Bishops' Blog

Communion Matters XXIV: The Anglican Middle East

North Africa was in large part the cradle of ancient, Patristic Christianity. To this day there are ancient Churches in the Middle East whose roots go back to that era and who have continued through centuries of life under the caliphates (I have included a picture of a painting of Kurios Pantokrator, which remains on the ceiling of Hagia Sophia, which became the Grand Mosque in Istanbul).  We should note that, in the later 19^th Century, when the mission societies returned to the region, their first instinct was to work alongside the ancient Coptic Church, seeking to contribute a reformed element (not particularly successful). While some of these Anglican efforts began as chaplaincies, they have become lively and creative Churches of their own countries.

In recent years, for example, what is now the Church of the Province of Egypt has had a widespread ministry to Egypt, northern Africa, and into Ethiopia.  This has included an outreach to refugees, not least from south Sudan. One element of this ministry is the Alexandria School of Theology, rooted where Athanasius himself taught! There has been a fruitful ministry of hospitality and friendship between clergy and local sheikhs in the Diocese of Egypt which has made a considerable contribution to the national life.

When we turn to Palestine, there has been a number of prominent leaders who have been Anglicans, who have contributed to negotiation with Israel. (Hana Ashrawi was a prominent example). 

In recent years, with increasing radicalization in the Middle East, there has been more emigration, not least in Iraq, which has been a threat to the existence of these ancient Christian communities, and which Anglicans have an interest in helping.

I would like finally to mention Iran, where there was a rich ancient Christian Church before the Mongol invasion in the 1200’s. But the Church has continued there, and does so to this day, under heavy persecution since the Revolution. We remember that the famous Bishop Taqhani Tafti had to flee in 1980 after the murder of his son, and his successor Azad Marshall was not able to live continuously in Iran.  But there are vigorous underground Churches in Iran, as well as refugee Churches (an example of which is our own Grace Community). 

So the apostolic thread of faith in Persia is not broken, but continues, and ‘the vision awaits the time.’

Communion Matters XXII: Focusing in- the Balokole (the saved)

We sometimes suppose that there is a simple contrast between what is borrowed (or inherited) and what is local, as if ‘inculturating’ the Gospel were just dropping the former for the latter.  But what if the more important thing is to listen to believers in a certain place, to understand without first imposing what we think they ought to value?

In the 1930’s Anglican Christianity, after a spectacular beginning two generations earlier, had stalled. Believers seemed to ‘limp between two opinions’ (I Kings 18:20).  Many were irregular in their following the Biblical teaching on marriage, as polygamy continued to be practiced. There was resentment of the white missionaries and the sometimes cavalier style.  The original fervor had died down.  It was into this context that revival broke out, unexpectedly, first in Rwanda, then Buganda, and then throughout east Africa. What happened?

Missionary and local lay leader sat down together, put their mutual grievances ‘in the light,’ and so came to be more deeply reconciled in Christ.  This was at once spiritual renewal and racial reconciliation! It gave birth to a movement of small groups in which others could put their own sins ‘in the light,’ and receive a vivid sense of divine forgiveness and newness in Christ.  It also bore fruit in an enormous energy for witness and evangelism.  These were spontaneous events, though they had once had echoes of traditional healing and clan life, of Methodist beginnings, and of New Testament preaching. The indigenous and the missionary and the Biblically Christian were intertwined.  Those involved, ‘who called themselves the saved’ and who summoned their neighbors to a more consistent and serious life in Christ, saw the movement as reviving as well the vigor of the first days of martyrdom of the east African Church, including the contribution of the first English missionaries who, in the case famously of Hannington, gave his life. These groups took part in ministries of healing, of watching and praying, of sending a generation of young evangelists into the surrounding villages, as well as burst of creativity in Church music.

There is always a tension, one hopes creative, between the renewal of the Church, and its leadership ‘in ordinary time,’ as it were. So the early leaders of the Balokole came in time to be themselves leaders of the Church, themselves in need of reminder, and ‘awakening.’ Still, to this day, this original, orthodox, evangelistic, and yet fully east African, expression, has left its imprint on this remarkable, and fast growing, branch of our communion.