News of Interest to Members
January 2012
Fellowship of Indian Missiologists
The Fellowship of Indian Missiologists (FOIM) held their biannual conference and research seminar at Punalur Diocesan Pastoral Centre in the Southern State of Kerala from 26-29 October 2011. Thirty one Missiologists, including three bishops and four women, participated in it and presented papers. The theme of the conference was, “Christian Life in a World of Growing Violence.” On the first day FOIM Series XIII entitled, Mission in Asia edited by Antony Kalliath and Ernest W.Talibuddin was released. It is a compilation of the selected papers presented at the 13th FOIM Conference held at Kathmandu, Nepal from 11-14 October, 2009.
African Christianity Films to be Released . . .
& How You Can Help
Many of you have seen early roughcuts of our African Christianity films. Guided by Andrew Walls, Kwame Bediako and other leading thinkers, we filmed over 300 hours in Ghana and Zimbabwe, as well as following some of our characters to the US. We filmed in the whole range of church-types one finds in sub-Saharan Africa, creating separate portraits of each and, finally, two films that show, according to Andrew Walls, not only “the range of religious activity, tradition and innovation,” but also its “determining conditions and prevailing directions.” Watching them with audiences from “specialist scholars” to “the general public,” he finds that “in every case the effect has been striking, powerful and clarifying.”
Later this January we will launch a campaign via kickstarter.com to raise the $70K needed to complete and distribute these films along with a host of educational “extras.” Extras will include our original, more detailed portraits of each church community, longer versions of dramatic, telling scenes, and, most of all, pieces from extensive life-story interviews with pioneering thinkers and church leaders like Walls and Bediako, Martinus Daneel, Peter Sarpong, Trevor Manhanga and Mensa Otabil.
However, before launching this campaign, we are reaching out to institutions and individuals interested in partnering with us in this effort by donating funds upfront to act as “matching funds,” and, thereby, help insure the campaign’s success. Partners will enjoy privileged use of the project’s extensive documentary materials including the interviews mentioned above. For a taste of all these materials see our website news (www.jamesault.com/welcome.news.php) and for the open of our Ghana film click here: www.vimeo.com/9292811). With donations from the WCC’s Office of Ecumenical Education and the Nagel Institute on World Christianity, among others, we are on the way to accomplishing these goals. If you are interested in helping, please get in touch with me by email or phone.
Dr. James M. Ault, Jr.
James Ault Productions
Phone: 413-587-9871 (USA)
Email: james.m.ault@gmail.com
Ex Missione Lux?
I have in my hands the first issue of The Shepherd. A publication of the Orthodox Archdiocese of Nigeria (nr. 1, January 2011), the English-language journal that the Orthodox Metropolis of Nigeria has begun to publish.1 Even this first sentence that is, the publisher’s definition, includes the first remark that may be made. The said Church, which belongs to the Greek Orthodox Patrarchate of Alaxandria, defines itself simply as Orthodox, not as “Greek Orthodox”! This must be welcomed as a sign of a vigilant ecclesiastical conscience against the temptation of nationalism which has been lurking in the Orthodox world for long. Perhaps the ground of the church world-wide is not completely stony after all; perhaps some of the labour of sowing theological seeds for many decades is not for nothing! We shall see!
The editor of the journal is Metropolitan Alexandros, and its editorial committee is made up of six members of the local church, while it is based in Lagos, Nigeria, which is also the seat of the Metropolis. Nigeria (which has the highest population of any African country, and one of the highest populations in the world, with more than 150 million inhabitants) is witnessing a rapid development of Christianity, in an amazing variety of its versions: from the “classical” churches of western and eastern origin to the almost self-designed Independent Churches. According to the recent Atlas of Global Christianity,2 in 1910 Christians represented 1.1 per cent of the country’s population, while a century later the number has catapulted to 45.7%. Islam has also spread; approximately 50% of the population is Muslim. Since 1910 the number of Muslims has doubled throughout western Africa, while the native religions have declined by 80% roughly (today being observed by about 15% of western Africans), while there are about 94,000 Orthodox Christians. It is worth noting that the jurisdiction of the Metropolis includes three other countries, Benin, Togo and Niger, the total populations of which are 30 million, and where there are few Orthodox communities.
So the journal is directed principally at the faithful of the Metropolis, clearly bearing in mind the character and reality of their situation. In the Prologue, which sets the tone for this new endeavor, denominations that preach the “gospels of prosperity”, and which overlook the dimension of the Cross and pain and ignore the eschatological heart of the Gospel, are fiercely criticized. Along with this reference to the current situation in Africa are set out the aims of the journal, with a promise that is both significant and onerous: that pressing matters concerning faith, the family, and society will be approached through the prism of the incarnation of the Gospel in particular situations of the life of the faithful (incarnational approach).
The address of the Patriarch of Alexandria is followed by a text by Fr Paul Yerger (who is from the USA) about the meaning of Great Lent; the issue was published around the beginning of that period. He clarifies the Orthodox understanding of sin, repentance and salvation, explaining this in contradistinction to other theological stances such as the judicial approach, the inheritance of the guilt of the fall and the satisfaction of divine justice (pp. 6-8). Then Loveday Okafor explains the place of icons in Orthodox theology and life. Here also, misunderstandings are pointed out, both for heterodox and Orthodox (pp. 8-10). Fr Chrysostom Onyekakeyah writes about theosis, giving a host of Greek terms (perhaps too many), on pages 10-11. Fourth in order comes the text by the Metropolitan, who takes Pentecost as his starting point in order to touch upon the heart of priesthood (pp.13-16). He emphasizes the ecumenicity of the Church and its differentiation from the idea of the holy nation or holy languages, stressing the importance of the parish as a tangible realization of the Church, and insists on the role and work of the priest as service. Following this, James Nwaba explains the relation between Holy Scripture and Christ and the Church, and explains, among other things, why it is a mistake to see Scripture as a document that was handed over to the Church as something ready-made (pp. 17-18). Fr Maximos Nnachette contributes an article on participation in the Holy Eucharist, in which he clarifies some theological matters, and gives some practical advice (pp.20-22). An important point he makes is the remark that “a fundamental precondition for Holy Communion is love for others.” Fr Benjamin Ezieme presents the place of young people in Church within the context of the particular conditions of Africa (p.25). Finally, Fr Timothy Dewedi presents a view of human rights and their relation to the Orthodox faith (pp. 26-7). His approach (his opinion, in short, that human rights and solidarity are an organic part of church mission) is very important, in view of the danger that the liberating spirit of the gospel can evaporate into clouds of vague spiritualism. Here, allow me to make a personal remark, out of joy. Of the contributors, Loveday Okafor, who is also a member of the editorial committee, Fr Chrysostom Onyekakeyah, James Nwaba and Benjamin Ezieme were students at the seminary of the Metropolis, in Lagos, which I visited at Easter 2000, and they were among those who made a significant contribution to my research on African polygamy, as did Deacon (as he was then) Timothy Dewedi from Benin.3
Besides the articles mentioned above, the journal contains excerpts from Patristic and other ecclesiastical texts (St Athanasius the Great, the Synodicon of the Sunday of Orthodoxy, St Seraphim of Sarov), and from works by modern-day theologians (Fr Alexander Schmemann, Elder Paisios, Matthew the Poor, Fr George Morelli; the latter, I should add, belongs to the Antiochan jurisdiction of North America). The last pages of the issue (that is only 4 of the 32 in total, fortunately) contain news and events of the Metropolis.
One observation only: good theological learning from different theological schools of the Pan-Orthodox world is clearly in evidence. For African readers, however, I think it is necessary for every reference to figures of the Church and theology (St John Chrysostom, St Isaac the Syrian, Metropolitan Kallistos Ware, Fr Thomas Hopko, and the others mentioned above), should be accompanied by a short biographical note and full references to the books mentioned. For the few people who have taken on the publication and who, clearly, are battling with hundreds of technical problems, this would be extra work, yet it is something essential, just as windows are necessary to buildings.
If I am not mistaken (though I hope I am), the Shepherd is the only Orthodox journal, at this time, published by a missionary church. As it appears, it differs vastly from the journals we have in Greece, and which are produced for mission, and not by a missionary church. Africans themselves have contributed to this Nigerian journal, and they are paving the way for a valuable opportunity for the whole Church to be realized: for the African voice to be heard and the contemporary situation in Africa to be made known. We have a long way to go, and the Shepherd, should intensify, cultivate and encourage the thinking and the expression of the local church. The conditions should be created so that matters of expression, art, inter-Christian and inter-religious dialogue, and social witness can come to the fore.
All this might sound onerous and far-off (and I ask forgiveness from the editors and contributors), but the objective should be stated. It is true that we are not in a position to even dream of something like the African Ecclesial Review or other missionary journals. But if the Shepherd became a small catalyst… then perhaps there would be lux ex missione – light out of mission!
I shall end this short presentation with a note of concern (and perhaps it is precisely in order to banish it that I write it down): the journal does not indicate how often it will be published. An oversight? Or perhaps this piece of information has been left out in view of the difficulties of which the editors are better aware than us? So the concern is whether there will be a second or a third volume. I look forward to it wholeheartedly!
Notes:
1 The editor is Alexander Yannitsis, Archbishop of Nigeria, B. Theol. (University of Thesaloniki, Greece).
Address: PO Box 75550, Victoria Island, Lagos, Nigeria. E-mail: shepherd@orthodoxnigeria.org
Web-site: www.orthodoxnigeria.org Tel. + 002341.7741447
2 Atlas of Global Christianity 1910-2010 (ed. Todd M. Johnson and Kenneth R. Ross), Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh 2009, p. 132.
3 Thanasis [Athanasios] N. Papathanassiou, “O Paradosiakos Afrikanikos Gamos.Mia apopeira empeirikis erevnas” [in Greek: “The traditional African marriage. An attempt at empirical research”], Bulletin of Bibical Studies 21-22 (2002-03), pp. 365-381.
Dr. Athanasios N. Papathanasiou
Tutor, Hellenic Open University
Editor-in-chief of the quarterly “Synaxis” (Athens, Greece)