imagination of what Israel is and what sacred texts the Quran the Torah the the resort to the Bible as the last resort Palestine is. They falsely assume that Tanakh as a whole and the Christian and legitimising tool. Israel is made up solely of Jews and scriptures to instead inform that the West Bank is made of solely of resistance to empire that is faithful to Palestinian Muslims but this is not true our traditions.”ii

31 | INSiGHT VIEWPOINTS

This presentation was tapped as many The message is not debated here but All people are created equally in God's other presentations. Suddenly on rather the messenger is targeted. Killing image. In fact, all three monotheistic April 4th 2017 Robert Smith became a as well as character assassination in the religions could agree on this. As target for a social media smear name of God becomes a religious duty. Christians we believe also that in campaign orchestrated by an After looking at these three case studies Christ and in Bethlehem, God became American Christian who describes allow me to add three theological human so that all human lives are himself as a media analyst, his name is conclusions: sanctified. Dexter van Zile. The smearing campaign uses a quote from Robert Divine rights and Human Rights Such a theology of liberation is Smith presentation in South Africa essential in our region today. But in that reads: “The biblical narrative of In contexts of conflicts, as in the Middle today's world we adhere to the Israel has almost nothing to do with East, groups often utilise divine rights to universal declaration of human rights contemporary Israel other than the deny others equal human rights. that clearly states that "All Human intentional manipulation of sacred beings are born free and equal in texts to justify a political project.” We find these groups within all three dignity and rights." It should not be monotheistic religions. These are not acceptable by religious or political In any debate about any Christian only Islamist groups in Iraq and Syria, terms to violate human rights in the doctrine, theologians can speak their but also Jewish groups in Israel as well name of divine rights, or to play God mind, critic almost everything. One as Israeli politicians. These are also against humanity. Groups who do that can question the existence or Christian Zionists, who keep attacking are misusing the scriptures for their non-existence of god, the divinity of fellow Christians who dare to challenge own political ideologies. The Christ, the historicity of any biblical the Israeli Occupation. scriptures and the Human Rights story, but dare anyone question charter are there for one and the same anything regarding the State of Israel. reason: to defend the meek, protect There are watch dogs who watch every the rights of the weak, put limits to word, watch every YouTube, follow those in power, and to make sure that every tweet, and every post. It seems the state adheres to the laws. Both that when it comes to the issue of religion and state have to ensure that Israel, neither religious disagreements the power of law and not the law of are allowed nor diverse political power prevails. No religion or human opinions are tolerated. Even worse, legislation is entitled to give the every credible Christian theologian or Israelis more rights than Palestinians, researcher who dares to question the Muslims more privileges than religious Hora of the State of Israel Christians, or men higher wages than becomes a plausible target for all kind women. Equality is something we of Israeli Watch dogs groups. The cannot compromise on neither Israel lobby is very clever. They don’t religiously nor secularly. want to be at the front of such attack, so they hire Christian Zionists to do The Cross as the ultimate critique the dirty job for them. of state and religious terroriii A graffiti by the street artist Banksy on the Israeli West Bank barrier. Dexter van Zile is one of those hired in For too long we have tried to 2005 by Charles Jacobs to be the Two forces are currently violating the spiritualise the notion of liberation in director of Christian Outreach and to human rights in our region: so-called the Bible. We replaced liberation with oversee an initiative called the "security states" who don’t allow people salvation, and the cross became Judeo-Christian Alliance at the David to move, to have an opinion, to publish nothing but an atonement. We have to project. A year later, Dexter moved to controversial books, to question policies, put the cross in its original context of another watchdog group called or simply to think critically; and political and religious violence. Jesus CAMERA “The Committee for religious movements who leave no room was one of the many who experienced Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in for people to choose their beliefs and to on his own body the violence of both America.” He does the dirty work of breathe freely. Both forces create state as well as religious terror. The targeting Christians. If one follow the systems based on fear. The fear of the cross is a permanent reminder of the smear campaign done over two days state and the fear of God become two millions of people who are persecuted one would notice the following: the sides of the same coin. A society that is either by the state or by the religious campaign is intended to scare Robert based on fear rather than on freedom establishment because they raise their so that he starts censoring himself. By kills the soul and spirit of its people, prophetic critique to an unjust ruler or mentioning Notre Dame University, their innovation and their creativity. to corrupt forms of religion. The cross Robert’s employer, in the campaign, There will be no future for the Middle is a reminder of all those innocent the university is dragged into the issue East until we break out from the killed in the name of God. There is an and will either exert pressure on bondage of the security state as well as of urgent need today to discover this Robert or even fire him. One religious oppressive “religious laws” to a wide dimension of the cross. The fact that or political view on Palestine can open space where human lives and Jesus died on the cross by a therefore cost people their job, their security is protected, where freedom is combination of state and religious reputation, and comes close to a free to blossom, and where human rights terror is of utmost importance as a character assassination. And last but become sacred. For us as Christians, a critique to both powers. The cross not least, there is no room for dialogue spirituality of liberation is a spirituality becomes the ultimate critique of state or diverse opinions or academic or of creation and incarnation. as well as religious violence. political disagreement.

June 2019 | 32 VIEWPOINTS

The cross becomes a preoccupied with mirror that shows God’s internecine fighting so vulnerability and the that the empire’s job of cruelty of political and control was easier. This religious behaviour. For is part and parcel of the peoples of the colonial history in the Middle East, who are Middle East. living either in contexts of the Israeli In this context, the occupation, or in the story of Pentecost context of political shows an alternative despotism, or affected vision of the region by on daily basis by reversing the story of religious extremism, the Tower of Babylon. this dimension of the Jerusalem becomes the cross is of utmost The Gaza Strip after eight days of bombing by Israel. (Photo New York Times/HH) counter narrative of importance. Both religion and the Alexander and Company had the Babel. Here various nations and state must be under the rule of law as ambitious plan to pour all tribes and cultures meet. They don’t speak the a mean of protection from political groups into one gigantic melting pot. language of the empire, but rather despotism on the one hand, and from The outcome of this forceful unification their own native languages. Their tyrannical and repressive religious was utter confusion. The empire fell identities are respected and embraced. extremism that bans what it dislikes apart and dissolved. The Romans tried The Spirit provides the software for and legitimises what suits its the same experiment and were no more communication so that they ambitions, on the other. The role of successful. The Byzantine emperor, understand each other. In this story the state is to safeguard the rights of Constantine, thought that by forcing one the rich diversity of the region is all its citizens. On the other hand, creed at Calcedon he could unite his embraced and celebrated. It is religion has an important role to empire behind one emperor and one regarded as strength rather than a inspire its followers to be faith. The Oriental identities and deficiency. compassionate. Securing human expressions of faith were thus declared dignity and the well-being of the heretical and were persecuted. The multiple identities of the region people is at the core of religion and the are viewed not as contradictions, but ultimate raison d’être for statehood. The Arabs tried to push their language as a treasure to save. In Jerusalem the There is a dire need for a prophetic on to the Berbers of North Africa and on people from the whole oikumene and dynamic faith that does not run central Asian countries which led to the “stood” on equal footing, "Parthians, away or hide from the challenges of opposite effect-of less identification with Medes and Elamites; residents of the society but instead engages the their empire by those tribes. This issue is Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, society for the good of all citizens. The central for a Middle East which is Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and alternative to state and religious terror pluralistic in nature. No single empire Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of is a society based on civil laws, has been able to force the region into Libya near Cyrdne; visitors from freedom, compassion, and equal uniformity. There was never a single Rome (both Jews and converts to citizenship irrespective of one’s Catholic Church that monopolised the Judaism); Cretans and Arabs". The religious convictions, cultural identity, Christian faith in the Middle East but moment Pentecost was taken out of its socio-economic status, or race. rather national churches: Copts, Syriac, original context it became a nice story Marinates, Greeks, etc., each without any particular significance. It A vision for a world marked by worshipping in their own native became a tale about speaking in Diversityiv language and possessing, as they do tongues, and thus lost its contextual today, a distinct cultural identity. The relevance. The Church born in The story of Pentecost in the Book of same is true for Islam. It too has Jerusalem was meant to counter the Acts (2: 1-13) is imperative to different expressions according to empire; not by creating another but by understanding the spirituality that is different regions: Shiite, Sunni, Alawite, providing a new, ecumenical vision. needed in the Middle East because it Druze etc. All efforts to forcefully unify The spirituality so urgently needed provides a counter narrative to the them have come to naught. The Middle today, more than at any previous time, logic of the oppressive regimes. The East continues to be one of the most is one that embraces diversity and narrative of oppressive regimes is diverse regions in the world with celebrates it as strength. found in Genesis (11: 1-9) in the story multiple ethnicities, religious of the Tower of Babel, where a mighty affiliations, and plural identities. For any A Christian spirituality of liberation is empire with a strong economy reaches empire this was and is both a challenge a crucial contribution not only to the to heaven and with one language holds and an opportunity. A challenge because survival of the Christian community as the empire together. This is exactly the region resisted all attempts of such, but is crucial for the future of what Alexander the Great and the forceful inclusion. But an opportunity the Middle East at large ensuring that Greeks tried to do with imposing because the empire was forever keen to human rights are protected, prophetic Greek and Hellenistic culture on their play one group against the other and critique is raised, and diversity is conquered peoples. ensure that the region remained celebrated.

i http://www.un.org/webcast/pdfs/SRES2334-2016.pdf ii Robert Smith Jerusalem World Council of Churches: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etTBIHHYq6M iii For more, Raheb, Mitri & Watts Henerson, Suzanne, The Cross in Contexts: Suffering and Redemption in Palestine. Maryknoll: Orbis, 2017. iv Raheb, Mitri, Faith in the Face of Empire: The Bible through Palestinian Eyes. Maryknoll: Orbis 2014, p. 110-112.

33 | INSiGHT VIEWPOINTS The Landing The poem was performed by Argentine performer and composer Leon Gieco and musician Lito Vitale. It can be viewed at https://youtu.be/NCH7X8uB2DY

There are those who resist and never complain Waiting for a new skin of this sun (Están los que resisten y nunca se lamentan) (Esperando una piel nueva de este sol) Those who say: "What do I live for" We do not pretend to see the change (Los que dicen: "yo para qué vivo") (No pretendemos ver el cambio) Those who recover fast their strength Only having left something (Los que recuperan rápido sus fuerzas) (Sólo haber dejado algo) Those who profit from what I have lost. On the road traveled that happened. (Los que lucran con lo que he perdido.) (Sobre el camino andado que pasó.)

There are those who yield and stands It's normal to see kids without shoes (Hay quien sucumbe y se levanta) (Ya es normal ver chicos sin zapatos) There are those who stay there always lying Looking for food in the trash (Hay quien queda allí siempre tendido) (Buscando comida en la basura) There are those who help you take off and those who never And it's a postcard the door of the church (Hay quien te ayuda a despegar y los que nunca) (Y es una postal la puerta de la iglesia) Recognize you when you are defeated. From that mother with her child. (Te reconocen cuando estás vencido.) (De esa madre con su criatura.)

How many there are who think it's late for everything While this happens there will be no glory (Cuántos hay que piensan que es tarde para todo) (Mientras esto pase no habrá gloria) And how many cry "always ahead!" It's sand that escapes between your fingers (Y cuántos claman "¡siempre adelante!") (Es arena que se escapa entre los dedos) How many who see the stone on the road It's pain, it's lies, it's hypocrisy (Cuántos los que ven la piedra en el camino) (Es dolor, es mentiras, es hipocresía) And how many who never look at anything. It's a fragile time these days. (Y cuántos los que nunca miran nada.) (Es un tiempo frágil de estos días.)

Joy with strength feeds Ignorance can sometimes with a people (La alegría con la fuerza se alimenta) (La ignorancia a veces puede con un pueblo) And there are no walls or bars that slow it down And tyrants and executioners win (Y no hay muros ni rejas que la frenen) (Y ganan tiranos y verdugos) There are those who land burning with a shout We believe that the story was made in a minute (Hay quienes desembarcan ardiendo con un grito) (Creemos que la historia se hizo en un minuto) Without boats and without weapons for life. And everything lived, a bad dream. (Sin barcos y sin armas por la vida.) (Y todo lo vivido, un mal sueño.)

Is there someone who blesses this beautiful communion Sometimes we are our enemies (Hay alguien que bendiga esta hermosa comunión) (A veces somos nuestros enemigos) Of those that we thought seemed? We polluted the routes and the rivers (De los que pensamos parecido) (Ensuciamos las rutas y los ríos) We are the least, we never were the first We kill in the war and in the streets today we have (Somos los menos, nunca fuimos los primeros) (Matamos en la guerra y en las calles hoy tenemos) We do not kill or die to win Old monuments of murderers. (No matamos ni morimos por ganar) (Viejos monumentos de asesinos.) Rather we are alive to walk (Mas bien estamos vivos por andar) There are those who land burning with a shout (Hay quienes desembarcan ardiendo con un grito) Without boats and without weapons for life ... (Sin barcos y sin armas por la vida...)

June 2019 | 34 VIEWPOINTS IN CONVERSATION WITH... Rev Nikotemo Sopepa We welcomed Rev Nikotemo Sopepa to our CWM family earlier this year as our new Mission Secretary for Pacific Region. Rev Niko is no stranger, as he is an ordained Minister of Ekalesia Kelisiano Tuvalu (EKT), our member church. He takes time to share with INSiGHT how he sees his job as an opportunity to serve in the mission field and bridging the gap between theology discussed from the pulpit and mission on the ground. He tells us about matters close to his heart – ranging from climate change; economic justice; preservation of indigenous culture and how culture can be a double-edged sword. He’s a man on a mission, and thinks that education can be a game-changer for churches in the Pacific.

CWM in its mission is the embodiment of what many pulpits echoes every Sunday morning. It is the making flesh of the spoken word we so often preach. And in joining CWM I found out that the gap between theological discourse and mission on the ground can be quite vast. Engaging in mission with the people in their local context can sometimes offset our theological theories in seminaries and pulpits. I am not saying that theological theory is insignificant to practical mission on the ground. What I am saying is that the real issues are found not in our theologies, but in the lives lived by the people, and all of creation. Speaking of ethos, there is no better philosophy than one that bring and vouch for life – life in fullness through Christ Jesus.

How has your journey with the CWM family Do share with us some of the pressing issues been so far? Any meaningful experiences or (in the Pacific or in the world) that keep you take-aways that you have received since awake at night, and drives you to be the voice coming on board? of activism and change.

My experience since joining CWM in late March 2019 Right now I guess the most pressing issue for Pacific has been wonderful. Working with people whose and world is climate change. The displacement of passion evolves around Christian mission is a great millions of people in a few decades from now is going opportunity for spiritual growth and nourishment. In to be catastrophic. This is because it is not about the this short time that I have been with CWM I can say movement of people only, it is also about the loss of that I have learnt a lot. But if there is something that identities, the disappearance of cultures and stands out of all these great experiences, it is the languages, and the extinction of several indigenous simplicity of life found in the direness of mission communities. situation in the Solomon Islands. What I mean is the people of the Solomon Islands, specifically in the Western Province where the United Church of Solomon Islands is situated, have burning missional issues, but the answer to all of these lies in the simplicity of the life they live. The complexity in life is created by the presence and rise of a neo-liberal capitalistic wave in the Solomon Islands, but the people refuses to let go of the traditional island lifestyle their forefathers lived before the European-contact era. That simplicity, is indigenous, and in it I see the answer to their problems.

What made you want to join CWM? Was there a particular quality or ethos of this organisation that made you want to serve here?

The opportunity to serve in the mission field, as in contrast to being confined to the pulpit is what made me join CWM. Rev Niko visited and preached at a local parish in Congregational Christian Church of Samoa, our member church in the Pacific region during the recent Annual Members Meeting in June.

35 | INSiGHT VIEWPOINTS

In relation to the above question, what would be a positive game changer for churches in the Pacific? And how do you see CWM’s role (or your role) in helping to facilitate this process?

Education is the key. Education is a knock on the door, the door may not open any time soon, but that does not mean the knocking has to be dictated by the locks that keeps the hinges fasten. The hinges and locks can only remain in their position if they are not being shaken or tampered with. Keep knocking by educating the minds of the populace, and one day the lock doors will give way for life to enter.

Developing more awareness programmes and educational workshops on issues such as equality for all humans will break these tenacious cultural stances. Added to this, there is a need for the Pacific church to reread scripture, rereading it in a way that is liberating and life affirming. Only then can people see that the gospel is non-discriminatory – it is for all of creation. Rev Niko with his family - his wife Elmihner John, daughter Tapuloto and son Epafeloti.

What do you think our Lord is saying to The claim of lost possessions is going to be an issue, Churches in the Pacific? Is there a particular and I don’t think any form of compensation can message or call to action? replace what is going to be lost. Again the climate change problem is a product of neo-liberal capitalism, Yes! Many people around the world think we are small free trade and the unending drive for profit and more because of our land sizes. We are made of water more profits (monetary profit). than land. But the size of our ocean is what define us. Our lands may be insignificant in size compared to the We often talk about partnering Member world continents, but our ocean is the largest. What I Churches to help them find their missional mean by this is that we are not small, we do not see journeys in their own context, or to address ourselves in terms of our population or land mass, but the issue of empire. Share with us some the in terms of our ocean. What God is saying to us challenges (or issues) that are stumbling through the definition I just gave is that our blocks for Churches in the Pacific today as they responsibility is to look after this vast ocean, or vast seek to address these life denying issues. portion of our planet. And as a church we would not bow down to any countries, corporations or ideals that In light of mission in the Pacific I can say that culture undermine the life God has given our people in this is one of the most stumbling blocks to the part of the world. I guess in our ocean-vastness we advancement of Christian work. Let’s say the issue of also have an important role to play in the keeping of women ordination. Many Pacific churches have the balance of life in the world. The Tuvaluan Prime allowed for women ordination, some only in principle. Minister Hon. Enele Sopoaga coined the phrase, ‘save But the true test of our advancement in this regard is the world by saving Tuvalu.’ Hon. Sopoaga was to see how many women you find in the church referring to saving Tuvalu from the devastation of leadership. What is stopping this advancement is not climate change, but I can rephrase his phrase by theological, it is cultural. The close association of saying that if we, the people of the Pacific fail our culture and church has been a blessing for the Pacific responsibility to look after this part of the world, the churches at the same time an obstacle to liberating of rest of planet earth will be in chaos. Globally, we are everyone. We often speak of the gospel transcending one planet, one people created by God, one creation, cultures, but this I can say only to some extent, there depending on each other for life, and depending on are issues where culture transcends the gospel, and God for the strength to do so, and insight to do so the women issue is one of these issues. abundantly.

June 2019 | 36 TAKE A LOOK BOOK REVIEW

Deenabandhu Manchala in his chapter, Rescuing Christian Faith Traditions from Empire affirms the very presence of the web of the empire, in our very life - deceiving us and trapping us into its vicious circle. He critically engages with the current alternatives such as the present form of democracy and the concept of development. To tackle the issues, he proposes certain theological alternatives aiming at questioning the concept of power. He concludes “The transformation of our societies and the world cannot take place as per the plans and schemes of the powerful and the privileged, but as per the visions and aspirations of those who are yearning for life with dignity and freedom.” Jooseop Keum reiterates the need to rediscover the faith at the margins. In his chapter Transforming Discipleship: Faith, Love, and Hope after Empire he calls for a transforming discipleship with power of love to defeat the politics of fear and hope as the agents for change. Eleni Kasselouri-Hatzivassiliadi identifies the relevance of Orthodox Theology in challenging the empire and emphasises on ministering to the needy people to establish justice. M. P. Joseph brings light to the current trends of cultural nationalism where the religious symbols are appropriated to form a political religion for political governance. He argues that the function of theology is to subvert the religio-political narratives which legitimise the imperial political order.

Joerg Rieger in his chapter Empire, Deep Solidarity, and the Future of Resistance cautions any attempt to limit the work of the empire to certain dimensions, and he realises that empire is a massive concentration of power which permeates all aspects of life. Any attempt to counteract the works of the empire needs deep Jione Havea, ed., Religion and Power, solidarity among different approaches as empire affects everything viz, politics, Theology in the Age of Empire Series, economics, culture, intellectual life, emotional sensitivities, personal relationships, New York: Lexington Books/ Fortress and images of the sacred. Book of Revelation gives good glimpses of effective Academic, 2019, xii, 210. resistance against the actions of the empire. Michael Jagessar gives a novel reading ISBN 9781978703544 of the Book of Revelation in this regard and he emphasises the ‘un-end’ aspect of the Book of Revelation. Imbibing from the experiences of the Chicano movements, the ethnic Mexican activists in the United States, Jacqueline M. Hidalgo views how the institutionalisation of religion becomes a fertile land for empire and she prefers ‘spiritual’ to ‘religious’ to explain her views. By shifting to the terrain of ‘spirituality’ one can pay more attention to what people, rather than institutions, do with religion. Religion and Power is a collection of essays, first in the series titled Theology Y. T. Vinayaraj in his chapter Religion as the Ethico-Political Practice of Justice in the Age of Empire, Jione Havea being challenges the ‘imperio-colonial’ baggage of religion and tries to redefine religion the editor of the series. This edited work through the lens of Ambedkar. Deeply influenced by the philosophical includes twelve essays with a presuppositions of Buddhism, Ambedkar understood religion – a political determination to radically engage with community that gives a collective identity to the marginalised people of India. the powerful and life negating clutches of Reiterating the same, Vinayaraj perceives religion as Dhamma- the ethico-political the empire in diverse dimensions. This practice of justice. Allan Aubrey Boesak rejects any interpretation of the Bible which work probes into the ways and means has an imperialistic connotation. He calls it a scandalous interpretation and opines where empire makes nexus with Religion that the central and enduring message of the Bible is liberation, freedom, justice, and vice versa, the under currents of dignity, peace and inclusivity. He understands Bible as the ‘site of struggle’ between which is quite complex. The motivating two voices, two traditions, two understandings of specific contexts within biblical factor of the contributors, as Jione stories, and two alternative futures for the people of God. Havea observes, is the agony of the ‘involvement of religions especially In eleventh chapter titled (Global) Climate Crisis and (Detroit) Water Struggle: Christianity, in the collaborations with “Re-schooling” Christianity through Indigenous Challenge James W. Perkinson the empire.’ This work presents its points to the imperialistic interpretation of the Bible as the chief reason for the discourse in two parts. The first part environmental crises. As an alternative, he points to the indigenous culture and Dare to Discern, and the second part society where they nurture life and its various systems. Mark G Brett also continues Dare to Disturb direct the readers to to emphasise the importance of the Indigenous people and he argues that a serious discern and disturb the dynamics of the engagement with Indigenous peoples is effective in reframing the Christian empire and its allies. Discerning and identities and in forming a radical response to global capitalism in a time of climate disturbing approaches are mutual in change. He opines “A Christian praxis will need to be active first in local contexts, action, intersecting and inter-feeding countering nationalist aspirations, and in second in transnational contexts, each other, so that one needs the other countering globalisation with a different kind of international relationality.” The for sustenance and redirection. work Religion and Power encourages the readers to enter into the arenas of new epistemologies based on an understanding of God’s love for the world and its life forms. This text offers as Anthony G Reddie rightly observes, “important insights in our understanding of the dynamic between religion and power that cross disciplines, cultural contexts and epochs” and hence it is a must read.

Email Rev. Aby M. Thomas Tharakan [email protected] D Th Research Scholar in Religion for more details. FFRRC, Kottayam

June 2019 | 38 TAKE A LOOK

“In a collection of engaging and met jointly with the Taiwan Ecumenical provocative essays, authors from diverse Forum (TEF) Steering Committee on 19 locations from the Global South explore June.They also visited the Chilin the different ways of rereading and Foundation and Museum of Taiwan’s resisting the biblical text written under Democratic Development. Take a look at the umbrella of empire.” - (Gale A. Yee, the live-streaming videos and photos Nancy W. King Professor of Biblical taken on CWM’s official Facebook page: Studies Emerita, Episcopal Divinity https://www.facebook.com/cwmiss School) ion

“Scripture and Resistance continues the paradigm shift in the self-understanding of Biblical Studies by bringing to bear the theoretical perspectives of the margins on the hegemonic center. An international group of scholars explores the Bible as a site of struggle in these Neo-liberal times. I highly recommend this excellent work!” - (Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, Krister Stendahl Professor, Harvard Divinity School) In consultation with liturgist Dr Claudio For more information, email Carvalhaes, CWM embarked on the new Scripture and Resistance contains [email protected] “Re-Imagining Worship” project in reflections by authors from East, West, 2018, with four workshops geared South, and North — on resistance and the towards creating alternative liturgical Christian scriptures regarding a rainbow resources with contextual relevance to of concerns: the colonial legacies of the member churches and the wider Bible; the people (especially native and ecumenical community. The workshops indigenous people) who were subjugated framed worship as an act that works and minoritised for the sake of the Bible; against empire, and aimed to develop a the courage for resistance among network of liturgists from the margins ordinary and normal people, and the while building the capacity of local opportunities that arise from their congregations to respond to God’s realities and struggles; the imperialising invitation to become life-affirming tendencies that lurk behind so-called communities. It is also intended to help traditional biblical scholarship; the Held from 20-21 June in Taiwan, them develop their own worship strategies of and energies in post- and CWM’s DARE Global Forum was a resources and use alternative models of de-colonial criticisms; the Bible as a platform where theological and biblical worship. profitable product, and a site of struggle; scholars, activists and interested peoples and the multiple views or perspectives in engaged creatively to critique mainline Delegates reflected and interpreted the Bible about empire and resistance. scholarships, confidently rooted their views upon on the ground struggles and liturgically other local or global issues including immigration, inter-religious Here are what reviewers have to say: concerns and shared their radical engagements with global readership. dialogue, climate change and ecology, military occupation and sex trafficking. “Scripture and Resistance—the second Plans are underway to produce a resource title from Lexington Books’ Theology in book, and an open website where the the Age of Empire series—brings together general public can access and add yet another collection of radical relevant materials, such as blog posts and engagements with, and resistance to, videologs of interviews with locals and empire from internationally acclaimed worship with local communities. Keep an authors. Jione Havea, in this volume, has eye on the developing website here: again masterfully woven together several https://liturgyafterempire.stanford strands of global voices that seek not only creative.com to reread scripture as a site of struggle, but also to resist any scriptural traces of, and textual alliance with, empire. The works in this volume are both challenging and prophetic, and it is highly recommended for resistant and discerning readers in academic, ecclesial, and public settings alike.” Participants better grasped the struggles - (Nāsili Vaka‘uta, Trinity Methodist of Taiwanese people, and how PCT is Theological College) engaged in prophetic vocation when they

39 | INSiGHT SEEN & HEARD SEENYOUR & HEARD SAY

“AK”, the artist and author of this artwork and poem, is a young woman born in the Philippines to parents who are justice and peace advocates. She grew up in Sunday school, and for thirty years, took what she was taught about gender roles as gospel truth. These gender stereotypes dictated by society was reinforced by the same teachings found in her school’s curriculum.

41 | INSiGHT YOURSEEN & SAY HEARD

June 2019 | 42 SEENYOUR & HEARD SAY

43 | INSiGHT Your Say DO YOU HAVE BURNING ISSUES TO GET OFF YOUR CHEST? Looking for an outlet to contribute your reflections on social, socio-political and economic issues which plague our world today? Is your passion taking the stand against the current structures of society, and empire?

If you want to be heard, we invite you to be part of this publication by sending your material(s) to [email protected]

You may also write to: C/O INSiGHT Council for World Mission Ltd 114 Lavender Street, #12-01 CT Hub 2, Singapore 338729

*We reserve the right to edit articles for space and clarity YOUR SAY

BEHIND THE SCENES: RESISTANCE RITES AND INDIGENOUS PEOPLES’ VOICES By Dr Ferdinand Anno, Centre for the Arts, Liturgy and Music, Union Theological Seminary-Philippines

The resources and guides for the liturgical celebration of indigenous peoples’ struggles in the Philippines were drawn mainly from the narratives of resistance among the Y-gollotes (Igorots) of the Cordillera region in Northern Philippines. The Cordillera region is peopled by at least nine major ethnolinguistic groups that include the Y-Kalinga (Kalinga), the Isneg, the Kankanaey, the Y-Fontoc (Bontoc), Y-Tineg (Itneg), Ibaloi, Ifugao, Bugkalot and Bago. Named collectively as the Igorots, the people of the Cordillera mountain region were known for their storied centuries-old resistance against foreign aggression. The Igorots never submitted to the Spanish and American colonial rule until the consummation of their gradual political integration to the American colonial government.

Christianisation played a crucial role in this process of colonialisation. With the integration of the Igorot came the exploitation of their ancestral lands. Dam projects, mining, and logging activities soon started to harm their mountains, rivers, and streams and displace Igorot communities from their lands. These helped fan the embers of resistance among the Igorots. The resistance to development aggression was heightened during the time of the Marcos dictatorship. The Chico Dam Project in Bontoc and Kalinga, the Cellophil Corporation’s logging spree in Abra, and the open pit mining activities in Benguet and Mt. Province among others became the issues that rouse the people of the Cordilleras from their slumber. The rest was history. The struggle surges on.

The foregoing was the context of religio-cultural renaissance among the Igorots. Their rites of prayers, and dancing and singing became their most potent weapons once more. Resistance liturgies in the Philippines and in Asia need to give these indigenous “leitourgia” of struggle a second look and try to see in their (indigenous peoples’) dancing the passion of the subversive Christ, and in their songs and chanting the laments and celebrations of the warrior Spirit, and in their ritual performances the movement of a liberator God.

All our materials or resources are original, and the lines drawn from the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples were either paraphrased or re-phrased to read and sound more liturgical.

FebruaryJune 2019 || 4644 YOUR SAY

FROM A VALLEY OF DRY BONES INTO A PLAYGROUND By Julian Ebenezer, Ferdinand Anno & Carleen Nomorosa

God of Life, we are living in a valley of dry bones We have lost our identity …we have lost our humanity We are unable to feel, we are so numb We are unable to reach out to the poor, to those we have segregated as religious and social outcast We have forgotten our being adamah: the tiller… the steward. The whole of creation groans in travail God of Life, we are living in a valley of dry bones We have lost our identity … we have lost our humanity Wars, killings, acts of terror and insurgencies surround us Deaths happen in every corner People are dying before their time every tick of the clock Children and women are being trafficked everyday in the millions Our communities are disintegrating and descending into chaos and lifelessness. God of Life, we are living in a valley of dry bones We have lost our identity, we have lost our humanity Descend upon us, once again May your Spirit, restore to wholeness our humanity May we image You, once again Enable us to touch our neighbors and build solidarities Enable us to build peace and institute justice in our relationships Enable us to break the barriers that are destroying our communities Enable us to bridge the gaps that separate us from each other Transform this valley of dry bones Into a playground of the children of God. Amen.

A Prayer For the roads that we have blocked For the bridges that we didn’t build For the empty table that we didn’t fill Forgive us.

I Shall Not I shall not mourn for deaths framed as self-defence Nor shall I mourn for children starved to death I won’t mourn for lands consumed by the selfish Or even lives denied by slave-shops Never! I will not give the rich the satisfaction of my vulnerability Instead, I mourn for the loss of their humanity And I mourn for the Nazarene Who worked so hard to redeem it So if ever my tears drop They send atomic ripples beneath ivory towers

This piece was produced during the CWM Re-imagining Worship Workshop in Manila, Philippines in 2018.

47 | INSiGHT YOUR SAY WHAT IS HAVING A VOICE IF NOT TO ADVOCATE FOR OTHERS AND YOURSELF By Abigail Scarlett from Jamaica

Esther 4:1-17 ESV

Esther Agrees to Help the Jews

4 When Mordecai learned all that had been done, Mordecai tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and ashes, and went out into the midst of the city, and he cried out with a loud and bitter cry. 2 He went up to the entrance of the king's gate, for no one was allowed to enter the king's gate clothed in sackcloth. 3 And in every province, wherever the king's command and his decree reached, there was great mourning among the Jews, with fasting and weeping and lamenting, and many of them lay in sackcloth and ashes.

4 When Esther's young women and her eunuchs came and told her, the queen was deeply distressed. She sent garments to clothe Mordecai, so that he might take off his sackcloth, but he would not accept them. 5 Then Esther called for Hathach, one of the king's eunuchs, who had been appointed to attend her, and ordered him to go to Mordecai to learn what this was and why it was. 6 Hathach went out to Mordecai in the open square of the city in front of the king's gate, 7 and Mordecai told him all that had happened to him, and the exact sum of money that Haman had promised to pay into the king's treasuries for the destruction of the Jews. 8 Mordecai also gave him a copy of the written decree issued in Susa for their destruction,[a] that he might show it to Esther and explain it to her and command her to go to the king to beg his favor and plead with him[b] on behalf of her people. 9 And Hathach went and told Esther what Mordecai had said. 10 Then Esther spoke to Hathach and commanded him to go to Mordecai and say, 11 “All the king's servants and the people of the king's provinces know that if any man or woman goes to the king inside the inner court without being called, there is but one law—to be put to death, except the one to whom the king holds out the golden scepter so that he may live. But as for me, I have not been called to come in to the king these thirty days.”

12 And they told Mordecai what Esther had said. 13 Then Mordecai told them to reply to Esther, “Do not think to yourself that in the king's palace you will escape any more than all the other Jews. 14 For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father's house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” 15 Then Esther told them to reply to Mordecai, 16 “Go, gather all the Jews to be found in Susa, and hold a fast on my behalf, and do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my young women will also fast as you do. Then I will go to the king, though it is against the law, and if I perish, I perish.”[c] 17 Mordecai then went away and did everything as Esther had ordered him.

June 2019 | 48 YOUR SAY

Are you a leader? A young activist? A person with a platform? Or in any position at all to help others? The answer should be Yes! With or without a high position we all have a voice and what is having a voice if not to advocate for others or speak up for yourself. Know that even in a high position, or in a seemingly safe community, or with wealth, you're not exempted from misfortunes that the rest of the world faces. Use your advantage for good because "who knows whether you have not come into this world for such a time as this?", to share with others and make great change. Esther risked her life for her people, she dared to stand up and say what she believed in. Even though keeping quiet would not directly affect her, she could see how it could affect others. At first she thought that Mordecai needed just a change of clothes but what he really needed was her effort; for her to speak on behalf of him and her people. Don't stay quiet. Whether you're in a position of authority or not, speak up for change towards justice. Sometimes it is easier to only offer money but you also have a voice, so speak. You may have time, so lend it. It may also be easier to overlook the struggles that others face. Sometimes, because of us focusing on our own situations, it can be easy to forget that other people have their own ordeals or may even have worse situations than ours. However, advocacy gives you the desire to want to care for others and their needs. The experience and exposure also keeps us grounded.

Like Esther we should lend our platforms to speak on behalf of others. In many cases you can see justice coming forth because of advocacy and awareness. More persons know of the situation or case you advocate for and it stirs people to want to be aware themselves and wanting others around them to be aware. This chain reaction meets the goal: POSITIVE CHANGE! We can see this in cases of the #MeToo movement, where there have been years of voices speaking out against their victimisers without having gotten redressed. However the more persons are aware, the more the matter becomes addressed and it has allowed for a revolution. We all have to be in this together, to make a difference. Let us be like Esther and choose to speak up.

Why should we speak?

I get asked a number of times why I want to be an advocate for women. It is questioned especially in the area of sexual harassment and violence even though I have not gone through it. It's a valid question. But then I think it's like asking why do I empathise? I empathise because we're all in this together. Women threatened by all that we are threatened by. What I want for us is to not be naive. Never say, "that could never be me!". Don't be naive to think that because of your status, that you are exempted from assault or injustices. No woman is exempted. It matters not our station in life; it matters not our age, race, or socioeconomic background. We should all be aware and stand together as sisters.

There has always been a desire for me to want girls and women to strive. There's just a pain in my heart that irks me when women are abused or taken for granted; Knowing that we have so much power in us, so much talent and so much to give. Women have so much to contribute to this world. However, it's being threatened by fear, violence and harassment which is just a few of the injustices the world faces already. I won't pretend that I know the pain that victims of major injustices have gone through. However, my desire is for victims to be rehabilitated and empowered and for those who have never had the misfortune to never experience it. It is a continued struggle for all of us to be educated, empowered and equipped with tools to be great and to make a difference. So let us fight for ourselves and others to make the world as we know it can be, Female-Friendly.

49 | INSiGHT YOUR SAY TESTIMONIES ABOUT GOD’S GRACE DURING CWM MISSIONARY RETREATS By Dr. Razafindramary Parfaite Rakotondramasy

Jesus says: ”You did not choose Me, I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit, the kind of fruit that endures. And so the Father will give you whatever you ask of Him in my name.” (John 15.16)

My husband I and were serving as missionaries (later on changed into Partner-in-Mission) with the Kiribati Protestant Church (KPC, later known as Kiribati Uniting Church, KUC) in the field of the Council for World Mission (CWM) after serving in the United Church in Solomon Islands.

Wherever we go, we experience Christian fellowship even in places we do not expect it.

Once, we left Kiritimati Island on board the only weekly flight serving the island to attend a CWM-Pacific Region missionary gathering in Nadi, Fiji. We arrived earlier than the other partners in mission (PIM) of the region, and we could go to the closest Christian Church to our hotel on the following Sunday and we could enjoy the warm welcome of the believers of a Methodist parish.

The PIM gathering went well from the beginning to the end, under the leadership of the then CWM-PIM coordinator, with the help of the then CWM-Pacific Regional Secretary, the Bible studies run later from which we gained spiritual strength. Rev Dr Collin Cowan, the CWM General Secretary came and talked about the place of PIM in the CWM unfolding mission during one session of the retreat.

Spiritually, I can say I have gained so much from the missionary retreat through the Bible studies, from sharing with the other PIM, from praying for one Dr. Parfaite and her husband after attending a service in a Methodist parish-Nadi another, and here I would like to share some messages I received:

God, the provider: we could remember during the gathering that where we served, we went through different trials and God had always solutions in store. We came to the realisation that we did not have everything we needed in the places where we worked for Christ but He always provided us a way out. That was why we could find happiness in the midst of struggles because we are in God’s mission. For instance, during our stay in Kiribati, the island is almost desertic, so the only plants they could grow are coconuts, breadfruits, papayas, and pumpkins. Some kind-hearted people gave us fish, breadfruits; so we could happily live there during our stay. The rest of our needs were imported.

The power of prayer: I shared during the retreat the fact that I am a dentist and I happened to handle patients with different diseases almost every day, but through prayer and faith in God, I did the work with confidence and believed that God protected me and guided me and I had a renewed assurance that God listened to my prayers, and provided me everything I needed. I still experience God’s presence and assistance nowadays in our daily life.

June 2019 | 50 YOUR SAY

Dr. Parfaite with her patients in front of the trailer which was changed into a dental clinic on Kiritimati Island

Through the sharing during the missionary retreat, I could hear that other missionaries too faced problems in other areas of life such as housing. For example, the missionaries working in American Samoa were allocated houses during their working days, but when they went home on holidays, those houses were used for receiving church guests and the missionary’s belongings were displaced without their assent; they suffered from that situation. They asked for a solution from the receiving church. They prayed all along and at last they could have houses of their own where they could leave their things securely during their absence.

Here is another example of God responding to prayer, a real story shared during the retreat: a CWM young lady missionary was harassed for some time by some ill-intentioned person who knocks at her door every night to which she did not respond but prayed each time with her friends. At last the harassment stopped and she could continue her mission peacefully.

This one is on my heart about my own case, and I experienced it during a previous retreat. I shared a problem I had on Kiritimati in my prayer group and a missionary minister was with us. In the hospital I worked, there was no proper Dental Clinic but I was allocated a small room, not enough for a proper and serious dentistry work. I brought the problem to the doctor in charge of the hospital before I left for a missionary retreat but I did not get a clear response. And I brought the problem in my prayer group where the minister was during the retreat. Later on, at my return to Kiritimati, a big trailer was given as a Dental Clinic with two rooms. What a miracle! How great is our God, He listens to and answers prayer.

On Kiritimati, we did not have too often the occasion to hear spiritual food in languages we understand, we prayed in Malagasy at home though, but during retreats I could get encouragement from a language I understand and I could interact with people speaking one common language with one concern in preaching the Good News though all came from different nationalities.

To conclude this sharing, I would say God chooses people to share his love to all people on earth, and he takes charge of those He has called to work for his kingdom.

And from missionary retreats, we went home refreshed, relaxed, strengthened and confident to continue carrying out the mission God has assigned us.

God is faithful, and He keeps his promise, He is listening to and answers our prayers, so do not give up praying. Do not give up going for mission. He is working miracles.

When we returned to our working place we felt so privileged in serving the Lord in the field of CWM, and how privileged the people who received us.

God is always with us. Glory be to his Holy name.

51 | INSiGHT YOUR SAY ARE YOU HEARING ME? By Axel Lim, Taiwan

Are you hearing me Church?

You want to know why I left – why your numbers are falling and why your pews are getting fighting empty. You ask me why all your efforts seem to come to naught, why all the your aggressive ‘call to actions’ in the form of bulletins, video announcements and social media posts have fallen on deaf uninterested ears?

Why? You ask.

You say you think you might have an idea why it’s happening. But I don’t think you do.

You think it’s because our culture and generation is so lost, so perverse and so beyond help that they are all walking away. You believe that they’ve turned a deaf ear to the voice of God; chasing money, fame, social status and material things. You think that the LGBTQ community, drug addicts, gamblers and ‘sinners’ of the world have influenced the morality of the world to such an extent that people have walked away from the faith. But those aren’t the reasons people are leaving the church. They aren’t the problem, Church.

You are the problem. Yes, you.

To start, your Sunday services have drawn me further away from God, rather than bring me nearer to Him. For those who turn up every Sunday to seek and have an intimate encounter with God, the stage, flashy lights, band and video screens have morphed into white noise that disrupts and distracts. I know that this packaging attracts the younger generation, but please remember that there are some (or many) of us who are wrestling with the painful and difficult trenches in life, and are not looking to be entertained or uplifted by temporary artificial thrills. Yes, worship is critical to giving our Lord the glory and honour, and is an important lead-up to prepare us for our personal encounter with God. But Church, you seem have lost the heart of worship – where you get so caught up with the glossy high-tech perfect production values, and have become more concerned with putting on a flawless good show.

But Church, until you can give us something more than a Christian-themed ‘performance piece’ – an experience that would touch our hearts and minds in a meaningful way, and stay with us long after the service is over, many of us are going to stay away.

You speak in (foreign) tongues.

Because you want to impress, and because you want to dazzle instead of reach, the words these days from the pulpit are just…words. Words that are dusty and dead – rhetorical soundbites that have no resonance in our ears. You somehow seem to forget that all the religious buzzwords that worked 20 years ago, no longer do. You shy away from topics and real issues: homosexuality, justice, sexual, social and economic discrimination – preferring to skirt around them instead of boldly stepping forward to offer a firm guiding hand to your congregation.

June 2019 | 52 YOUR SAY

We, your faithful congregation, are not coming to you every weekend for a ‘quick-fix’ pill that would make us feel good for two hours or the rest the day. We are seeking comfort, spiritual direction and guidance from a world that is rapidly changing, and we need you, dear Church, to speak in a language we can understand and is relevant to our times. We’re not looking to be paid lip service or Instagram worthy quotes. We need to hear a language that speaks to our hearts – a language that reflects the sign of the times and our struggle to find ourselves in this turbulent landscape. Let’s face it: telling a frustrated person that it’s wrong to be frustrated is, well, frustrating.

Safe Behind These Walls.

Church, your flashy video announcements, your wonderfully decorated visitor’s center, your perfectly produced bulletin and your trendy youth centre tells me you are in the pink of financial health. Good for you. But shouldn’t you be spending your precious resources on bringing people to where you are instead of reaching to those who already are? Shouldn’t you be stepping out of your walls and going into the streets. neighbourhoods, schools and communities instead of worrying about what food and beverage to serve at the next gathering? These days, you seem to celebrate on the good (and bad) things that’s happening instead of what’s within your four walls, and are totally oblivious to how God is moving outside and in the world. You direct God’s message of love and salvation to those already sitting comfortably within your walls instead of reaching the unreached and those at the margins. Your greatest harvest and mission field is right outside your doorstep, and you don’t even realise it. If you want to reach the people who are walking or have walked away from you, leave the building.

And since you don’t leave your building, it seems that…

Your brand of love seems selective.

At first look, it may seem like a ‘come as you are’ party, where everyone is welcomed at the door and at the table. But somehow these days, it seems that your door is getting narrower and the table is getting smaller. Jesus hung out with tax collectors, prostitutes and outcasts. His love was for the sinner and the saint, the reckless and unreconciled. It doesn’t feel the same with you Church.

Can you love me if I don’t fall into line with your theology and vision? Will you still allow me to sit in your pews if I define love, marriage and family, different? Will I still be welcomed if I smoke, drink or have tattoos? In fact, your ‘selective love’ has made me feel shunned, judged and ridiculed – where my ‘biblical ignorance’ and ‘love with my sin’ is the cause of my sordid state and me straying from the Church.

Maybe I’m the problem. But this is me – someone who is “…fearfully and wonderfully made”. And it’s here - in my messed up, turbulent, confused, jaded and disillusioned world that I need you to meet and get real with me. I need you to be in the dirt with me; to help me drag myself out of the sinking muck instead of ignoring me, or worse - standing by nonchalantly saying, ‘it’s just a small puddle of water’.

Dear Church, stop preaching, judging and sin-diagnosing us so you can hear our hurts and see our broken lives. Even if we sinners are the problem, we are tired of feeling like nothing more than a religious agenda; a year-end statistic, a point to make or a soul to save. You need to see and acknowledge that amidst the filth and sin, we are starving for compassion and authenticity from you Church. Even if some of us are indeed the adulterous woman, doubting follower, rebellious lesbian teenager or promiscuous gay man, we can’t be anything else right now at this moment. And we need a Church big enough; loving enough to show us your love and your God is real.

53 | INSiGHT YOUR SAY

“MISGUIDED SENTIMENTALITY?” A PERSONAL REFLECTION ON NOTRE-DAME DE PARIS FIRE By Hadje C. Sadje, Belgium

During and after the Notre-Dame De Paris fire, social media was flooded with strong emotions. Inevitably, it attracted public attention from across the world. The public mourned, stunned, and become sentimental as the medieval iconic cathedral fire unfolded. In many ways, it has become incredibly trending news within a short period of time. And then, both religious and non-religious were unified in both grief and mourn---sentimentality. Diverse sentiment expressions on social media goes viral very quickly. For instance, some Facebook users applied an overlay of the French flag on their profile pictures in solidarity, while previous tourists uploaded their pictures or photos (before, during, after the fire incident) that showed themselves standing next to the iconic landmark of the Notre-Dame De Paris, as well as the prayers and good wishes. The most impressive responses to the tragedy, however, French billionaires pledged 680 million (euro) to rebuild Notre-Dame De Paris, including François-Henri Pinault, the Arnault family, and the Bettencourt Meyers family (Forbes 2019). According to David Chazan (Telegram News 2019): “Two of France’s richest families pledged a total of €300 million on Tuesday to help rebuild Notre-Dame cathedral, ravaged by a catastrophic fire that destroyed its spire and most of the roof.” Besides, online donation and fundraising event flows after the sad news. Chazan writes (2019): “Members of the public were also donating money in response to appeals by France’s heritage foundation, the Fondation du Patrimoine and President Emmanuel Macron. Online donations were climbing rapidly on Tuesday. An AFP tally of donations announced so far reached €600 million by the afternoon.”

Since the large amounts of money donated to rebuild it, however, France’s billionaires have copped a lot of backlash from prominent figures and social media (Forbes 2019). For example, a British media personality, Janet Street-Porter, publicly expressed (2019): “...the donations would be better spent on social problems.” Like Street-Porter, Mike Stuchbery, a writer and historian, argues (Huffington Post 2019): “It’s important for some to remember that such a wonderful edifice was built to celebrate a faith that emphasises giving aid and comfort to the poor, regardless of who they are.” Nonetheless, some people viewed these statements as something absurd and spouting nonsense at a greater rate. For them, the destruction of the historic Notre-Dame De Paris is equally indicative of the destruction of our shared human culture or historical heritage (DW 2019).

June 2019 | 54 YOUR SAY

But this raises the question: Why do some tragic events, like the burning of Notre-Dame De Paris, receive more worthy of global attention than others? It also raises a question: why do we feel more sentimental about some tragedies and disasters than others? Of course, answering these questions is not always an easy task. However, some questions are not intended to be answered rather, designed to be thought-provoking or may take some serious contemplation. Today, there has been a lot of brutal and horrible events without much scrutiny. For example, the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip (OCHA 2019), the so-called, “the forgotten war of Yemen” that killed nearly 5,000 civilians and children are starving (UNICEF 2019), the ongoing genocidal crisis of Rohingya minority in Myanmar (Dussich 2018; Human Rights Watch 2019), and Sudan political crisis (Aljazeera 2019) suffered from disproportionate public attention. Simply put, compared to Notre-Dame De Paris fire, humanitarian crisis, refugee crisis, high poverty rates, and disasters in other countries are not getting lots of global media attention as well as sentimentality.

Although, sentimentality is a loaded word and often used interchangeably with emotion. To most reasonable people, sentimentality is one of the basic human needs. But, for the past century, many philosophers have discussed (and problematised) the concept of sentimentality and its relation to modern morality. For instance, in his book entitled, Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals (1751), David Hume, a Scottish English philosopher, concluded that “morality is determined by sentiment” rather than from reason. Like Hume, however, a German prominent thinker, in his two books Beyond Good and Evil (1886) and Human, All Too Human (1878), Friedrich Nietzsche has come to view sentimentality (emotion) as opposed to cognitive (reason).

On the other hand, Oscar Wilde considered sentimentality as the bank holiday of cynicism or pessimism. Wilde writes, “...As soon as you have to pay for an emotion you will know its quality, and be the better for such knowledge. And remember that the sentimentalist is always a cynic at heart. Indeed, sentimentality is merely the bank holiday of cynicism” (De Profundis 1905). For Wilde, sentimentality makes you weak and pathetic. In fact, a recent study showed that sentimentality is an excessive emotion at the expense of rational thinking (Howard 1999; Waldman 2014). Nowadays, various scholars have again turned their attention to the psychological-economic-political-social view of “sentimentality.” For them, nothing is wrong with being an emotional individual, especially being sentimental. For example, in his book, In Defense of Sentimentality (2004), Robert Solomon offers a multidisciplinary approach to sentimentality. According to Solomon, sentimentality or emotional sensitivity is an ethical virtue. It proves that we are human beings that have been touched by particular events. Either way, certain events are as good as certain events are bad. Solomon rejected the notion of sentimentality as partiality----inability to see the whole truth and a blindness to the evil of the world (2004).

55 | INSiGHT YOUR SAY

Others argue that the problem is not the duality between the good and the bad. But rather the misguided sentimentality. Coming from the political thought of Slavoj Žižek, he describes (2010), “When we are shown scenes of starving children in Africa, with a call for us to do something to help them, the underlying ideological message is something like: "Don't think, don't politicise, forget about the true causes of their poverty, just act, contribute money, so that you will not have to think! (2010)”. For Žižek, misguided sentimentality is grounded in a superficial understanding of the situation. To put it another way, it is depoliticisation of social reality. But what do we mean by depoliticisation? Accordingly, ‘depoliticisation’ can be seen as a tendency inherent in modernity, accompanying and simultaneously threatening efforts to make social phenomena subject to political-democratic processes, i.e., politicisation (Straume and Humphrey 2010). The public sentiment and discourse about the Notre-Dame De Paris is a concrete example of Žižek’s misguided sentimentality (similar to Habermas’ concept of communicative rationality that threatened by instrumental rationality) that resulted in the depoliticisation of social reality in France society---unaddressed issues of income inequality and corporate greed. For example, the overwhelming public and private response on the Notre-Dame De Paris fire seem to have been bizarrely forgotten the struggles of the Yellow Vest (gilets jaunes) movement by many today. In fact, to critique the selective and misguided sentimentality might seem to be inappropriate. They urged people to act and sacrifice but do not think and politicise. In Žižek’s words, “...Don’t think, don’t politicise, forget about the true causes of their poverty, just act, contribute money...” to rebuild the Notre-Dame De Paris. As French billionaires donated to the rehabilitation of the Notre-Dame De Paris, the Yellow Vest movement demands remain largely unmet (AP 2019). A feminist and coordinator of Center for Global Prophetic, Coy Dionco perfectly described the disproportionate public sentimentality between the Notre-Dame De Paris fire and the Yellow Vest movement in France is worth citing. Dionco writes (2019):

There are actually two fires happening in France. The first is drawing more sympathy for obvious reasons, especially from Catholics. One former student from Vietnam posted photos of her last visit to the cathedral. She is heartbroken. There is actually a second fire. It began in November 2018 and was fueled by social unrest due to increasing inequalities. Macron has already announced rebuilding the cathedral and Selma Hayek’s billionaire husband has pledged millions of Euros. No pledges for rebuilding the economy. I understand the emotional attachment to Notre Dame, even by those who have never been to France, and they can rebuild the cathedral if they want. I don’t have that attachment which does not mean I am against rebuilding it. But I wonder what would be the witness if French Catholics would say that the rebuilding of the Notre Dame must not justify government’s inaction to address increasing inequality where economic growth flows disproportionately to the rich like Selma Hayek’s husband. The Notre Dame Cathedral fire is now under control but the other one is still burning and could be more destructive.

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Although addressing the Yellow Vest movement demands is impossible with the existing global capitalist system (Žižek, Counterpunch 2019), Dionco believes that the movement will succeed sooner or later.

One of the most encouraging phenomena of our time is a sincere world-wide desire for mutual understanding, a genuine thirst for solidarity and cooperation---common good. Yet this urge towards the common good is hijacked and appropriated by individuals and corporations. At this crucial point, some Christian communities falling prey to consumerism, Sylvia and Keesmaat argue (2015) that global Christianity should not be sucked into consumerist ideology. The church must exercise its prophetic role to clear-cut the dominant ideologies that alienate people from their own dignity. In conclusion: this short reflection is not arguing that rehabilitating the Notre-Dame De Paris is a stupid idea and completely absurd. French billionaires’ generosity and public sentiment deserved to be recognised and praised. As Jesus stated, "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's; and to God the things that are God's” (Matthew 22:21). However, in his time, prophet Hosea reminded the nation of God that “...Yahweh desire mercy, not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings (Hosea 6:6).” Nevertheless, this short article seeks to address the disproportionate public sentimentality between the Notre-Dame De Paris fire and the Yellow Vest movement in France, including several brutal and horrible events without much scrutiny across the world. Thus, recognising the harm of misguided sentimentality and the deepest effects of depoliticisation tactic, as Žižek describes, will be cut off from the dominant ideology that misleads people at the real root of all problems---the political-economic (dis)order.

57 | INSiGHT YOUR SAY ASK AND YOU SHALL ‘BELIEVE’ By Retrospective from South East Asia

Matthew 7:7-8 (KJV) 7Ask, and it shall be given you; seek and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: 8For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seekth findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.

Prayer is a sacred gift given to us through the sacrifice of Christ. It is an act that allows us to have a personal relationship with God and the opportunity to connect and divulge to the Almighty on what would have already been known. For God is omnipresent, who hears all and sees all. It is a time where we unburden ourselves from all that is mundane, remove the shields and armour we put on daily and come before God as we are. And since God knows our hearts and minds, what we verbalise in confession should naturally be in sync.

But what should prayer involve? I’ve been informed by multiple people that we can talk to God about absolutely anything under the sun. It could vary from the guilty pleasures of cheating on your diet and to the remorse that comes from it, or complaining about how you had tried to get your hands on the latest gadget by queuing in line for 4 hours and when it is your turn, it’s completely sold out. This leaves me to wonder sometimes if we should bother God with such superficial and insignificant nuggets in our lives? I’ve always assumed that it would be appropriate that we share about our joys and worries, thoughts and concerns, and aspirations and fears. And the act of prayer, should it be done on our knees every night before bedtime? Could we talk to God at anytime as we please, while being stationary, waiting to cross the road to the other side or in the classroom or meeting, or at any moment that’s necessary? And, as we pray, should we be sharing or asking? For God has evidently provided for all our needs, should we be asking for more? Should our faiths be tied to our wants and is it right to emotionally blackmail God and betray the unfailing love that’s given to us?

In the course of my faith, I’ve met countless of people who would pray to God for their wants rather than their needs. “Ask, and it shall be given you”, as stated in the Bible is likely the most misinterpreted of God’s Word. Hence God becomes Santa for all seasons. Probably there have been more requests prayed for, for the latest iPhone than the pleas to forgive us for our sins. I often ask myself if that is right? Are we not suppose to go to God to unburden ourselves emotionally and to seek direction? Is it right to be materialistic in demands with God? Is it right to ask for our wants due to purely selfish reasons?

June 2019 | 58 YOUR SAY

Then there are those who would lament about how the power of prayer does not work because of the fact that what they’ve asked for did not materialise. That alone is rather indicative of the self-centred and narrow mindsets of these individuals and the faith they obviously lack. As Christians, we ought to be aware of God’s greater plan for us and how we should have absolute trust on this path, “28And we know that God works all things together for the good of those who love Him, who are called according to His purpose.” (Romans 8:28), and this path of ours should not be littered with petty requests for material needs of temporal gains, but be in abundant with spiritual ones. Hence, could we be sinning in greed and envy each time we pray for a new designer garment, tech toy or other material riches beyond us right in the face of God? For parents who are driven up the wall with their offspring who keeps harping on the things they want, we ought to be really grateful that God is patience personified, “4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud” (1 Corinthians 13:4).

And your personal prayer should be an intimate and private conversation between God and yourself, not to be broadcasted on social media platforms or messaging applications and shared with people, so that they are indirectly prompted of your wants and struggles. There is absolutely no faith demonstrated in that, it just shows that the good people of God are taken as an instrument for manipulation in feeding the selfish wants of others, good will being taken advantaged of as the wicked are quick to exploit in the name of prayer. I often wonder for those who are apt at committing to such “prayers”, how strong are they really in their faith? Are they not worried of the repercussions of such actions in times of judgement? How could or would one justify that such actions derive from pure heartedness when prayer is used to steer things and situations to one’s benefit by emotionally influencing or blackmailing others? Because such behaviours are never just a one-off thing, it is habitual and a vicious pattern that keeps repeating itself just because the devious formula and strategy works perfectly for them.

Prayer should be entirely faith based and even though God has all the answers, it is not for us to expect instantaneous response, as God’s plan for each of us does have its divine course to take before it reaches fruition at the long ends of those complex trenches in our lives. God doesn’t owe us anything as everything has already been provided and planned out for us. What we need is to trust in God and believe faithfully that things will work out eventually as it always has. What is only expected of us is to lead our lives committed to his Word.

Thus, it is through prayer and the faith applied to it that we will eventually witness and believe the love God has for each of us, while we stay close and connected to the Divine, pure heartedly.

59 | INSiGHT YOUR SAY

AFRICA DAY IS USELESS by Tapiwa Muskwe, London, United Kingdom

In most African countries in Africa, Africa day is a public holiday to commemorate the foundation of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) on 25 May 1963. It is disgusting that this African Union is a totally ineffective organisation that lost its mandate a long time ago. African Union has failed on Zimbabwe and Somalia and its current role is highly questionable.

This organisation should be liquidated as it has failed even to tackle the mass migration of Africans who are perishing in the Mediterranean in search of better life in Europe.

June 2019 | 60 The refugee not only calls us for a “response, but provides the dialogical

space for our own self-understanding

“ and, perhaps, with great humility,“ we may encounter the incarnated Lord in the faces of the bordered people. Rev Dr Allan Palanna CWM 2018 South Asia Regional Assembly, Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, May 2018

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