![[Cathy Michell]](../by/Cathy_Michell.jpg)
by Cathy Michell
For further information about the Cambridge Inter Faith Group and its programme please contact Mrs Cathy Michell, the author of this article.
She is Head of Religious Studies at Hills Road Sixth Form College and also a Methodist Local Preacher.
Cathy can be contacted at Tel. 01223 367885 or Fax. 01223 513315 or at work.
It may have taken a long time but it is probably now true to say that the majority of people in Britain accept the multi-cultural and multi-faith nature of our society. For some this may be a grudging or even hostile realisation; others rejoice in the richness and interest which a diversity of nationalities and religious backgrounds brings to our social environment. It is easy to think that it is only in larger towns and cities that such a mix of peoples occurs. Our minds conjure up Birmingham, Leicester, Bradford, London. Here our national multi-cultural colour is obvious, as domed mosques, ornate Hindu temples, the towers of churches and chapels crowd the scene. At street level turbans and saris, the sound of numerous languages and the tantalising smells of a host of different cuisines bring home to our senses the fact of our social plurality. But even in smaller towns and in the countryside, apparently monotone, great diversity is there to be discovered. Cambridge itself illustrates this. An attempt to list the dozens and dozens of religious and cultural groups in this city is impossible. All the major World Faiths are represented, including Baha'i, and the varieties within these faith as well. So, too, are groups such as Christian Science, the Spiritualists, Unitarians, Mormons, Subud and the Brahma Kumaris, to name but a few. The so-called New Age also flourishes with dance, chant and meditation. We have, even in this relatively small city, a 'Strawberry Fair' of culture and ethnicity, faith and practice.
It is most especially this undeniable presence of religious diversity which motivates the task of inter-faith dialogue and which led to the setting-up of the Inter Faith Network for the UK. The Cambridge Inter Faith Group, meeting monthly at Wesley Church, is a member organisation of this national body.
So what is inter-faith dialogue? Put very simply there are two basic approaches which may be adopted by religious people in their relationships with each other, either individually or communally. The first is an exclusivism which effectively shuts the door to neighbourly contact. This is a sectarian reaction. It may be held through fear of the strange or, for example, be the position of those who are convinced that, since their own beliefs and practices alone enshrine the Truth, there is no need to listen to or learn from other religious traditions. In this case contact, if it happens at all, may be limited to the attempt to convert their adherents from error. The alternative to such a closed solution is characterised not simply by a passive tolerance of others' beliefs or ways of living, but by an active attempt both to be in contact with people of other religions and to begin and sustain dialogue with them.
Dialogue is a formal word and as such is appropriate for the task which inter-faith groups set themselves. These groups, ideally composed of members belonging to all local religious organisations, see themselves first as forums where people can hear about the deeply held convictions of others and speak themselves about their own faith. This process involves mutual learning, the building of trust and the ability to empathise. It demands attentive listening and acute questioning. It combines the search for overlapping threads of understanding which religious traditions may share in common, with growing appreciation of each religion's very distinctive, self-defining character. It holds unity and diversity in tension. In addition to this truly educational role, inter-faith organisations seek, for example, to be centres for the disseminationof information, to advise on multi-faith issues, to foster co-operation between communities in civic activities and in social welfare projects and campaigns, to arrange and host meetings, conferences and academic seminars and to liaise with schools and SACREs (county council standing advisory committees for religious education). Such dialogue, then, and most importantly the action in the wider community which flows from it, is seen by members of the Inter Faith Network as absolutely crucial. It is vital, religiously speaking, that people of faith explore together the richness of their spiritual insights into the nature of the world, humanity, morality, the Divine. It is good and necessary that they share with each other the sophisticated accounts which all traditions have struggled to construct over generations in response to those existential questions which for ever gnaw at humankind. Disagreement about these is not to be lamented but used, for such debate is dynamic and, properly conducted, pushes us all to go on searching for what may be true. Dialogue is also vital socially because it lays a foundation of integrity upon which effective, collaborative social action - for justice and peace - may be established.
Dialogue is at the formal level what conversation and genuine open-handed friendship are at the level of the kitchen table, shop counter or factory canteen: thus we can all engage in it at any time or in any place. It is people of faith reaching across the potentially stultifying barriers of creed, culture, colour or caste to acknowledge a common, flesh-and-blood humanity. Across a world marred by hatreds fuelled by religious zeal it sows the hopeful and hardy seeds of reconciliation.
![[Robert Avery]](../by/Robert_Avery.jpg)
by the Revd Robert Avery, Vicar of Tamerton Foliot, Devon, formerly curate of Great St Mary's and co-founder of Majestas
It is surely a good thing that we live in an age when there is increasing tolerance and interest between religions. The challenge of dialogue for the Christian churches has become much more prominent during the last 25 years, and declarations by the Second Vatican Council and the World Council of Churches have played their part in strengthening the Church's commitment to understanding other traditions' concepts and language about God. Of course at a personal level the challenge of dialogue has been a reality for those working in missionary contexts for several hundred years, since at least the time Western Christian missionaries first encountered the different religious beliefs and practices which sustained the lives of people in China, India and Japan.
The challenge of gaining a genuine grasp of language about the Ultimate that is profoundly different from the Christian understanding of a trinitarian and incarnational God should not be underestimated. David Tracy, who is a leading Roman Catholic theologian living in America, writes about the beginnings of a process of Buddhist-Christian dialogue he has been involved in for seven years: "...the two organisers did not allow us to speak about God and emptiness for the first two years. The first year the dialogue was on 'What is the problem?'; so the Christians had to talk about what they thought was awry and what they meant by sin, and the Buddhists on Avijja, or primal ignorance. The second year was on 'What is enlightenment?' and 'What is redemption?'; and only then were we allowed to talk about God." (In The Christian Understanding of God Today, ed. James M. Byrne.)
The process of dialogue must inevitably continue in a world where the sharing of know-ledge and information grows faster and faster. It can be enhanced by a sensitivity to the insight that understanding the questions of others can help us discover our own answers.
One article in this issue of Majestas has a special poignancy David Hollier's 'Dogon Days'. It is with the greatest sadness that we have to report David's sudden death, just before this issue was due to go to press. David's contribution to Majestas has been immense. He was one of the three people who planned and launched Majestas two years ago, and every issue has heavily benefited from his editorial skill and energy, as well as the numerous articles he has written and the photographs he has taken. As is obvious from his final article here, David had a wide-ranging and often passionate interest in a great variety of areas and this frequently provided the inspiration for the theme of an issue of Majestas or potential contributors to be approached for material. When contributors defaulted and deadlines loomed, it usually fell to David to find a last-minute alternative or to write a piece himself. He always managed it. Beyond Majestas, David's contribution to the life of Great St Mary's was considerable: the PCC, the Worship and Education Committee, the Friends of Great St Mary's, special events including last year's Open Day, and Wider Concerns links all benefited from his great commitment. He we will be much missed.
We affectionately dedicate this issue of Majestas to his memory.
![[Choir]](August/Choir.jpeg)
At half term, members and friends of the Parish Choir were invited to sing two services of Evensong in Portsmouth Cathedral. On arrival at St John's College, the group was quickly established in the dormitories. Plenty of time was allowed after practices for sightseeing and recreation in the magnificently equipped sports hall.
On a conducted tour of Nelson's flagship, the boys were told of the rigours of life at sea at the time of the Battle of Trafalgar. An afternoon was spent at Southsea fair and on the last afternoon the group crossed the Solent to the Isle of Wight and visited Quarr Abbey, where the choir was invited to sing in the monastery chapel.
![[Vicar and Camel]](August/Vicar_And_Camel.jpeg)
![[Camel]](August/Camel.jpeg)
The six-day walk from Oxford to Cambridge celebrated the 200th anniversary of the Church Mission Society and raised funds for schools for the nomadic Gabbra tribe in northern Kenya. On 27th June, Cleo the Camel and the walkers were met at the Gibbs Arch in King's College by the Vice-Chancellor, the Provost of King's and the Bishop of Ely. They all continued to Great St Mary's and entered by the west door for a service of thanksgiving. There was also a special Evensong.
![[Bellringers]](August/Bellringers.jpeg)
To celebrate the 275th anniversary of the Great St Mary's bellringers (the Society of Cambridge Youths, founded on 3rd August 1724), a full peal of Cambridge Surprise Maximus will be rung by past and present officers, starting at 4.30 pm on Tuesday 3rd August. Six past members of the Society will also attempt a peal on handbells on 30th September and 7th October.
![[Christmas card]](August/Christmas_card.jpeg)
The Christmas card (shown here) produced by the Friends of GSM will shortly be available from the gift shop at £3 for ten cards and envelopes. Early availability has been arranged to help those sending cards overseas.
![[Susanna Gregory]](August/Susanna_Gregory.jpeg)
Susanna Gregory's historical crime books have the 14th-century college of Michaelhouse as their background, and her new book, A Wicked Deed, was launched in St Michael's (formerly the college chapel) on 22nd June. She spoke about Michaelhouse and Cambridge in the 14th century, and Mavis Perkins read from the new book and from the new paperback edition of A Deadly Brew. Heffers provided leaflets about the event and the Michaelhouse Project benefited from book sales on the night. Susanna did two interviews for BBC Radio Cambridgeshire which drew attention to her book and our project.
Medical Aid in Romania is holding a fundraising dinner and fashion show on Friday 8th October at 7.30 pm at Selwyn College. The dinner will be a traditional Romanian meal and the fashion show will be staged by Austin Reed. Tickets cost £14 (cheques payable to MSR) and are available from Liz Howe (01638 781225) or from Austin Reed, Cambridge.
![[David Hollier]](../by/David_Hollier.jpg)
David Hollier had a glimpse of animist traditions.
![[Dogon Masks]](August/Dogon_Masks.jpeg)
As we made our way down the steep, rocky path on the Bandiagara escarpment, we could hear the drums in the village below. The drums provided the accompaniment to the masked dances which we watched in the centre of the village of Tirelli. Only men perform the dances and each man makes his own mask, which may represent an animal (such as a rabbit or antelope), a bird or a reptile. Putting on the mask transforms the wearer who takes on the character of the animal or bird. The dancers wear skirts made from dyed fibre from the baobab or the hibiscus tree and some of the masks are decorated with cowrie shells, a relic of the time when these shells (brought by traders crossing the Sahara) were the currency in this area. Some dancers performed on stilts and one dancer wore a twelve-foot mask representing the creation, with which he drew the arc of the sun's path. These funeral dances are carried out to honour the dead and to placate ancestral spirits.
![[Dogon Dance]](August/Dogon_Dance.jpeg)
Tirelli is one of the Dogon villages I visited last November during a visit to Mali in West Africa, which is the fifth poorest country in the world. The Dogon arrived in this region 600 years ago and took over the religion and artistic culture of the previous residents, the Tellem people. The villages are built in the shape of a human body lying north to south, with the blacksmith's forge at the head, the women's menstruation houses as the hands and family houses as the belly. The houses are of mud brick with flat roofs, and each family has at least two granaries, which have conical straw roofs and elaborately carved doors of acacia wood. The families spend their time growing millet and sorghum, rice and beans on patches of the arid land: the grain is ground with pestles to make flour and millet beer. Small onion beds (a legacy of French rule) have to be watered by hand each day and produce a crop to take to market. There are no services such as electricity, running water, roads or shops - but there is a market every five days.
Mali is a Muslim country, with some impressive mud-brick mosques such as the huge mosque at Djenne. The Dogon people are traditionally animist but 35% have become Muslim, although only a few villages have a mosque. Christianity has scarcely any influence among the Dogon or in Mali. As animists, the Dogon have a culture and lifestyle which is linked to an elaborate cosmological and creation myth. Apart from the layout of the village, certain features (such as a rock or a baobab tree) are endowed with spirits, and fetishes (carvings or statuettes, perhaps covered with earth) are sacred and provide protection against evil spirits. In one home I saw a large tortoise which receives enormous respect. Mythical powers are claimed for it as they consider that the spirits of departed elders of the family repose in the tortoise.
![[Dogon Village]](August/Dogon_Village.jpeg)
At one village we saw the divination beds (see picture below), where a village elder marks grids in the sand and inserts wooden pegs. An offering, such as groundnuts, is left overnight to attract the fox, who leaves paw prints on the grid. The elder returns the next morning to interpret the tracks to solve a villager's problem or to predict the future.
![[Dogon Stones]](August/Dogon_Stones.jpeg)
Each village has a hogon, the spiritual leader, who is confined to his own compound and dispenses advice and cures. He also has a granary of grain contributed by the villagers to use in case of crisis (such as drought), and he takes a leading role in funerals. The funeral rites, of which the masked dances are a part, are complicated and are not revealed to outsiders. The dead are buried in caves in the sandstone cliff and considerable physical skill is required to climb up the cliff with the corpse. These rock graves reminded me of the Torajah area of Sulawesi in Indonesia, where the communities are also animist. As with the Dogon, some animist traditions were maintained even when another religion was embraced.
The 250,000 Dogon are largely untouched by 20th-century modernity. Their seclusion has enabled them to maintain their lifestyle and culture, including carving, dance and architecture, which are based on religious beliefs and are full of symbolism. There is an overriding concern with creation in an area where fertility and crops are of paramount importance, and there are many children in the villages. I wonder whether they will grow up to maintain the traditional Dogon ways or will look further afield or want to introduce western culture.
![[CMS Logo]](August/CMS_Logo.jpeg){kind=logo}
![[Andrew Cromarty]](../by/Andrew_Cromarty.jpg)
Andrew Cromarty on mission in Malaysia
Andrew Cromarty is CMS Area Co-ordinator in East Anglia.
"Be careful. They're rioting in the streets!" It was with a mixture of astonishment and embarrassment, once in Malaysia, that I discovered the predilection of the western press for exaggeration. A day-long peaceful demonstration near the Anglican Cathedral, just prior to Her Majesty The Queen's cathedral evensong and closing of the Commonwealth Games, had finally been met with inappropriate force, following repeated requests for people to disperse. The former Deputy Prime Minister, Anwar Ibrahim, an open Islamist, was facing dubious charges in what was to be a tortuous and internationally-publicised trial. Given the circumstances, his supporters showed remarkable restraint. To the astonishment of the nation, and the wider world, he now faces several years of imprisonment on the basis of ostensibly flimsy and shifting evidence.
During the last 25 years the influence of Islam has gained ground progressively. Churches have been allowed to grow, generally without interference, provided they do not attempt evangelism among Muslims. Anwar, who has a sizeable following among 'ordinary' working people, has emerged from a more radical political and religious landscape. Despite his previously stated aspirations towards a Malaysian Islamic state, there are signs that his views are moderating and that such a move would not in fact be precipitated were he released from prison earlier than anticipated.
CMS (The Church Mission Society - currently celebrating its bicentenary) had approved my proposal for a ten-week fact-finding and relationship-building tour of our partner Anglican churches in Sabah and West Malaysia. The Diocese of Sabah has grown vigorously during the last 30 years, since the expatriate missionary clergy were forced to leave in the early 1970s. Christians now comprise 45% of the state's population. The Rt Revd Datuk Yong Ping Chung, the visionary and energetic Diocesan Bishop, reminisces about those days, when the church was reduced to five ordained men and the only resource available for evangelism consisted of youngsters coming to the end of their courses in Mission Schools. Sixteen-year-olds, after exams, were allocated in pairs to different villages, provided with rice and tins of meat and told to go and evangelise, returning six weeks later, jubilant about the way in which God had moved. Many of those young people are now the trained evangelists and pastors serving Bahasa Malaysian-speaking communities through the Sabah Anglican Interior - and Urban - Missions (SAIM and SAUM), through whose ministry over 15,000 Kadazan tribal people have left traditional practices to come to faith in Christ, as have many Dusun and Rungus. A deep commitment to prayer and unflinching willingness to witness to others have borne much fruit, with lively committed churches serving rural and urban tribal communities alike. SAIM's chairman has completed a CMS-sponsored Masters' degree in Birmingham, comparing the Biblical Christ with the Koranic Esa.
Among the English- and Chinese-speaking communities, likewise, there has been amazing growth, drawing people from traditional Chinese religious affiliations into the Church. StPatrick's, Tawau, deeply committed to the Cell Church principle and repeatedly planting new churches, has just built its first 7,000-seater worship stadium. At the Anglican Cathedral in Kota Kinabalu, the state capital of Sabah, the "Mighty Kids' Club" aims to help establish children's faith through monthly hands-on activity days and by exposing non-Christian friends to caring peers. The 1998 Christmas outreach party attracted 1,103 youngsters, of whom over 300 responded for the first time to a simple explanation of the Gospel. They are currently being supported and followed up prayerfully.
![[Bonfire]](August/Bonfire.jpeg)
In Sandakan, Sabah's second city, at the Church of the Good Shepherd, I was privileged to accompany a church team responding to a request from a recently-converted Christian woman to have her domestic altars removed. After much prayer and singing, we dismantled three large altars, prayed through the house with her, placing crosses in each room, and, after a celebratory tea, took the idols and debris away to the church for burning. After a year as a Christian she was realising her freedom in Christ not to have to offer sacrifices to the spirits and wanted a tangible break with the past. She was visibly relieved and rejoiced openly with us.
The Churches of Malaysia have much to teach us. Their courage, prayerfulness, expectancy and passion for mission are exemplary. I found it both salutary and encouraging, wherever I travelled, to meet church members who had been on mission teams to Lichfield or who had hosted mission teams from the UK. In mission we have much to learn from each other. Our call is to be ready to go and to receive, to pray expectantly and to give generously. Christ supports us, and in our responding He weaves his tapestry of love about both us and those we reach.
![[John Jillions]](../by/John_Jillions.jpg)
The Revd John Jillions, of St Ephraim's, Cambridge, on the Russian Orthodox Tradition
The other day I was ringing someone who had written to me asking if I might give a talk about Russian Orthodoxy. When I gave her my name and said I was the local Russian Orthodox priest replying to her note there was a long pause, and then a confused response as the woman said, "Well, your accent; I didn't expect an American...."
The Russian Orthodox Church - or the Orthodox Church as I prefer to call this tradition - speaks in many accents today, often unexpected. Indeed, if people have become accustomed to thinking of the Orthodox as strictly 'Eastern', then they may be surprised that the Orthodox themselves, especially in England, are very much at home with the deep roots of western Orthodoxy. What I mean is that for us, St Alban, St Augustine, St Columba, St Cuthbert and our own St Etheldreda of Ely are as much a part of the Orthodox world as St Seraphim of Sarov. More than this, despite the obvious changes that occurred in the English Church at the Reformation, there is a sense of continuity with this Orthodox past in many Anglican churches, such that I have found myself deeply moved on many occasions in Anglican worship, particularly by the singing of hymns and psalms.
There are over 200 Orthodox communities in the United Kingdom, served by 170 clergy, with an estimated 250-300,000 members, perhaps 500,000 or more if those who are nominally Orthodox are all included. They represent churches with roots in Cyprus, Greece, Russia, the Middle East, Byelorussia, the Ukraine, Yugoslavia, Romania and Bulgaria. (The UK is also home to a large community of Oriental Orthodox from the Armenian, Coptic, Ethiopian, Syrian and Syrian-Indian Churches.) While immigrant culture continues to play a formidable role in many of these communities, more and more children and grandchildren of immigrants now feel equally at home in Great Britain, and many will marry outside their ethnic and church community. There is also an increasing number of people with no 'Eastern' background at all - though the total is still comparatively small - who have chosen to join the Orthodox Church. It is also clear that the isolation of immigrant communities is giving way to increasing engagement with life and thought in the UK. All of these have been important factors in the formation of the new Institute for Orthodox Christian Studies in Cambridge, the first Orthodox theological college in Great Britain (see marginal note).
It is difficult to distil the ethos of any living tradition of faith, especially in a very brief article, but perhaps the most characteristic aspect of Orthodox life is the sense of being in communion with the Church. By this I don't mean merely a human organisation, but the whole Christ, head and body, the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church that one can trust as "the Church of the living God, the pillar and bulwark of the truth" (1 Tim. 3: 15). One has a sense of stepping into something much bigger than ourselves. As Metropolitan Anthony Bloom writes, "The Church is vast. So vast that it holds both heaven and earth. So vast that all people of all nations, of all cultures, of all languages are its home." Similarly, Bishop Kallistos Ware says of his own early experience in the Liturgy, "I realised that we ... were part of a much larger whole, and that as we prayed we were being taken up into an action far greater than ourselves, into an undivided, all-embracing celebration that united time and eternity, things below with things above."
It is this divine vastness that an Orthodox senses in the Church and which makes him or her humble before it, slow to judge it, to change it, to accuse it, to malign it or despise it (1 Cor. 11: 22). To be sure, on a human level the Orthodox Church is a religious institution riddled with all the temptations and sins that flesh is heir to, but beneath all this flows an unbroken stream of divine life.
When I first came to Cambridge in 1994 there was no weekly Russian Orthodox Liturgy, so I often came to Great St Mary's for the 9.30 am service, sometimes before going on to the service at St Athanasios Greek Orthodox Church (meeting at St Clement's). I am very grateful that our tiny Orthodox community has been given use of the Hervey de Stanton Chapel in St Michael's, though I recall with affection those mornings at Great St Mary's.
Work on establishing the Institute for Orthodox Christian Studies has been going on for the last two years. (John Binns has been actively involved from the beginning.) In May it formally joined the Cambridge Theological Federation (which includes Westcott House and Ridley Hall). The first students will begin this October. As part of its programme there will be visiting lectures and weekend courses open to all.
For information, call or write to the Institute at Wesley House, Jesus Lane, Cambridge CB5 8BJ (01223 741037; e-mail jaj23@cam.ac.uk).
![[Natalia Sukhova]](../by/Natalia_Sukhova.jpg)
Natalia Salukhova, who worshipped with us at GSM in May, came in search of the English Christmas.
My name is Natalia Salukhova. I come from Smolensk, a city of 360,000 people, with a long history. I attend the liturgy at the Cathedral of the Assumption, which dominates the skyline. There has been a church on the site since the early 12th century.
For me, as a teacher of English from Russia, Great Britain has always been my promised land. My students ask many questions about the history, culture, religion and traditions of your country and the only way for me to answer them in a really interesting way is by seeing everything with my own eyes. This visit has been a dream come true. The visit was made possible through a scholarship scheme run by the Keston Institute in Oxford. The scheme gives an opportunity to teachers, scholars, theologians, writers and clergy from Russia and Eastern Europe to spend one term in Oxford working on a project of their own choice in the field of religion or theology.
The topic of my research was English Christmas traditions. Unfortunately the beautiful Russian Christmas traditions were largely forgotten over many years of state atheism. Christmas only became a holiday again in the late 1980s. For a long time I have wanted a large, attractive and well produced book about Christmas in England but nothing of the sort has ever been available in Russia. Such a book would be a great asset to anyone studying or teaching English. The thought led me to the idea of compiling my own Christmas book. I found a lot of interesting literature about Christmas in Oxford libraries, but most important of all I have been encouraged by kind people always ready to help by sharing their thoughts and experiences.
As well as working on my project I have been learning about youth ministry and religious education in the UK. It has been interesting to compare the situation here with that in my country. Some of the problems evident in multicultural Britain are emerging in multiethnic Russia too. We rejoice in new possibilities for communicating the Christian message, but my own experience living in different parts of the former Soviet Union with their ethnic and religious diversity drives home the fundamental importance of tolerance and authentic religious freedom for our life together.
The scholarship scheme which facilitated Natalia's visit is supported by GSM via the Wider Concerns Committee.
![[USPG Logo]](August/USPG_Logo.jpeg){kind=logo}
Bishop Mano Rumalshah on Christianity in Pakistan
The Right Revd Mano Rumalshah is General Secretary, USPG, and was previously Bishop of Peshawar.
or a long time, tensions in South Asia created by religious conflict have been an almost constant feature in the news. Despite many inter-faith dialogues and initiatives, there is no end to hatred and bitterness. No way to live together in peace has been found.
![[Mano and Binns]](August/Mano_and_Binns.jpeg)
South Asia represents 1.2 billion of the world's population. All the main religions of the world are practised. Four of them, Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism and Sikhism, were born there. It has the largest presence of Muslims in the world, a sprink-ling of Christians, and even some Jews. Until the arrival of Islam from Central Asia it would appear that local communities lived in harmony with each other. There was no conflict based on religious identity. Despite the concentration of Muslims in South Asia, the feeling still remains that this 'foreign' religion introduced religious intolerance. Whilst Christianity did not use coercion in the same way to get a foothold, it too is perceived as a 'foreign religion'.
In most human situations people are identified by colour, class or culture. Here in Britain, class and, increasingly, colour are perceived as the yardstick of our identity. Elsewhere in the world, however, the wrong religious identity can be a death warrant. Persecution is not restricted to Christians. Equally this is the experience of Muslims in the Philippines or Bosnia, of Buddhists in Tibet, and of Hindus in Sri Lanka. In Pakistan and other parts of South Asia, the minority Christian community is in danger in an Islamic-majority land.
Increasingly Christians living in Pakistan consciously - or unconsciously - try to live alongside their Muslim brothers by concentrating on finding ways in which their religious beliefs are similar to Islam rather than different from it.
It is inevitable that Christians in Pakistan should use and interpret the Bible with the mind-set of people living as a minority in a majority Islam context. They would focus on issues which would relate to such a life. They might well look for similarities in belief rather than differences. Since Islam places a great emphasis on the law, Shariah, so Christians become keen to uphold a 'Biblical law' like that given to Moses. More significance is attached to the law found in the Bible than the Grace which is constantly available through Jesus Christ. Similarities between the Old Testament teaching and Islam pose a serious threat to the Christian (Grace-based) interpretation of scripture.
Let us consider some examples. Most Christians in Pakistan do not eat pig's meat because they live in a Muslim environment, but somehow they believe they are following the Bible. They justify their practice with proof texts (e.g. Deut. 14: 8). Similarly the attitude to women in the Christian Church is hotly debated. The role of women in worship might be played down, on the grounds of the remarks about women and worship in 1 Corinthians 11. The prominent role of women in the early Christian congregations would be ignored (Lydia - Acts 16; Phebe - Romans 16: 1; Chloe - 1 Cor. 1: 11). In fact Islamic attitudes to women play the most prominent role.
It is easy to stand in judgement from afar. Rather, we should share the heart of Jesus as we judge (John 8: 2-11). Who could blame a Christian in such a minority environment from diluting his belief and faith in order to live in peace and harmony with his neighbour? Who could blame a Muslim for staying with an Islamic way of life even if he believed and trusted in Jesus Christ, when it could mean the difference between life and death in this mortal life?
It is so much easier to be a Christian when one is not constantly looking over one's shoulder; it is so much easier to take a hard line on a biblical issue if it doesn't immediately affect or tempt you.
Do we not all water down our beliefs at some time for the sake of peaceful coexistence? And yet, do we not have a responsibility to be persecuted for righteousness' sake (Matthew 5: 10-11)? This is the uncomfortable call for all Christians, wherever we live.
David Lehmann on Christianity in the 'Third World'
David Lehmann is a sociologist who has conducted extensive research on religion in Latin America.
The Vicar, the Revd Dr John Binns, writes:
Some of the most creative and challenging theological thinking and practice of recent years has come out of Asia, Africa and Latin America. The 'base communities' of Latin America have reinterpreted Biblical narratives in a way that makes them alive and relevant for marginalised communities. In this article, Dr David Lehmann, Director of the Centre of Latin American Studies, describes how this tradition has developed.
The Gospels emphasise the idea of God working through the poor to turn the world upside down: consider the Magnificat, for example. Similarly, it is worth recalling that the periphery - especially the distant poor in the 'Third World' - is, paradoxically, central to the experience of modern Christians in rich countries like ours. The proclamation of the Gospel in distant parts has indeed led to the world's being turned upside down, sometimes to the surprise and even dismay of the missionaries themselves.
The enormous missionary efforts of the Church of England and the London Missionary Society gave birth not only to African branches of the Church of England, but also, subsequently, to innumerable breakaway churches. These were often inspired by American 'black' churches which themselves had broken away a hundred years earlier. In all of this, the Gospel demonstrated its enormous power: indeed it might be argued that the breakaway churches demonstrated the power of the Gospel even more forcefully than the European missionaries themselves.
The history of Pentecostalism - so strong among African and Caribbean communities in this country, in Africa and in Latin America - is as much a 'Third World' history as anything else - even though observers persist in describing it as an American importation. Both Pentecostalism and that other, very different, 'Third World' force, Liberation Theology, illustrate a paradox about Christianity: the 'periphery', the 'colonised' territories, acquires a force and an independence that cannot be controlled by the core, or the 'mother Church'.
Liberation Theology calls upon Christians to act in community, to think of sacrifices and positive contributions to social justice, beyond the pursuit of individual salvation. Jesus is seen as being, in some sense, embodied in the poor and the distressed, in the refugees from Kosovo and the beggars of Calcutta. No wonder it is accused of being too political. For the followers of Liberation Theology, it is acting, standing up and being counted, which is the most important expression of their Christianity. These are the ideas which impel a bishop in the midst of fierce and violent conflict in Amazonia, say, to tell his flock that he will follow them wherever their struggles will take them. Liberation may summon up some age-old themes, but the actions it leads to are revolutionary.
When the idea of liberation came to Catholicism in the late 1960s it caught on like wildfire, in all sorts of places and in all sorts of versions. For some, it meant the liberation of indigenous peoples, such as we have seen in Mexico, where the Bishop of Chiapas is alternately blamed for the Chiapas uprising and called upon to mediate in the subsequent negotiations. For others, it meant a total reorganisation of the Church, with Base Christian Communities called upon to take charge, and even power, as if on a Protestant model. For yet others, those Base Communities have been a useful basis for the moral renewal of Church life under the aegis of the established hierarchy. Liberation Theology is thus a kind of 'official opposition' within the institutionalised Christian Churches, and the Vatican has adopted some of its principles, especially the "preferential option for the poor".
The born-again, the charismatic, the evangelicals and the Pentecostals sing different tunes, but there are similarities between them. They tend to be averse to ecumenism and to see corruption in the long heritage of power and prestige on which Catholicism and Anglicanism base their authority. Many among their numbers talk of how Catholicism and Anglicanism (which they dismiss jointly as churches of 'the establishment') have become supine, their hierarchies, their clergy and their bureaucracies self-serving, distanced from the people and from God. This may be cheap rhetoric, but it has placed both the progressive and the conservative heirs to these mainstream traditions on the defensive.
What might be called 'progressive' Christianity, be it Protestant or Catholic, is under fire from both traditional power-holders, such as the Pope and now most of the bishops and cardinals he has appointed and created since 1979, and from the rapidly growing body of born-again Christians, who feel that they derive their religious inspiration directly from the Holy Spirit.
While Liberation Theology and its ecumenical friends proclaim the cause of the poor, the more media-friendly and less doctrinally preoccupied evangelicals forge ahead among millions of desperately poor people, proclaiming a much more accessible and, in some ways, materialistic doctrine. African churches cut their links with the mainstream while nonetheless remaining fervently and even austerely Christian. It is difficult for us to know whether we are now witnessing a similar process in Latin America, or whether recent developments there herald a new Christianity of instant gratification.
![[Abhaya]](../by/Abhaya.jpg)
Abhaya explains the foundation of Buddhist vision.
Abhaya is a Member of the Western Buddhist Order
The whole of Buddhism is expressed in one of its famous symbols, the Three Jewels. The supreme Buddhist act is to Go for Refuge to the Three Jewels, that is, to make the three Jewels more and more central in one's life. They are often depicted as a yellow or golden jewel hovering over a blue jewel and a red jewel, all three resting on a deep red, fully opened lotus flower. The lotus is a symbol of spiritual growth. The yellow jewel is the Buddha, or the Ideal of Enlightenment to which Buddhists aspire. The blue jewel is the Dharma, the Teaching of the Buddha, all those teachings and methods of practice which the Buddha has placed at our disposal. 'Dharma' can also mean the Truth which the Buddha realised at his enlightenment. The red jewel is the Sangha, the Spiritual Community of all those sincerely following the Buddhist path.
Buddhism begins, of course, with the Buddha, the yellow jewel. He was born an ordinary human being, in north-east India over 2,500 years ago, and became a Buddha when he achieved enlightenment. As a young man, Siddhartha Gautama (his original name), profoundly disillusioned by the suffering and imperfection in the world, left home and family behind in search of the Truth which transcends all suffering. After several years of intense spiritual effort, he achieved what he was looking for and experienced the peace of Liberation. In Buddhist art, the newly enlightened Buddha is often depicted seated cross-legged in meditation under the Bodhi tree, with eyes closed and a tranquil and compasssionate look on his face.
It is important to understand, when approaching Buddhism for the first time, that the central figure, the Buddha, is not, like Christ or Mohammed, either a god or a prophet. Nor is he just a very good man. He is an Enlightened human being, who has reached the highest peak of spiritual development possible. From that peak he shows the way to those who follow.
The word 'Buddha' comes from a root word meaning 'awake'. Sometimes the Buddha is referred to as the Awakened One, one who has woken up, in the sense of having attained profound Insight into the nature of existence. In traditional Buddhist teaching this is expressed in terms of seeing that all things whatsoever, physical or mental, either in our own minds or in the universe at large, are ultimately unsatisfactory, impermanent and without self; that is, they have no enduring substance.
The unenlightened suffer because they are in the habit of treating themselves, other people and things they like as if they really can give complete satisfaction, go on for ever and have an unchanging self or substance. Because of this, they respond to the world with greed, hatred and delusion, the three root poisons which, throughout their spiritual life, Buddhists strive to get rid of. In their place, they cultivate contentment, friendliness and clarity.
There are many variations of the Path to Enlightenment. The most famous is the Eightfold Path. A less well known one is the Threefold Path of Ethics, Meditation and Wisdom. It is more helpful to think of these three stages not so much as steps, but rather as branches of a tree, which are all developing at the same time, though at different rates.
Meditation is the central Buddhist practice. The Buddha became enlightened when he was meditating. Following traditional Buddhist meditation techniques, one learns to integrate all one's scattered energies and to develop a continuous flow of positive mental states. From that basis, one can eventually go on to develop Insight into the nature of reality. But none of this can happen unless one is living an ethical life, or, as Buddhists prefer to put it, a skilful life. Thus all three aspects of the Path are closely related.
The third jewel is Spiritual Community. The Buddha himself stressed the importance of spiritual friendship. In practice, it is hardly possible to make any real progress without the help and support of one's spiritual friends. There are many lifestyles open to Buddhists. Some live alone in remote places and practice meditation intensively. Others live with their families, working outside the spiritual community. Some choose the monastic lifestyle. What unites them all as Buddhists is their Going for Refuge to the Three Jewels. Members of the Spiritual Community gather together in large numbers on festival days. The most important of these is Buddha Day, when we celebrate the Buddha's Enlightenment, reciting verses and chanting mantras in a beautiful devotional ceremony.
GSM Member Lee Browne visits our link school, in South Africa.
![[School Sign]](August/School_Sign.jpeg)
Seetsa Sa Kgwedi Primary School (the name of which means 'moonlight') is in Soshanguve, a deprived area 25km north-west of Pretoria, full of squatters and tin shacks; the township is quite spread out and there is plenty of crime. So it was with some trepidation that my husband Patrick and I drove out there one Thursday morning in mid June 1999. Unknown to us, Lindela Mtshali, the South African representative for Link Africa, had decided he should accompany us on this visit and had driven up from Centurion, 10km south of Pretoria. He caught up with us (and rightly guessed it was us) just as we pulled in at the side of the road wondering in which direction to look for the school.
![[School Building]](August/School_Building.jpeg)
The school buildings were seven years old and in good condition, with not a single broken pane of glass: a group of about six single-storey 150-foot-long barrack-like blocks plonked down rather unimaginatively with a row of tin-hutted long drops for students and another row for staff. It was surrounded by a fence with razor-wire on top. (Of course they have had trouble with break-ins; they now have a night-watchman, who, together with some cleaners, costs them 1,100 rand or approximately £100 a month - not much.) It was all very re-assuring, and there was so little noise coming out of the classrooms that I thought they must be empty. In fact each classroom had its complement of about 50 children, who seemed to be much more disciplined than their English counterparts. They sat two-by-two in paired desks with little room between them, and the teacher had no difficulty keeping order.
![[School Class]](August/School_Class.jpeg)
The children are aged between five and 13, with a few pupils up to 18 years old, either because they started their eight years of schooling late or because they repeatedly failed the end-of-year exams, being held back a year each time. The total number of pupils is 1,200, but on this day about one quarter were away at a singing competition in Springs, a suburb of Johannesburg. Seetsa Sa Kgwedi has several choirs and has won a number of trophies: this is something of which headmaster Joshua Mphelo (pronounced as though the 'h' is not there) is justifiably proud.
About 80% of the pupils pass the school-leaving exams. This seemed rather a good percentage to us as we had read that there are schools in South Africa where the failure rate is 100%, but Joshua professed himself dissatisfied with it and he and his staff are continually devising methods to improve their ratings.
All the children wore uniforms. This is something which the parents have to pay for, in addition to the school levy of 50 rand or £5 per annum. Some parents could not raise the money for uniforms, and one device used to get round this was that the teachers would employ a parent to do some jobs for them and the payment would then be used to buy the uniforms. Teachers also continually monitor the economic situation of the families of the children under their charge to identify those children in need. These children are then given a free meal at break time (11.00). This 'meal' consists of two slices of bread and milk or squash. The school day is from 8.00 to 2.00 and for many of these children this 'meal' will be the only one for the day, as mostly they leave home with no breakfast.
Collecting the school levy is a constant battle and so far this year only a quarter had come in and this was after several reminder letters had been sent out to parents. The school depends heavily on the levy, as it pays the watchman, the cleaner, the feeding scheme, books and stationery. The poorer families with many children can never find 50 rand per child, so there will always be a considerable shortage of funds. To make up for this shortage, the headmaster and staff are continually having to devise fund-raising schemes, which of course cut into their already demanding timetable.
![[School Volleyball]](August/School_Volleyball.jpeg)
It is obvious that parents should become involved with the fund-raising, but first the parents must have a change in attitude. Lindela Mtshali from Link Africa explained that after independence in 1992 the government promised free education and that now many parents think everything should be provided free. Link Africa has therefore made it a prerequisite that, before any funds are released from a UK sponsor, there must first be some evidence of active participation from parents in fund-raising events. The Link Community Development team have run fund-raising workshops for the governing bodies of the schools in the Soshanguve district and as a result many of the schools have successfully involved parents and have therefore already received their sponsorship funds for this year. Schools have until September to initiate their parent fund-raising schemes and headmaster Joshua Mphelo is hopeful that his school's events will be organised in time.
The school is hoping to be connected to the electricity supply in a few months and then hopes to have a photocopier and a basic computer. The list of equipment required is, of course, endless and we felt quite humble at the considerable achievements made by the school and the goodwill between staff and students working together with very little equipment. Education is a top priority for the new President, Thabo Mbeki, and he has appointed a new Minister of Education, a man with a reputation for getting things done.
Prof. David Bridges, Pro-Vice-Chancellor of the University of East Anglia and a member of GSM, has become a Trustee of Link Africa.
![[Roger Hall]](../by/Roger_Hall.jpg)
Roger Hall, Head Server, looks back - and forwards
The township of Chadderton on the outskirts of Oldham in Lancashire has long had a tenuous connection with Cambridge. Lawrence Chadderton, the first Master of Emmanuel College and one of the 47 men who produced the first English Bible, was born at Chadderton Hall in 1536. Close to the site of the hall is St Matthew's Church, where I was confirmed and shortly afterwards became one of its first servers in 1957.
![[Server]](August/Server.jpeg)
Little did I know then that I would still be a server today, only eight years in the 1960s separating serving at St Matthew's and at Great St Mary's. In September 1969 the Guild of Servers at GSM had been in existence for about ten years and was very different from what it is today. The most apparent difference is that it was all male, as female servers were not admitted until the early 1970s. As most servers had been boy choristers, it was practically an appendage of the choir. It was also hierarchical, servers progressing over a number of years from Second Candle to Master of Ceremonies. Eight duties were listed for each Sunday - 8 am Communion (which now has its own rota), Parish Eucharist, Mattins and Evensong. From those days, Alan Weeds and Alan Rayner are still active in the church.
Times have changed since 1969. Servers, male and female, are of all ages; they are no longer linked to the choir, but are a vital part of church worhsip in their own right. The Guild is no longer hierarchical and servers, after only a few weeks' training, often carry out various tasks. But the problem of numbers remains and now, as in 1969, more servers are urgently needed. There can be few greater privileges than assisting at the Lord's table when words, music and ceremonial can transport all present "to the frontiers of the unseen world".
If anyone can help in this way, perhaps they will share what I have experienced personally over forty years of serving.
Anyone who is interested in helping as a server should contact the Vicar or Roger Hall (01954 780304).
All events take place in Great St Mary's unless otherwise advertised.
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Since this is the same from issue to issue, we have included a single copy of it on the site, as our Who's who at GSM page.
Majestas is edited by John Parkin, Sheila Cameron, David Hollier, Andy Martin, Philip Oswald (proofs) and John Sturdy (HTML) and published by: Great St Mary's The University Church, Cambridge CB2 3PQ, Tel (01223) 350914, Fax (01223) 426555.
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