Stephen Hayes's Blog, page 72

Jesus is a looser!

It is clear from what one reads on the Internet, on blogs, newsgroups, mailing lists and other forums, that many people despise loosers, and many seem to use “looser” as an insult.

Jesus is a looser! He looseth men out of prison (Psalm 145/146)

But the Bible tells us that it is the LORD who “helpeth them to right that suffer wrong, who feedeth the hungry; The Lord looseth men out of prison: the Lord giveth sight to the blind” (Psalm 145/146 6-7).

The Lord looseth men out of prison, therefore the Lord is a looser.

The opposite of a looser, of course, is a binder. A binder is one who holds men in bondage.

And Jesus Christ came “to deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage” (Hebrews 2:15).

As St John Chrysostom says in his Paschal homily, read in every Orthodox Church on Easter morning,

Enjoy ye all the feast of faith: Receive ye all the riches of loving-kindness. let no one bewail his poverty, for the universal kingdom has been revealed. Let no one weep for his iniquities, for pardon has shown forth from the grave. Let no one fear death, for the Savior’s death has set us free. He that was held prisoner of it has annihilated it. By descending into Hell, He made Hell captive. He embittered it when it tasted of His flesh. And Isaiah, foretelling this, did cry: Hell, said he, was embittered, when it encountered Thee in the lower regions. It was embittered, for it was abolished. It was embittered, for it was mocked. It was embittered, for it was slain. It was embittered, for it was overthrown. It was embittered, for it was fettered in chains. It took a body, and met God face to face. It took earth, and encountered Heaven. It took that which was seen, and fell upon the unseen.

O Death, where is your sting? O Hell, where is your victory? Christ is risen, and you are overthrown. Christ is risen, and the demons are fallen. Christ is risen, and the angels rejoice. Christ is risen, and life reigns. Christ is risen, and not one dead remains in the grave. For Christ, being risen from the dead, is become the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. To Him be glory and dominion unto ages of ages. Amen.

Χριστός ανέστη! Christ is risen! Христос Воскресе! Kristu o tsogile! UKristu uvukile!

Zionist Christians and Christian Zionists

Someone recently posted a picture on Facebook with a very misleading caption referring to Zionist Christians. What it should have read was Christian Zionists. There is an important difference between Zionist Christians and Christian Zionists, and I hope, in this post, to clarify the difference.

The caption should read "Christian Zionists" and NOT "Zionist Christians"

The picture above shows Christian Zionists, not Zionist Christians.

These are Zionist Christians -- members of the Zion Christian Church (ZCC) dancing

The picture on the left shows Zionist Christians, not Christian Zionists.

They are members of the Zion Christian Church (ZCC), the biggest Christian denomination in South Africa.

So what is the difference between Zionist Christians and Christian Zionists?

To put it very briefly, Zionist Christians look back to their origin in Zion City, Illinois, USA, where John Alexander Dowie fournded the Christian Catholic Apostolic Church in Zion in the 19th century.

Christian Zionists are those who believe that the modern state of Israel has an important role in the fulfilment of "biblical prophecy". They are concerned about Mount Zion in the earthly city of Jerusalem.

Zionist Christians are really not much concerned about about the earthly Jerusalem, but for them "Zion" refers to the heavenly Jerusalem that is symbolised by an earthly "Zion City", which Zionist Christians build on earth in various places. The first such "Zion City" to be built was Zion City, Illinois, which is just north of Chicago.

Each Zionist denomination (and there are thousands of them) builds its own "Zion City". Zion City, Illinois is pretty secular nowadays, showing little sign of its sectarian origins, whereas Zion City, Moria, in the Limpopo Province of South Africa, is the headquaters of the biggest denomination in the country, to which millions of members flock each Easter, causing traffic jams for Africa.

Zionist Christians doing a wheel dance in their "Zion City"

Not every Zion City is as impressive as Moria. In some cases it may simply be a symbolic ring of stones, but whether big or small, plain or fancy, to Zionist Christians it symbolises the heavenly Jerusalem.

The Christian Catholic Apostolic Church in Zion was founded by John Alexander Dowie, a former Congregationalist minister, in 1896. Dowie established Zion City, Illinois, with the intention of having a model Christian community.

In about 1904, shortly after the Anglo-Boer War, Zionist missionaries who came to South Africa were joined by a Dutch Reformed evangelist in Wakkerstroom, Pieter le Roux, and his largely Zulu-speaking flock on the border between Natal and the Transvaal (the border was established after the Anglo-Boer War).

The Zionist missionaries were followed by Pentecostal ones in about 1908, and le Roux joined the Pentecostals, becoming the first leader of the Apostolic Faith Mission (AFM/AGS), one of the original Pentecostal denominations in South Africa. There was a split between those who wanted to stick to the original message of Zion, and those who followed the new teaching of Pentecost. Those who preferred Zion became known as Zionists, while those who became Pentecostal were known as Apostolic, while those who followed both traditions were known as Zion Apostolic.

There was also a split on racial lines. Le Roux spread the Pentecostal message mainly among whites, and in deference to their racial prejudices gradually distanced himself from from his former black brethren.

There was also a split among the Zionists in the USA, with Wilbur Glenn Voliva replacing John Alexander Dowie, which resulted in most Zionist missionaries being withdrawn from South Africa. So South Africa's black Zionist Christians were on their own, though some of them continued to receive the publication Leaves of Healing from Zion City, Illinois.

But over the next hundred years they did pretty well for themselves, establishing a movement that comprises thousands of denominations. I have a database to try to keep track of them, and at the time of writing there are 3352 denominations with "Zion" as part of their name.  Some, like the ZCC, are very big, while others comprise a single congregation that meets under a tree (this could be part of Dowie's Congregationalist/Independent heritage).

Over the years in some of these denominations the original Zionist tradition has been diluted and mixed with other traditions, such as evangelical, Pentecostal and others. Some have incorporated beliefs from African traditional religion, such as using medicines for healing (Dowie believed in spiritual healing, and eschewed the use of any medicine, African or Western).

John Alexander Dowie

There are some characteristics of the Zionist tradition, in either theology or practice, that have been long-lived, however, and the presence of several of them in a denomination usually indicates a Zionist heritage. One of these is the use of robes. John Alexander Dowie wore quite fancy vestments, and among most Zionist Chuches members wear robes during services, usually of blue or green, with white crosses and other symbols. The particular pattern of each denomination's robes was usually revealed to the founder of the denomination in a dream or vision. An exception is the biggest, the ZCC, where males wear khaki uniforms with black caps, while females wear green and yellow uniforms.

Apart from the robes, other characteristics that indicate a Zionist tradition include:

Belief in divine healing, which for strict Zionists means avoiding the use of medicine, either African or Western
Building a "Zion", a headquarters seen as a holy city, often called Moria.
Practising baptism by triple immersion, which is often called "triune immersion".
Observing food taboos, such as abstaining from pork.

Zionist baptism in the Hennops River, west of Atteridgeville

Other Christian groups practise baptism by triple immersion, which the Orthodox and Coptic Churches have done from the beginning in Africa, but only Zionists refer to such baptism by the epithet "triune", which among other Christians is reserved for describing the relations of the persons of the Holy Trinity, and not the mode of baptism. Many evangelicals and Pentecostals (but not all) baptise by single immersion, so denominations that do this usually do not have a Zionist heritage.

Zionist Christians are often seen, especially by academics, as part of a wider group that are variously called African Independent Churches, African Instituted Churches, or African Indigenous Churches (the abbreviation AICs covers them all).

Christian Zionists, on the other hand, have a somewhat different origin, and the "Zionist" in their case refers not to a theological understanding, but rather a secular political ideology.

The two main sources of Christian Zionism are Dispensationalist Theology, which arose in the 19th century, which is fairly adequately described in the Wikipedia article here. It is basically a belief in a series of periods of history called "dispensations", and the belief that certain parts of the Bible relate to only one of these dispensations and to no others.

Some dispensationalists of the 19th century looked forward to the fulfilment of  various aspects of "biblical prophecy" in their lifetimes, but were disappointed, and in the second half of the 20th century a new interpretation arose, which said that the earlier interpretations were faulty because they failed to take into account that those prophecies could only be fulfilled after the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, and the rebuilding of the Jewish Temple in the earthly Jerusalem. Until the rebuilding of the temple takes place, in this view, the second coming of Christ cannot occur.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s these views were popularised in a series of books, the best-known of which is probably The late great planet Earth by Hal Lindsey.

Thus this particular version of Dispensationalism translates to uncritical support of the State of Israel, under which it hopes to see the temple rebuilt, which will hasten the fulfilment of the "bible prophecies" that herald the second coming of Christ.Those who believe this are generally supportive of the secular ideology of Zionism, which led to the establishment of the state of Israel, hence the name "Christian Zionists".

The ideology of Zionism sprang from central European romantic nationalism, which was, at least in part, a reaction against the Napoleonic Empire, with roots in the thoughts of writers like Herder and Fichte. While Herder and Fichte's ideas were the root of German nationalism, they could be applied to other nationalisms as well, including the Balkan nationalisms that led to revolts against, and the eventual downfall of the Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian Empires. Zionism and Hellenism were two of the nationalisms that arose from the same historical developments.

In the case of Zionism, many religious Jews were opposed to it, as it was a secular ideology that they thought was in conflict with the Jewish faith. For Christians, too, nationalism has often been a problem, leading to an intertwining of the religious and the secular in a way that undermines theology (see, for example, Orthodoxy and nationalism).

I hope that this will help to make clear that Christian Zionists and Zionist Christians are very different groups of people, and to confuse one group with the other is to misrepresent the ideas of both.

Oh freedom over me

In my youth we used to sing a song popularised by Pete Seeger on his record We shall overcome:

Oh Freedom! Oh Freedom!

Oh Freedom, over me!

And before I'd be a slave

I'd be buried in my grave

And go home to my Lord and be free.

It was a kind of whistling in the dark when we could see no light at the end of the tunnel.

No, this is not another of my Tales from Dystopia — those are about the past South Africa under apartheid. This one is about a present and future dystopia.

Do you remember the Annus Mirabilis 0f 1989?

That was the year in which freedom was breaking out all over as dictators toppled in many countries, including P.W. Botha in South Africa. People rejoiced at the end of the "evil empire".

Those now in their teens and twenties are probably too young to remember it.

Those were the years when we said or sang:

When the Lord turned again the captivity of Sion: then were we like unto them that dream.

Then was our mouth filled with laughter: and our tongue with joy.

Then said they among the heathen: the Lord hath done great things for them.

Yea, the Lord hath done great things for us already: whereof we rejoice

Turn our captivity, O Lord: as the rivers in the South.

He that now goeth on his way weeping, and beareth good seed: shall doubtless come again with joy, and bring his sheaves with him.

(Psalm 125/126, Coverdale translation)

But now, The evil empire is dead, long live the evil empire. Or, as they said in Star Wars, "The Empire Strikes back".

After the fall of many dictatorships, those who ran them were often accused of gross human rights violations, and the evil deeds of many, performed in secret, were brought to light.

But now many of the countries that regarded themselves as part of the "Free World" and as champions of the cause of freedom are beginning to worship the gods of the beaten enemy, and to impose restrictions on freedom.

One egregious example is the way in which the Australian media openly and shamelessly write about "suspected asylum seekers", as if seeking asylum were a crime — see, for example Suspected asylum-seeker boat arrives | thetelegraph.com.au. Yet The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which I believe Australia has signed, says: "Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution."

A blogger in Britain writes The Poor Mouth: I woke up yesterday and found myself in North Korea: "Yesterday Theresa May announced plans to give police and security services the power to monitor the email traffic and internet use of every person in Britain. Today quite rightly she woke up to a barrage of criticism from across the political spectrum and from civil liberties groups." Yet I believe the UK has also signed The Universal Declaration of Human Rights which says: "No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks."

And the ANC government in South Africa is passing similar legislation, and its treatment of refugees and asylum seekers is as bad as Australia's, if not worse.

And so we see those who claimed to be the champions of freedom, those who called themselves "the Free World", becoming enemies for freedom, and whittling away at human rights.

How should Christians respond to the concept of "human rights"?

A Christian blogger in the USA, Phil Wyman, wrote recently:

Funny how this month's Pub Theology in Salem is about the influence of human rights issues on theology. But it is just a coincidence I am sure, and has no divine connection to it – good illustrations though. If anyone has thoughts on that to share I would be more than excited to mull over the issue of humans rights/theology mashup going on in our world

today.

A few years ago there was a Synchroblog (synchronised blog) on Human Rights, and you can find my contribution at Human Rights and Christian faith, with links to the other posts, though I'm not sure if all the links will still work after all these years.

Perhaps, in the light of what Phil Wyman says, there is a need for another synchroblog, specifically on "the humans rights/theology mashup going on in our world", though I'm not sure that I would say anything much different from what I said the first time around.

If anyone else sees a need for this, please let me know, either by a comment below or by e-mail, and if there are enough people willing to participate we could hold a synchroblog specifically on the topic of "theology and human rights", suggested date 26 April, which is after Pascha/Easter. Let me know, but do check some of the posts in the original synchroblog to see if there is anything new to say.

And the Queen of the Sciences is…

Noam Chomsky, the linguistic philosopher, says that there are some things about human nature that are just too complex to be easily researchable.

Noam Chomsky on linguistics and climate change. – Slate Magazine:

Take, say, physics, which restricts itself to extremely simple questions. If a molecule becomes too complex, they hand it over to the chemists. If it becomes too complex for them, they hand it to biologists. And if the system is too complex for them, they hand it to psychologists … and so on until it ends up in the hands of historians or novelists. As you deal with more and more complex systems, it becomes harder and harder to find deep and interesting properties.

Hat-tip to The Pittsford Perennialist: Noam Chomsky on the Limits of Science, who hints at, but does not take it to its logical conclusion: that the really complex questions of human nature are the field of theological anthropology.

And that reminds me of what a blogging friend (who has, unfortunately, deleted his blog) once said about the ignoring of the humanities in mainstream culture:

Rational debate about the existence/ non-existence of God, and the ethical implications thereof, is good. It belongs to human dignity to seek to discern what is true.

There is an academic discipline which studies questions such as what constitutes a warranted belief, what religious language 'means', whether it has a possible reference and what it means for our conceptions of the good life. That discipline is philosophy. There is also an academic discipline whose remit of study includes the atrocities committed in the name of religion. That discipline is history.

So why, when Channel Four want to air a programme about these issues do they give air-time to a biologist with no training whatsoever in either discipline? Moreover one whose previous pronouncements in this area have only been published because he has piggy-backed on his (justified) scientific reputation and which, considered in their own right, are unworthy of a moderately bright A-level student.

Yet another example of the ignoring of the humanities in mainstream culture and, in spite of the irrationalism of our age, the persistence of the Victorian cult of the polymath scientist. Boo, hiss.

Is there a Christian blogosphere?

One of my blogging friends referred to this link, which prompted me to ask whether there was a Christian blogosphere Is there an Australian blogosphere?:

'Europeans can't blog', reads the headline from a newly created blog by the Brussel-based think tank Bruegel. One phrase in particular stuck out at me from this lament about the poor state of European blogging: 'Europe has bloggers, but no blogosphere'.

It seems to me this might be true of Australia also, at least in the political sphere in which this site operates. The distinction between blogs and the blogosphere is that, on its own, a blog is a platform to push out ideas, information and links to other sources. That's a powerful thing in and of itself, but it's when many blogs form a blogosphere that you get, in Bruegel's words, 'a living ecosystem to exchange and debate'.

There are also lots of Christian blogs, but I would question whether they form "a living ecosystem for exchange and debate" I think that things have actually declined from such a state since this blog started five years ago. Five years ago there was an incipient Christian blogosphere, but it has failed to develop, and seems to be disintegrating.

Five years ago there was a fairly healthy South African Christian blogosphere, with people linking to each other's blog posts, and even, on occasion, meeting face to face for coffee on a Saturday morning, at least where they lived in the same town.

I think one of the things that produced the incipient Christian blogosphere was the "Emerging Church" movement, which I learnt about through blogs, and seemed to exist primarily in the blogosphere, so it was really only possible to learn about it through blogs. With the decline of interest in the "Emerging Church" there has been a corresponding decline in Christian blogging.

Synchroblogs also had the potential to promote a Christian blogosphere — back in 2006 Phil Wyman proposed a synchronised blog on syncretism, which brought together bloggers from different countries and different Christians backgrounds and traditions, blogging on the same topic, with links to the other synchrobloggers. This produced an interesting variety of views and exposed many of us to different ways of looking at the topic. So it was decided to hold another synchroblog, and another, and soon they became quite a regular occurrence. But now it seems that culture wars have even struck synchroblogs, with people outside the US thinking they have become too US centric.

Some bloggers have migrated to places like Twitter and Facebook, and blog much more rarely. But Twitter and Facebook are a very poor subtitute for a blogosphere, and perhaps their popularity has been partly responsible for the decline in Christian (and other) blogging. Twitter and Facebook do have their uses, though — one of which is to publicise blog posts. In that way they are complementary to blogging rather than being seen as a substitute for blogging.

There have also been some innovative developments in Christian community in places like Twitter. One of the ones that appeals to me was the extension of the flashmob concept to Christian gatherings. Twitter is an ideal medium for publicising them — just check the hashtags #flashevensong or #flashcompline, or read about them here. They are also announced on a Facebook page. One of the more interesting ones was when St Paul's Cathedral was closed during the Occupy London protests, there was a flash evensong on the cathedral steps. I wish I could have been there. Perhaps what we need is some kind of a flashblog.

That, I think, is a good and creative use of media such as Twitter and Facebook, but neither of these offers "a living ecosystem to exchange and debate" as a Christian blogosphere would.

On letting Junia fly

One of the posts in this month's Synchroblog is Letting Junia Fly: Releasing the Called | Wendy McCaig. It set me thinking, and here are some of the thoughts it provoked.

It is rather difficult to write, because in many ways it may look like arguing against what Wendy said in her post, marshalling counter-arguments, and trying to refute what she said. But if there is any sermonising here, it is directed at me rather than Wendy.

Who was Junia?

According to the web site of the Orthodox Church in America

Saint Junia and Saint Andronicus of the Seventy were relatives of the holy Apostle Paul. They labored much, preaching the Gospel to pagans. St Paul mentions them in his Epistle to the Romans: "Salute Andronicus and Junia, my kinsmen and fellow prisoners, who are of note among the Apostles, who also were in Christ, before me" (Romans 16:7).

St Andronicus was made Bishop of Pannonia, but his preaching also took him and St Junia to other lands, far from the boundaries of his diocese. Through the efforts of Sts Andronicus and Junia the Church of Christ was strengthened, pagans were converted to the knowledge of God, many pagan temples closed, and in their place Christian churches were built. The service in honor of these saints states that they suffered martyrdom for Christ.

St Junia was an apostle. Wendy, in her blog post, says, "Junia can fly – will you show her how?"

And Wendy goes on to say

I am a grown woman. I am a former CPA who founded a rapidly growing non-profit that has managed to keep the doors open for seven year in the midst of a recession – no small accomplishment. I have demonstrated that I can hold my own in the corporate and non-profit arena. So why am I running from the institutional church?

The truth is I am afraid – afraid of being caged. When I think of the institutional church, the memories come flooding back. I have the memory of serving on a mission's team and being told that the most important role I could play was to bake cookies for the outreach efforts even though I don't cook and have a Masters of Divinity. It is the memory of being told that I could lead as long as no one saw me as a leader because I was a woman and that would be unbiblical. It is the memory of asking my church for $100 to help a family avoid eviction and being told there was no money because of the multi-million dollar building campaign. This basically said to me, "Your call to care for the poor is not a valid call of the church."

None of these comments were malicious. None of the individuals meant to cage me. One by one these limitations, messages and painful situations convinced me that I could not be me in the institutional models of the church. So I left and choose to exercise my call within the non-profit sector. I know I am not alone in this. Most people don't start non-profits but many leave the church to follow their call.

Now in some ways I have a lot of sympathy with that. I have had similar experiences.

In another post, In the Company of Junia, Wendy notes some Western Protestant attempts to change Junia's sex and deny that there were female apostles. But Junia herself was never caged. Even in martyrdom, she flew. And she doesn't need us to help her.

Yes, I have often felt "caged" by the instiutional church. I have often felt that my gifts and talents were not being recognised, and not used, and that others were being paid to do things that I had to do as a hobby and finance from my own resources. It would be nice to be released from the cage and allowed to fly.

And the impression I get from this is that if Junia could fly, she would find fulfilment in her ministry, she would release her potential and be everything that she could be. And wouldn't it be cool if she, and all the rest of us, could do that.

But a nagging thought comes to me.

It was Jesus saying, "For the Son of man also came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many" (Mark 10:42).

St Andronicus and St Junia flanking St Athanasius the New of Christianopolis, all commorated on May 17

Ministry means service; but it is not about being served, but serving. It is not about me. It is not about me flying, me finding personal fulfilment, me realising my potential.

St Paul asks, "Are all apostles? are all prophets? are all teachers? are all workers of miracles? Have all the gifts of healing? do all speak with tongues? do all interpret?" (I Cor 12:29-30) clearly expecting the answer no. St Junia was an apostle, but that doesn't necessarily follow that I am or should be. There are many different ministries in the church, but all of them are for serving God and his people, and not our own self-fulfilment.

Now I am not saying that Wendy said this, or intended to say this, but there are many who speak as if ministries in the Church are like secular jobs, dependent on qualifications, abilities and merits measurable by human standards. But in Christian ministry, the moment I think I am the right person for a particular ministry, it probably means that I am not.

It doesn't always work like this, of course. The Church is no stranger to ambition, status seeking, and power-hungry climbers if the hierarchical ladder.  But I'm saying that it shouldn't be like that, and we should not be thinking of ministry in those terms.

And I don't think St Junia did.

St Christina of Persia

The theme of this month's Synchroblog is "All about Eve", because it's women's history month in the USA, and since the 13th March is the feast day of St Christina of Persia, it seemed appropriate to look at her role in the history of Christianity in Persia, or, as it is more generally known nowadays, Iran.

St Christina of Persia

The problem with this is that very little is known about St Christina, other than the manner of her death.

Another problem is that since the Synchroblog was postponed to 20th March (Happy Equinox everyone!), it is no longer St Christina's day, but St Photini's Day, so this post is out of date.

St Christina was whipped to make her renounce her faith in Christ, and when she refused to do so her persecutors carried on beating her until she died, some time in the 6th century.

She may have been the daughter of Yazdēn, governor of Nisibis (Encyclopaedia Iranica | Articles).

At that period Christians were in a minority in Persia, and the official religion was the worship of Mazda, and Christians were persecuted. In the following century Persia was conquered by Muslims, and Islam became the official religion, while Christians remained a minority.

An interesting thing about St Christina is that in her time most of the Christians in Persia were Nestorian, and therefore not in communion with the Chalcedonian churches of either the East or the West, yet Christina is recorded as a martyr in Antioch, in Rome, and in Constantinople.

But since it is now St Photini's Day, here's something about her, nicked from other sites.

Martyr Photina (Svetlana), the Samaritan Woman, and Her Sons

Commemorated on March 20

The Holy Martyr Photina (Svetlana) the Samaritan Woman, her sons Victor (named Photinus) and Joses; and her sisters Anatola, Phota, Photis, Paraskeva, Kyriake; Nero's daughter Domnina; and the Martyr Sebastian: The holy Martyr Photina was the Samaritan Woman, with whom the Savior conversed at Jacob's Well (John. 4:5-42).

St Photini

During the time of the emperor Nero (54-68), who displayed excessive cruelty against Christians, St Photina lived in Carthage with her younger son Joses and fearlessly preached the Gospel there. Her eldest son Victor fought bravely in the Roman army against barbarians, and was appointed military commander in the city of Attalia (Asia Minor). Later, Nero called him to Italy to arrest and punish Christians.

Sebastian, an official in Italy, said to St Victor, "I know that you, your mother and your brother, are followers of Christ. As a friend I advise you to submit to the will of the emperor. If you inform on any Christians, you will receive their wealth. I shall write to your mother and brother, asking them not to preach Christ in public. Let them practice their faith in secret."

St Victor replied, "I want to be a preacher of Christianity like my mother and brother." Sebastian said, "O Victor, we all know what woes await you, your mother and brother." Then Sebastian suddenly felt a sharp pain in his eyes. He was dumbfounded, and his face was somber.

For three days he lay there blind, without uttering a word. On the fourth day he declared, "The God of the Christians is the only true God." St Victor asked why Sebastian had suddenly changed his mind. Sebastian replied, "Because Christ is calling me." Soon he was baptized, and immediately regained his sight. St Sebastian's servants, after witnessing the miracle, were also baptized.

Reports of this reached Nero, and he commanded that the Christians be brought to him at Rome. Then the Lord Himself appeared to the confessors and said, "Fear not, for I am with you. Nero, and all who serve him, will be vanquished." The Lord said to St Victor, "From this day forward, your name will be Photinus, because through you, many will be enlightened and will believe in Me." The Lord then told the Christians to strengthen and encourage St Sebastian to peresevere until the end.

All these things, and even future events, were revealed to St Photina. She left Carthage in the company of several Christians and joined the confessors in Rome.

St Kyriaka, sister of St Photini

At Rome the emperor ordered the saints to be brought before him and he asked them whether they truly believed in Christ. All the confessors refused to renounce the Savior. Then the emperor gave orders to smash the martyrs' finger joints. During the torments, the confessors felt no pain, and their hands remained unharmed.

Nero ordered that Sts Sebastian, Photinus and Joses be blinded and locked up in prison, and St Photina and her five sisters Anatola, Phota, Photis, Paraskeva and Kyriake were sent to the imperial court under the supervision of Nero's daughter Domnina. St Photina converted both Domnina and all her servants to Christ. She also converted a sorcerer, who had brought her poisoned food to kill her.

Three years passed, and Nero sent to the prison for one of his servants, who had been locked up. The messengers reported to him that Sts Sebastian, Photinus and Joses, who had been blinded, had completely recovered, and that people were visiting them to hear their preaching, and indeed the whole prison had been transformed into a bright and fragrant place where God was glorified.

Nero then gave orders to crucify the saints, and to beat their naked bodies with straps. On the fourth day the emperor sent servants to see whether the martyrs were still alive. But, approaching the place of the tortures, the servants fell blind. An angel of the Lord freed the martyrs from their crosses and healed them. The saints took pity on the blinded servants, and restored their sight by their prayers to the Lord. Those who were healed came to believe in Christ and were soon baptized.

In an impotent rage Nero gave orders to flay the skin from St Photina and to throw the martyr down a well. Sebastian, Photinus and Joses had their legs cut off, and they were thrown to dogs, and then had their skin flayed off. The sisters of St Photina also suffered terrible torments. Nero gave orders to cut off their breasts and then to flay their skin. An expert in cruelty, the emperor readied the fiercest execution for St Photis: they tied her by the feet to the tops of two bent-over trees. When the ropes were cut the trees sprang upright and tore the martyr apart. The emperor ordered the others beheaded. St Photina was removed from the well and locked up in prison for twenty days.

After this Nero had her brought to him and asked if she would now relent and offer sacrifice to the idols. St Photina spit in the face of the emperor, and laughing at him, said, "O most impious of the blind, you profligate and stupid man! Do you think me so deluded that I would consent to renounce my Lord Christ and instead offer sacrifice to idols as blind as you?"

Hearing such words, Nero gave orders to again throw the martyr down the well, where she surrendered her soul to God (+ ca. 66).

On the Greek Calendar, St Photina is commemorated on February 26.

There is also more about her here: The Samaritan Woman – a lekwerekwere | Khanya

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This post is part of a synchroblog, when several people write blog entries on the same theme on the same day. When links to the other posts are available, they will be posted below:

Michelle Morr Krabill – Why I Love Being a Woman
Marta Layton – The War on Terror and the War on Women
Ellen Haroutounian – March Synchroblog – All About Eve
Jeremy Myers – Women Must Lead the Church
Carol Kuniholm – Rethinking Hupotasso
Wendy McCaig – Fear Letting Junia Fly
Tammy Carter – Pat Summit: Changing the Game & Changing the World
Jeanette Altes – On Being Female
kathy escobar – replacing the f-word with the d-word (no not those ones)
Melody Hanson – Call Me Crazy, But I Talk To Jesus Too
Glenn Hager – Walked Into A Bar
Steve Hayes – St. Christina of Persi
Leah Sophia – March Syncroblog-All About Eve
Liz Dyer – The Problem Is Not That I See Sexism Everywhere…
Sonja Andrews – International Women's Day
Sonnie Swenston-Forbes – The Women

Church leaders depart

A couple of days after the announcement that the Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, was resigning came the news that the Coptic Pope of Alexandria, Shenouda III, had died.

Pope Shenouda III obituary | The Guardian:

Pope Shenouda III of Alexandria, who has died aged 88 after suffering from prostate cancer, was for four decades the spiritual leader of the Coptic Orthodox Church, the largest Christian community in the Middle East. In his native Egypt he was patriarch to 7 to 11 million Copts – the government of the predominantly Muslim country giving a lower estimate than the church's – and another 4 million worldwide.

The Archbishop of Canterbury is not retiring, but rather moving to an academic post. BBC News – Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams to stand down:

Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams has announced he is to stand down in December.

He will take the position of Master of Magdalene College at the University of Cambridge from January next year, his website says.

Dr Williams, 61, was appointed the 104th Archbishop of Canterbury in 2002.

Both have led their communions at a time when each was under great strains that have threatened to cause them to disintegrate: the Coptic Church suffering from pressures from without, the Anglican Communion suffering tensions from within.

I suspect that the Archbishop of Canterbury was in the more difficult position, presiding over a church composed of irreconcilable factions that were tearing it apart. I suspect that, faced with a lose-lose scenario, he preferred to spend the rest of his life doing something more productive, where there might be something to show for it at the end.

Pope Shenouda once told of the time that he had entered a monastery, and thought that that would be the last time that he rode on a bus or a train or car, or even walked along a road, and then he was elected as a bishop, and had to go back into the world. But even as a bishop he tried to spend at least half of each week in the monastery.  I have heard him speak ona few occasions, and got the impression that he was a wise teacher and leader.

For those non-Orthodox who are often confused about how many Popes there are, since the 6th century there have been two Popes and Patriarchs of Alexandria and All Africa. After the Council of Chalcedon in AD 451 the Church in Egypt was divided, with Chalcedonian and anti-Chalcedonian factions engaged in power struggles for the patriarchal throne for about a century, after which they split, and since then there have been two Popes in Alexandria. The non-Chalcedonian one, led until last week by Pope Shenouda, is called the Coptic Orthodox Patriarchate, while the Chalcedonian one is called the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate, because it remained in communion with the Patriarchates of Constantinople, Antioch and Jerusalem. Today the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria and all Africa is led by His Beatitude Theodoros II, Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria and all Africa under whose jurisdiction our church falls.

When the Muslim Arabs invaded 80 years after the schism, they found the church divided. The "Greek" Patriarchate had been supported by the former rulers, the Roman Empire, so the Arabs tended to support the "Coptic" Patriarchate more, through both groups of Christians were regarded as inferior by the conquerors.

In recent years the two Popes, Shenouda III and Theodoros II, enjoyed friendly relations. Though theological differences remain, they didn't seem to be quite as big as they were in the 6th century.

Twenty-first centuy Anglicans, however, seem to be as deeply and bitterly divided as the Greek and the Copts were in the 5th and 6th centuries.  An Anglican friend on Facebook commented, "The resignation of the Archbishop of Canterbury could be the propelling of the English church fully into the 21st Century. Then it could be the catapulting of this church backwards into the Middle Ages."

That gave me pause for thought.

One could say that for Western Christianity the 20th century was the "ecumenical century", one in which the ecumenical vision or dream held sway. So if the English church is propelled fully into the 21st century would it mean leaving the ecumenical delusion behind, and fully embracing the notion that squabbling factions are the Christian norm?

 

 

 

The saint who refused to take part in a witch hunt

Yesterday's Sunday Times (Johannesburg) carried a very interesting article headed SA to get its first Catholic saint.

It tells of Benedict Daswa, a Roman Catholic layman, who was murdered for his refusal to take part in a witch hunt in 1990.

Daswa, who was 48 at the time of his slaying. lived in the tiny Mbahe village near Thohoyandou some 150 km north of Polokwane. He died after steadfastly refusing to accept the existence of witchcraft in his village.

He was killed in February 1990 by an angry mob of villagers for refusing to participate in hiring a witchdoctor to sniff out those they believed were responsible for lightning stikes that were rife in the area. Daswa was beaten with sticks and stones and had boiling water poured over him. He apparently said a prayer before being dealt the fatal blow (Sunday Times, March 11, 2012, p. 7).

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Tzaneen has compiled a report and sent it to the Congregation of Causes of Saints.

According to the Sunday Times report Daswa's brother said that in late 1989 there was a community meeting at which most of the villagers agreed that each household would contribute towards hiring a witchdoctor to point out who was responsible for the lightning strikes. But Daswa, his brother and a cousin refused to participate.

His brother told villagers that his faith did not allow him tom take part in anything associated with witchcraft.

"I was at that meeting myself. We asked to be excused as we were not prepared to take part."

He said that, after the meeting, some villagers started plotting to "deal" with Daswa.

At the meeting Daswa argued that lighning is a natural phenomenon and argued against following the old ways of blaming witches for causing it. On 2 February 1990 while driving home in the evening he found his way blocked with tree logs across the road. When he stopped the car and tried to remove them a group of youths and adults emerged from behind the trees and began pelting him with stones. He escaped on foot and ran to a rondavel to hide. He was, however, found by the mob, and when he realised that he was about to be killed he asked to say a prayer. He said "God, into your hands receive my soul" before he was dealt a fatal blow with a knobkerrie that crushed his skull. Boiling water was then poured over his head. His killers were never convicted. The matter was dismissed because of lack of evidence.

Benedict Daswa thus died in the same manner as many of those who are accused of practising witchcraft.

Im 1995 I wrote in an article Christian Responses to Witchcraft and Sorcery:

Over 200 people who were accused of being witches were burnt to death in South Africa between the beginning of 1994 and mid-1995. These killings were not legal executions, but took place at the hands of lynch mobs, mostly from the communities in which the accused lived. Such witch hunts are rare. As recently as 1987 one South African scholar described them as "an extreme and remote possibility" and noted that though there had been periodic episodes of anti-witch purges in Central Africa, they were restricted to "identifying sorcerers, destroying their paraphernalia, putting them out of business and at worst exiling them" (Kiernan 1987:6). The situation, especially in the Northern Province, has become so serious that official investigations are being made into how to deal with it.

Many more people have died since then and the problem of witch hunts is widespread in Africa (see, for example Inmates of witches camp appeal for help – ModernGhana.com). When I wrote the article most Christian groups were opposed to the idea of witchcraft and witch hunts, but now it seems that in some places some Neopentecostal denominations even initiate witch hunts.

The witness of someone like Benedict Daswa, who refused to participate in a witch hunt, is thus tremendously important for Christianity in Africa as a whole, and goes far beyond Limpopo Province. You can read more about him at Who was Benedict Daswa?

Tales from Dystopia XI: Deacons and total onslaught

The title is a bit misleading, because the question of deacons was separate from that of "total onslaught", but in this case they just happened to conicide on the same day.

I had been a member of a Commission on the Diaconate in the Anglican Church, which had been asked by the Anglican Provincial Synod in 1989 to produce a report on the ministry of deacons, and report back to the next session of provincial synod in November 1982. I believed that the ministry of deacons had been neglected, and as part of the work for the report I was investigating the possibilities for training deacons if the diaconate were to be restored and taken seriously.

One of the posssibilities was that the University of South Africa offered a degree of Bachelor of Diaconology, which was a multidisciplinary degree, with some courses taken from the theology faculty, and some from social work. Such a multidisciplinary course might be useful for training Anglican deacons, but there was one obstacle — the degree could only be taken by the students of Huguenot College, Wellington, a Dutch Reformed institution, and by no others.

So I went to see members of the Theology Faculty at the University of South Africa (Unisa) to find out if they might be willing to widen scope of the degree to allow students who were not members of the Huguenot College, and therefore not Dutch Reformed, to study for the Bachelor of Diaconology degree, and also to widen the multidisciplinary nature of the course to include more options than social work. For example, in the early church, deacons often helped the bishop with diocesan administration, so perhaps an option could be theology and accounting. Some might have a prison ministry, and so they could combine theology with criminology. Some might have a community development ministry, and so combine theology with development. It seemed to me that there were many more possibilities for deacons that just social work.

So I made an appointment to see the Dean of the Faculty of Theology at Unisa, Professor David Bosch, to discuss these things. And this is what I wrote in my diary about the meeting and what followed. At the time I was visiting Pretoria from Melmoth in Zululand and staying with the Anglican Bishop-elect of Pretoria, Rich Kraft.

Thursday 11 March 1982, Unisa, Pretoria

Again went to Mass with Rich at the Cathedral, and then went to see Prof. Bosch at Unisa to discuss with him the possible widening of the syllabus for the Bachelor of Diaconology degree. He also had his second-in-command, Professor Roberts, and Trevor Verryn, and Ian Carrick had come along as well.

David Bosch seemed to have difficulty in understanding what we were asking for, and seemed to think it was a good deal more complicated than it is in actual fact. Prof Roberts seemed quicker to grasp the implications.

At 11:00 we broke up, and they said I could see a film that the Department of Foreign Affairs was organising. It turned out to be a series of overseas television programmes on the role of the church in South Africa, which were seen as part of the "church onslaught".

There was a Dutch one, an English one and a New Zealand one, and a couple of them had interviews with Desmond Tutu, where the interviewer was pushing him very hard to say that he supported violence. There was also an interview with Oliver Tambo.

I think the foreign affairs blokes expected the audience (the theology faculty staff, for the most part) to be horrified at the smearing of South Africa's name overseas, but they were a bit taken aback when people got up to say that those programmes were telling it like it is, and should be broadcast by the SABC. They said that could not be done, as banned people like Oliver Tambo and Beyers Naudé were quoted. One of the Unisa staff pointed out that the SABC had blanket permission to quote banned people and so on. I wondered if they would regard the theology faculty as already having succumbed to the church onslaught and gone over to the "enemy".

Perhaps that was the whole object of the exercise.

The meeting about training for the diaconate was not very satisfactory, and nothing came of it. Unisa went on offering the Bacherlor of Diaconology degree to Dutch Reformed students only, and those from other denominations continued to be excluded.

But the Foreign Affairs film show was an eye-opener.

My picture of Unisa (and that of many other people in places like Zululand) at that time (thirty years ago) was that it was a monolithic Broederbond-controlled institution, firmly committed to the "total strategy" to resist the "total onslaught". And it seemed that the people from the Department of Foreign Affairs also had this view of Unisa, and were somewhat taken aback but the response, when, instead of being shocked by these foreign propaganda films produced by South Africa's enemies, they nearly all said that the films told the truth and should be shown in South Africa too. It seemed that even in institutions like Unisa, one could find some of the 7000 who had not bowed the knee to Baal.

And then I wondered if the Department of Foreign Affairs people were being a bit more duplicitious than that, and that in fact they had been exepcting such a reaction, and had someone for the Department of Home Affairs, or the Security Police, sitting behind a curtain somewhere, taking names of those who spoke too loudly in praise of the films.

That's how we thought in those days; wheels within wheels, suspicions within within suspicions. We expected people in institutions like Unisa to support the government propaganda line, and when they didn't, we wondered if the more outspoken ones were spies or agents provocateurs.