Mozambique Blog 3

Gordon and Elaine Brown reflect on another sabbatical week in Maputo

Things hotting up, no not weather, but activities. Weather reached peak of 38 degrees Saturday, only to be broken by a cracker of a storm. Fortunately we returned to hotel just as first large drops were falling as there was then three hours of torrential rain, thunder & lightning which cooled things for Sunday when we were off to worship in Liberdade, a town around 15km from Maputo, after our 7am English service locally.

So to our activities. English classes making progress. Walking around the compound gives opportunities for brief conversations, greetings and questions. We give the occasional 'lesson' in local cake shop. As Theological School for lay people opened new session this week, the compound is being spruced up and the grass cut. We are guest speakers, sharing our pilgrimages to the Holy Land, Mt Sinai and the seven churches of Asia. Students very keen to learn more of their faith and the bible so to increase their confidence in helping to lead their churches. Classes run every evening after work, 5:30-7:30.

Schools open too, bright new yellow buses increasing traffic on roads. We've had to negotiate some very haphazard parking as we wandered around visiting museums, parks and Post Office.

We also had a very interesting meeting with members of the Bible Society office and saw their depot and shop, and this weekend we're off to Xai-Xai. We will worship with two local congregations there and have the invitation to preach.

Afterwards hoping to get to the beach!

Mozambique Blog 2

Worship in Mozambique

Gordon and Elaine Brown reflect on the second week of their sabbatical journey

Our first Mozambican worship experience, the introduction and welcome of Pastor Ernesto Langa and family to his new congregation, was a mix of formal statements, a serious charge and the friendly banter of greetings to which we were invited to contribute.

Instructed to join the processing Presbytery dignitaries, we were led to the dais and seated on either side of our interpreter. Singing seemed to start unannounced from different parts of the church and was taken up all round, unaccompanied and without two people starting different songs. It was tantalising to hear a familiar tune yet find our familiar words deserted us as words in the local Ronga language or Portuguese were sung. Hymn books were solfa style and even though many people had no book, they were singing in harmony, the women often ululating to express joy. The men showed their joy in exuberant dancing. 

More dancing as members were called out by zone or elder's group to bring their tithes, it being first Sunday of month. Visitors were also invited to participate with offerings, and dance, but we had no local currency at the time. I'd have had two opportunities as all who'd had a January birthday were congratulated, on giving another donation!

Various choirs performed. The Women's group, dressed in their uniform for this special service, pulled Argentina, Ernesto's wife into their midst in welcome.

Worship over, we processed out and lined up to shake hands with congregation.

Worship at the retreat felt more intimate as the common purpose was the focus, but there was still singing with gusto, led by one Presbytery President thumping the beat on a leather-covered Bible.  

Attending Saturday's wedding was a different worship experience. Once more placed up front, we had only photographers between us and the proceedings. Bride and groom, very solemn, were from two different denominations, so choir and congregation were vying to sing, and seeking to find a hymn known to all. Pastor Marcus smoothed things by engaging everyone in repartee as he gave his sermon, then led the dancing as he signed the register.

Smiles all round however once the certificate and couple were photographed. Two elderly elders took over and directed presentation of gifts to the bride, efficiently whisked from her and displayed while the giver made a speech dispensing advice. A length of traditional cloth, symbolically wrapped the two together before gift-wrapped boxes, pans, and crockery appeared. Then, through a side door was carried a double bed, mattress and bed linen. Both sides swarmed to dress the bed and the couple were seated on it for more photographs. Pastor Marcus played the Wedding March on a portable keyboard and we slipped out, leaving the party to their wedding breakfast.

Sunday's services were no less musical. We walked to the Synod compound for 7am worship in English, led by a young woman elder reading the set liturgy, each part followed by a relevant hymn. People were invited to contribute news, prayer or song, one child took the offering and said the prayer of dedication, another played a saxophone then we were invited to give greetings before Gordon preached. After-worship breakfast arrangements had fallen through but gave opportunity to chat with those present.

Elaine preaching, with her interpreter, Estrela

Later we were driven to a church in the suburbs where it was my turn to preach, a translator by my side. The Sunday school came to remind families of the new session commencing and to bring their children. They gave an enthusiastic example of their songs, and dancing of course, and welcomed the new Youth Worker. Later one young girl stole the show by marching confidently to stand before the congregation to thank everyone for "being like Father and Mother to me, teaching me about God". She was a hard act to follow but the choirs gave it their best.

We were instructed in moving to the rhythm of the hymns and had the chance to show what we'd learned as the offerings were taken up. And there was more dancing as we lined up to shake hands. Altogether a joy-filled time of worship.

Office prayers again was an intimate time of sharing both the synod's vision and personal needs. What will next Sunday bring? 

Mozambique Blog 1

Gateshead ministers Gordon and Elaine Brown are spending the second leg of their sabbatical in Mozambique, as guests of our partner church, the Presbyterian Church of Mozambique.
This is the first of their reports back, written at the end of their first week.

Monday, 3rd February.            

Arrived Saturday Night, day and half late after delayed flight. Sunday went to special service to welcome Pastor Ernesto Langa into a new parish. Lots of visitors, Synod dignitaries, family and people from his previous parish swelled the congregation. And swelled the singing! A wonderful, rousing beginning to our visit.

Today is a Public Holiday so we rest, then some sight-seeing...

Friday, 6th February.            

Returned last night from taking part in opening sessions of an annual Ministers'  Retreat; a 5-day period of reunion, rest and reflection at the start of the year, held in a village, Magude, some two hours drive from Maputo. This year, the new President of Synod, Revd  Obede Baloi, elected in November 2014, has chosen to focus on formulating a 5-year plan, seeking to discern the new things God wants of the Church.

The outward journey gave an opportunity to see some of the countryside, crops and way of life. We are reminded of our previous years in West Africa; so much familiar though different; Mozambique is not Nigeria and there are definite Southern European touches from past colonial influence. One similarity is African time, for which much patience and good humour is required.

Arriving under the awning to shield everyone from the fierce sun, we experienced a baptism of fire as having met and memorised names of a small number of synod staff, we were suddenly surrounded by pastors, spouses, youth workers and evangelists from parishes around the country. Sadly, many were unable to travel as a result of severe flooding in the centre and north of Mozambique. After lunch, introductions, and some hesitant conversation as our Portuguese took a steep learning curve, we proceeded to opening worship in the church. It was led by Revd Rosa Zavala who had visited Northern Synod On a ministerial exchange with Meg Robb.

We were introduced and invited to speak of our ministry and of the challenges to the church in our URC Northern Synod.  Then everyone moved outside, gathering round under the shade of large trees and fired questions at us - the pastor interpreting had a busy time - but it was a relaxed and friendly time of sharing. Later, after dinner, we travelled along an unlit road to our accommodation, looking up at stars of the Southern Hemisphere. Our night's sleep was only a little disturbed by a violent but mercifully short thunderstorm.

Next day we were immersed in lively group debate after bible study on the passage selected for the theme, Revelation 21:1-5. Groups of 15-20 discussed set questions before a time of feedback then it was time for lunch and for us to return to the capital. 

The homeward journey took somewhat longer as we were accompanied by the treasurer who had some shopping to do for the next days' s meals, which meant we had a tour of the many markets around Maputo and a demonstration of her bargaining skills. 

Fighting Ebola

Ray Anglesea shared this reflection with the congregation
of St Andrew's Dawson Street, Crook on October 12

Last Thursday, 2^nd October, at a meeting at Lancaster House, London, Britain appealed for international help to contain the world’s worst outbreak of the Ebola virus which is now spreading at the rate of five cases an hour in Sierra Leone.  Philip Hammond, the foreign secretary, was joined at Lancaster House by representatives of five African countries and ten other nations, including American and Cuba. UN organisations, charities, Idris Elba the actor, and William Pooley, the British nurse who recently recovered from Ebola, were also present.

The Ebola virus has, at terrifying speed, killed almost 4,000 people. It has been sweeping across vulnerable African states with such intensity that health experts believe as many as 1.4 million people could be infected by next January 2015. The number of infections is doubling every three weeks. President Obama has already described the disease as a “threat to global security.”

It is perhaps difficult for those of us who live in a country where there are 270 doctors per 100,000 of population to imagine what it is like for those living in Sierra Leone where there are only 3 doctors for the same number trying to deal with such a highly contagious disease. It is not therefore surprising that people look for meaning where there seems to be none, and that they turn to tried and tested ideas about God’s punishment, drawing parallels with the plagues of Egypt, blaming particular social groups and claiming that only those protected by God’s hand will be “delivered.”

In the Bible there are plenty of examples of such connections being made between sickness and sin, and even amongst the generally agnostic population of this country, sudden disease or injury can make us ask why and look for reasons in our own behaviour, rehearsing our regrets about the past and bargaining with God about the future. But, although there may be times when a period of illness or some other crisis can prompt us as individuals, or even as nations, into important thinking about the meaning of our lives, and even into turning away from behaviours which do us and others no good, there is a world of difference between finding the strength to change our own ways through a shock we have received, and vulnerable groups being told by authority figures that they are sick because they are immoral or because God is angry with them.

Such pronouncements may bolster the moral certainties of those who make them, but for those unfortunate enough to fall ill in a poor country through no fault of their own, fast on the heels of the terror of being sick, comes stigmatisation, isolation and the withdrawal of all kinds of help. In the ministry of Jesus, rather than withdrawing from those who were sick or socially outcast, he was constantly crossing boundaries to reach out to people, whether they were lepers who were contagious and considered unclean or haemorrhaging women who had exhausted all their funds on doctors who could not help, or even the morally dubious by the conventions of the time. 

Those who are in the field in West Africa fighting this disease - both Christians and others - deserve our support as they contribute to the fight this disease. Save the Children at Thursday’s conference pledged £70 million of which £40 million is for work in Sierra Leone. Comic Relief has pledged £1 million whilst the UK government has put £125 million into the pot to fight Ebola, including the promise of 700 extra beds in hospital units constructed under the supervision of the military. Four hundred NHS staff have volunteered to help staff them and train local people.

To me, it is clear that if God is to be found in the Ebola outbreak, he is not in the scapegoating of particular social groups, but is alongside those who are the disease’s victims, and embodied in those brave people who take risks to help.

Ray Anglesea

Sabbatical Blog 12: Transfiguration

Ray Anglesea shares the final installment

My 12^th and last blog. It has been an amazing and wonderful sabbatical. Ki and I have travelled over 20,000 miles and have been away from home for 7 of the 12 weeks. Highlights of the summer have included my granddaughter’s baptism, singing on Broadway, Carnegie Hall and the Great Cathedral Church of St John the Divine, New York, observing beavers in Lake Manatoulin, Ontario, eating maple and walnut ice-cream in downtown Toronto, meeting Russ Thomas, a visit to The Mary Rose, as well having wonderful family meals in the sizzling hot sunshine of Bordeaux. And all this in the context of a remarkable hot summer which embraced The World Cup, the Yorkshire Tour de France, Wimbledon, The Commonwealth Games and the rise of the very talented golfer Rory McIIroy.

I am writing this blog two days after the nation observed the commemorations of the start of the 1^st World War. The 6th August is one of my favourite feast days in the church’s year, the Feast of the Transfiguration. It is a story and picture that brings me back home, to Durham and Tom Denny’s beautiful and startling stained glass window of The Transfiguration in the Cathedral. But alas, the feast day also shares another anniversary, the Enola Gay over Hiroshima. A cloud of dazzling light. The transfiguring in a weapon of mass destruction.

The strange story of the transfiguration reveals a dazzling light, but yet a cloud; there is revelation yet things are hidden; a voice, but we do not know what was truly heard. All very ambiguous – the revealed remains hidden, the extraordinary appears in the ordinary, and like Elijah’s experience, God reveals himself in the silence. The transfiguration story ends when Peter speaks; the end of silence breaks the spell.

As I gather up my final reflection through the thoughts of the blogs I have written for the community at Crook, family and friends, listening has been one of my goals of the summer, listening for God for perhaps a new direction as I start my retirement years, listening on the white sun-kissed Bordeaux beaches, listening in the forest wilderness of Northern Ontario, listening in French chantry chapels. In the words of the famous song we learn to listen to “the sound of silence.” Deep prayer is founded on the discipline of deep listening. As I think of the new building project soon to get underway at Jesmond URC, Newcastle I wonder whether it was really Peter’s intention to interrupt the spectacular and awesome vision of the Transfiguration with a building project – “let us build three booths?” Typical, you might think. To every epiphany or revelation there is someone on hand to turn into a religion. This suggestion is rejected by Jesus – it shows a remarkable lack of understanding by Peter. “Let me enshrine the experience,” says Peter, “let us make a memorial, let me speak, let me build!” But Peter is required to do only one thing: watch and say nothing. Listen. It is interesting, isn’t it, that the moment Peter speaks, “a cloud overshadowed them.” And then Peter spoke only because he didn’t know what to say. The story of the transfiguration is about learning to live with the cloud and the light, and learning that the voice of God comes in quiet ways.

In the stillness and restraint of the sabbatical and with the overall thoughts of these 12 blogs marinating in the background of my mind can I detect the stirrings of God – as I wait so am I directed?   With the first letter of my Christian name in mind here are three “Rs” which as a result of the experiences of this sabbatical I hope will direct my ministry in my retirement years.

First, Relax. Blog 4 again. I am not indispensable! As I think about returning to ministry in a country and a local pastorate where the vast majority of the population continue to affirm their belief in God and then proceed to do very little about it, I have observed there is still a demand for religion that is public, performative and pastoral and that there are thousands of private spiritualities and beliefs that flourish, demonstrating that faith as statistics may reveal otherwise, does not wither and die in our culture. Rather religion mutates and lives on. So churches need to take advantage of this trend, to be open to the world and not closed to it. And in this regard the sacrament of baptism in my local situation must be offered as publicly and freely as possible, the answer to indifference is not restriction; baptism is a point of entry for the church, not the culmination of an education.

Second, Resilience. I believe that the Christian faith is remarkably resilient in the modern age, religion is still in demand. And again the church at the local level must continue to engage with the community offering shape, colour and articulation to the gospel stories. In an age of wars of religion, where religion is turning into the new global politics the church must be there provide comfort, understanding and support to the confused and bewildered.

Thirdly, Respond. The church it seems to me as I think of my local church can respond to the challenge of an apparently faithless age with a confidence in a society that refuses to leave religion alone. We continue to offer a ministry and a faith to a public that wish to relate to religion without necessarily belonging to it. And of course with rare exceptions this is what ministers have had to work with most of the time; it is both an opportunity and a challenge.

So there we have it. Some thoughts then for the future – relax; have faith in the resilience of God and his church; but also respond to the many tests of faith that dominate every age. But above all keep listening in prayer to the whispers of God in the quietness of your soul.

Ray Anglesea

Sabbatical Blog 12: Transfiguration

August 2014

Sabbatical Blog 11: The Mary Rose

Ray Anglesea shares the next installment of his sabbatical experiences

One of the joys of spending a long weekend with dear friends in Portsmouth was a visit to see The Mary Rose; one of Henry VIII’s great ships, now housed in the new Mary Rose Museum located just metres way from Nelson's flagship, HMS Victory and the ships of the modern Royal Navy.

Sometime in the late afternoon on July 19^th 1545, the Mary Rose heeled to starboard and sank whilst engaging a French invasion fleet larger than the Spanish Armada 43 years later. Centuries later the Tudor ship captured the world's imagination when she was raised from the seabed in 1982; the Flagship is the only sixteenth century warship on display anywhere in the world. The excavation and salvage of the Mary Rose was a milestone in the field of maritime archaeology. The surviving section of the ship and 19,000 thousand recovered artifacts are of immeasurable value as a Tudor-era time capsule. 

As fascinating as Henry VIII’s naval war machine was the building in which she is housed in is of considerable architectural interest too. The £27million museum opened in 2012, an elliptical timber-clad building designed by London office Wilkinson Eyre Architects and built over a late18th Century Dry Dock listed as a Scheduled Ancient Monument. It was designed with a stained black exterior, intended to reference traditional English boat sheds of the time, and a disc-shaped metal roof that curves up over its elliptical body.

The new boat-shaped Museum showcases the very best of 21st century architecture and construction, where for the first time visitors can see the starboard section of the ship's hull with its preserving sprays switched off and the final phase of the hull's conservation through internal windows in 3 different stories. The interiors were designed to recreate the dark and claustrophobic atmosphere found below a ship's deck. Spaces feature low ceilings and are kept deliberately dark, with lighting directed only onto exhibits and handrails so that visitors can find their way through the galleries.

Following the painstaking archaeological excavation and recording of the exact location of every find, the project team reunited the original contents - fittings, weaponry, armament and possessions – deck-by-deck. A virtual hull was constructed to represent the missing port side with all the guns on their original gun carriages, cannonballs, gun furniture, stores, chests, rope and rigging. Visitors to the Museum walk in between the conserved starboard section of the hull and the virtual hull on three levels, seeing all the main shipboard material in context as though they are on board the Mary Rose.

The end galleries interpret the context gallery deck-by-deck in more conventional museum display cases.  In them are to be found the most comprehensive collection of Tudor artefacts in the world from personal belongings such as wooden bowls, leather shoes, musical instruments and nit combs complete with 500 year old lice to ship's objects such as longbows and two tonne guns. For the first time, using forensic science, crew members have been brought to life giving visitors the chance to come face-face with the carpenter, cook, archer and even the ship's dog, 'Hatch'!  The complete conservation of the Mary Rose will be finished in 2016, when she will be fully integrated with the new museum environment.

As I walked around this fascinating museum a verse from St. Luke’s gospel came to my mind “For there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be known or brought out into the open.” Chapter 8 and v17.  The Tudor warship that long lay buried in the silts of the Solent has revealed its secrets. For some the idea of disturbing and investigating a maritime grave might appear distasteful - involving huge risks. To uncover what has been carefully concealed, to exhume what time and forgetting has claimed for its own is to risk bringing to light truths that could comprehensively shatter the peace of the day. The exhumations of human remains are complex archaeological issues. An engraved slab of Welsh slate in Portsmouth Cathedral marks the resting place of an unknown member of the ship’s company, who was interred with respect and dignity and one of the 500 who perished when the ship went down. Every year, on the Sunday before the anniversary of the sinking of the Mary Rose, an act of remembrance including the laying of a wreath is held at the Mary Rose grave.

Whatever the ethics of archaeological investigations out of the Solent’s silent world has come some of the treasures of the Tudor world, the leather shoe, a rosary bead, long bows, bottles, coins and part of the doomed ship itself. The memory of the crew of the Mary Rose has also been brought back to life every time a person views or holds the small treasures that the divers had salvaged. The happenings of that past day in 1545 are now laid bare in a beautiful and inspiring naval museum. Today we re-enter relationships with what has been buried.

The artefacts that are recovered, and the stories that go with them, are memorials to the souls of the dead. In effect, each artefact, becomes a meaningful memorial, a testimony to the reality of the lives of those who sailed aboard the historic ship, the Mary Rose.

Ray Anglesea

Sabbatical Blog 11: The Mary Rose, Portsmouth.

June 2014

Sabbatical Blog 10: Le Pain

Ray Anglesea shares the next installment of his sabbatical experiences

One of the joys of holidaying in France is the early morning walk, to the boulangierie, the bread shop to collect baguettes - a wand or baton of long crusty bread, made from wheat flour, water, yeast, and common salt.  As part of the traditional continental breakfast in France, slices of baguette are spread with butter and jam and dunked in bowls of coffee or hot chocolate. Delicious!

Although baguettes are closely connected to France they are today made around the world. In France, not all long loaves are baguettes; for example, a short, almost rugby ball shaped loaf is a batard (literally, bastard), or a "torpedo loaf" in English.  Another tubular shaped loaf is known as a flute. Flûtes closely resemble baguettes and weigh more or less than these, depending on the region. A thinner loaf is called a ficelle (string). A short baguette is sometimes known as a baton (stick), or even referred to using the English translation French stick.  

                       

At the boulangerie I also buy croissants; buttery flaky viennoiserie pastry named for its well-known crescent  shape. Croissants and other viennoiserie are made of a layered yeast yeast-leavened dough. The dough is layered with butter, rolled and folded several times in succession, then rolled into a sheet, in a technique called laminating. The process results in a layered, flaky texture, similar to a puff pastry. Crescent-shaped food breads have been made since the Middle Ages, and crescent-shaped cakes possibly since antiquity.

The morning lectionary readings around the pool on Sunday 27 July (7^th Sunday after Pentecost) were the many kingdom parables found in the gospel of Matthew, chapter 13:31-33, 44-52 - yeast being one of them. Jesus suggests that the Kingdom of Heaven is like yeast that is mixed in with bread. It is what makes the wine and beer, it makes the dough to rise to make the bread. It is the tiny insignificant catalyst for our basic commodities and the formation of our communities; it is the leaven in the lump; the difference between bread and dough; juice and wine, refreshment and celebration. Yeast is the ingredient that turns the passive into active; the flat into flavoursome; the ordinary into the extraordinary.

When Jesus talks about the Kingdom of God as yeast – and our ministers too – he is not advocating the concentrate in a jar: yeast for the sake of yeast. No, in Jesus imagination, we are invited to get lost. To loose ourselves into something bigger. But not pointlessly. Rather, in “dying” to our context, we activate it. We become the catalyst that brings flavour, strength, depth, potency and growth. Without yeast, there is no loaf, just dough. Literally we die to ourselves for growth: we are what makes bread for the world.

John Paul Lederach, Professor of International Peace building at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana, offers a rich meditation on our calling to be yeast. Consider this. The most common ingredients for making bread are water, flour, salt, sugar and yeast. Of these, yeast is the smallest in quantity, but the only one that makes a substantial change to all the other ingredients. Lederach says you only need a few people to change a lot of things. Quality changes quantity. Size does not matter very much. It is quality that counts, not quantity. Small things then make a difference. Tiny spores of yeast change the mass. So yeast, to be useful needs to move from its incubation and be mixed into the process – out of the church buildings into ever day life.  Yeast reminds us that God can do some very promising things with the apparently negligible. This is where God sees potential and hope.

We can be the yeast that is kneaded in to make the bread, that we may all become one. But we must let God set the pace, the bread rises in time; the wine matures only when it is ready.

A few years ago I was privileged to visit Somewhere Else, the Liverpool Bread Church to meet the founder of the project, the Revd Dr Barbara Glasson, a Methodist minister. Somewhere Else in Liverpool's City Centre is a response to the belief that there is a life-giving message in this gospel story. The “church” gathers as a faith community around the making and sharing of bread. While the bread was rising, the conversation would turn to the important issues of life, shared in the warm kitchen. People would read from the Bible, pray for one another. They became companions (= cum panis, with bread). Bread reaches across cultural and social divides enabling those who knead and shape it to explore their experience. A constant flow of visitors to this community has ensured that ripples from the 'bread church" are reaching ever further and wider, locally, nationally and internationally. All are encouraged to bake two loaves: one for themselves and one to share as they feel led. Dr Gleeson stated:

“Making bread has taught us so much – the process of baking mirrors so much in life: the pummelling and proving is about how we engage with one another, the waiting for the dough to rise is about how we give each other time. Churches generally are a bit obsessed with numbers and outcomes. But the bread makes us wait … it needs to rest, to rise. In the waiting time the smell of the bread triggers memories and facilitates story so that people quite naturally talk to each other. And every loaf we make is different. Bread is a sign to the world.

Ray Anglesea

Sabbatical Blog 10: Le Pain, France 

August 2014