CHURCH MELTDOWN?

I never thought I would associate the word "meltdown" with church. It is a term one associates with the overheated core of a nuclear reactor! Nothing in my experience of church in the Caribbean and teaching at Queens (Birmingham) led me to ever think of making such an observation even though John's vision on the isle of Patmos saw a city with no temple. As a minister on the "roll of ministers" of the United Reformed Church (URC) and after following this ecclesial tradition over the last eight years, I am more and more persuaded by the comment of a collegue that the URC is behaving like a structure in melt-down mode. For most of the eight years I have tried to be positive about the URC and I still do even though the URC has effectively pulled out of Queen's college where I am still teaching but now employed by the Queens Foundation.

The December 2007 issue of the Reform (The Magazine of the URC) with the focus on "what it means to be a learning church" only added to my sadness about the state of the URC and further served to strengthen my colleague's view that the denomination is in "meltdown" mode. Initially, I wanted to write a long response but such wishful thinking was cut short as I realise I had no one to send it to. That is, someone who would really bother to read it. Hence, I have ended up using my blog space to make a few observations - where at least a few friends will read it.

I am struck by the opening piece entitled "Opening Doors" which from my perspective read more like holding the "door ajar" that is, with a deliberate attempt to close it when necessary. The discourse in this piece around "people of God" "partnership" "ecumenical" and "vision4life" are good sound bites but deep down lacks vision, adventure and risk. There is no long term strategy here - only insipid inhouse maintenance. Imagination is missing: can we begin to live a vision we have never first imagined? A better title for the piece would be: "removing doors". At least such an act would take some imagination and risk.

It is ironic that the URC has declared itself a multicultural church yet there is nothing in this piece or anywhere else highlighting what this means for a "learning church". Vision4Life and partnership are dominated by a stifling "Whiteness" that pervades most of the issue. Sure, there is the world church experiences with groups galavanting all the way to India, Africa and locally to Congolese congregations (in UK). But, how about engaging with and including the Black and Asian siblings in our own house! Jesus had a word for this contradiction (according to the gospel writers), hypocrisy. A leader of one of the 1st nations people of North America called this "speaking with forked tongues". I, for one, will not deny the value of the world church encounters. My question is: how many of the folks who go on these trips ever invest time in walking down the streets and roads where minority ethnic people live, work and shop and attempt to meet the "other" right in their midst? And how many, after their conversions from these travels abroad, ever invest the time and energy to do so and cultivate friendships locally? And how does this change what it means to be a multicultural church locally?

Now, it is not only the designed unawareness to the presence of minority ethnic peoples in our midst (and how they impact on our policies and theologies) that is a sign of URC's meltdown. Another sign is the response to the letter entitled "The Queen's Foundation" (p.33). The writer of this letter expressed his utter bewilderment as to why his church would want to pull out from a theological institution where energy, life, and cutting edge scholarship in the context of cultural and theological diversity, world church community and the whole people of God learning together are evident to the other ecclesial traditions (including the Black Majority Churches). The response to the letter actually reflects the effect of meltdown: the response lacks a sense of vision and daringness - it is just weak techno speak that reflects a state of denial as to what is actually happening and the folly of the Church's decision. Should I be surprised that there were only fewer than ten (10) new ordination students? Meltdown here is driven by the implication that the very people responsible for training are unable to see how they can stir a sense of vocation that will increase numbers. That is a sure sign of meltdown: especially when the very architects of Vision4Life do not actually seem to believe in the vision that is supposed to drive the change. No wonder the reactor is overheating (too much hot air perhaps) and people are panicking.

Like some others, I am putting my energies elsewhere and if my minority ethnic colleagues would ask me, I would say: re-read your December issue of Reform with a hermeneutic of suspicion and try interpreting and locating the irony of the picture of the seven (minority ethnic) young people from Trinity Church, Golders Green who have just been received in membership (p.13) within the Vision4Life.

The URC needs to stop learning and give agency to practice so that a learning and multicultural church may be birthed.

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GIVE HAITI A CHANCE

A recent BBC Science Reporter news item (Nov 5, 2007) got my attention. It was about a team of international scientists (meaning mainly Americans and Europeans) who have concluded that the “Key HIV Strain in the USA came from Haiti”. These experts examined archived blood samples (1969) from Haitian immigrants to the USA (who may not have known that their blood samples were archived and for what reason) and have decided that Haitians were the carriers and that they themselves had contacted the HIV strain from the Congo. How Haitians got to the Congo in the first place is another matter - but the link between Haiti and Congo re-inforces a certain kind of theory about the orgins of AIDS. The cynic in me, wonders whether the findings would have be different had a team of Cuban, Haitian or African doctors carried out this research?Whatever truth there may be in these findings, I am always suspicious of White American hegmony and the attending racism. Both know no bounds – whether it it directed at Haitians, Africa, the rest of the Caribbean, African Americans, Native Americans or Hispanics, among others.

There is, of course, a history to all of this – and yet again Haiti bleeds. This time everyone will be running away from Haitian blood and will be 'locking out' Haitians. “Haiti,” writes Sam Bleakley, “is blue-black, her body bruised from history.” This is nearer to the truth - as Haiti continues to be "screwed" left, right, center, below and above.I wonder how many students of history in Britain or the USA know that Haiti was the first country to abolish slavery three years before 1807: the date being remembered this year in the UK and which has become more of an opportunity for some white and (un-emancipated)Black British Christians to iconise the benevolence of white Christians with an all inclusive conscience that will make God look like a sinner. Haiti’s freedom has been and still is costly – blood, sweat and tears. Located in the backyard of the mighty USA, Haiti is for most of the world a “corner of the dead and the forgotten” a lonely island, floating away zombie-like into nothingness.

At least this is how most of the world would like to think. But, ever since the Haitian Revolution – Haiti gets under the skin. Cuba is not America’s only nemesis; so is Haiti.Jefferson, that so called messenger of freedom who could not see the forked tongue contradictions between his Black slave owning practices and his rhetoric of freedom labelled Haiti as bad influence (how surprising) and suggested that it was imperative to fence in the Haitian plague to the island. It is one thing for a lone person to make such an observation. Most disturbing is that a whole nation believed him and it was many many years later that the USA recognized that “plague” as the land of the free.

But that recognition had a price to it – American hegemony over Haiti. Haiti’s freedom from France was costly. She had to pay France for the freedom they won (over 22 billion US dollars) to be totally free. But by then the US Marines landed in Haiti (1915) and like church missionaries left when their mission was accomplished (in 1934), that is after "screwing" up Haitians minds and lives. But people of the region know from bitter experience that 'colonial' mission is never completed. The Marines hung around like a chronic cough turning into TB. They ensured that American interests were protected (Banking and Sweat Shops among others) even if it meant killing thousands of Haitians. American occupiers do not just pull out. They leave their propped up puppets and local military goons behind to kill democracy and make beggars out of a nation – hooked permanently on American imports. Jefferson words suddenly looked real: Haitians seemed to be effectively fenced in.

But, Haitians will not be fenced in no matter what means are used to keep them down. They turn to the Sea (or the ocean) that defines them - Caribbean. They launch their make-shift boats from whatever scraps they could find and set sail for the Coloniser's own turf. Many are swallowed up by the Caribbean Sea while others get through. And for those caught: well, it is not uncommon for Americans to welcome "white" looking Cuban boat people and at the same time turn back "Black Haitians" as undesirables, in spite of the Haitian Diaspora's contribution to US economic, cultural and intellectual life.

In this so-called corner of the dead there is colourful hope that boggles the mind and defies all the logic. “Everyone”, write Eduardo Galeano, “is a sculptor” working “tin cans and scrap metal that they cut and shape and hammer with old-world mastery, creating marvels that are sold in the street markets.” Moreover, the skeleton body bruised and battered by history is like a “pearl rubbed to hard brilliance from grit” (Bleakely).

In spite of the evidence, Haitians are filled with hope. No wonder David Williamson was surprised with the Haitian spin on Philippians 4:13. “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” In Creole the verse reads: “In any situation that appears before me, I can degaje…” He had expected to find the word fe (do or accomplish). But degaje captures reality, as it is in Haiti and so the spin: “we can make things work some other way and in spite of”. The shift in verbs tells it all. For according to Haitian realities (past and present) it is not with God's help they can make any dream come true. That would be a lie. With the help of the Divine they can expect to degaje – that is, just to get by and make life work.

In the meantime, the white curse of American hegemony remains fixed on the tired backs of Haitians. It may be time to invoke the spirits of the loas to dispell this curse, for the power of the white Jesus has repeatedly failed the Haitians. I wonder how Black and Womanist American theologians, if they do find out about this recent scientific findings about Haitians and the HIV Strain, are going to respond.

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CONFUSED SPACES

I often read the monthly issue of the Balsall Heathan that Leonora brings home. And if your are wondering - heathan (not heathen) in this case has nothing to do with faiths. The Balsall Heathan is the community newletter of Balsall Heath, Birmingham (UK). In the September 2007 issue a piece under the "Balsall Heath Forum Focus" grabbed my attention. It was entitled: "Can this really be happening?" and it was about the state of the back entranceto the garden and yard of an elderly citizen. It was like a South American jungle and inaccessible. Apparently there was no help from the environmental services and so it was left to a group of concerned folks from the community to do the clearing and cleaning up.

While such neglect raises ones blood pressure (getting angry) and the community taking the initiative to make a visible difference lowers it by giving hope a concrete shape, I am intrigued by the story behind the plot of of overgrown land. From the piece, I learnt that it is owned by the City Council and that there are many such plots in the city But precisely because it is the City Council's there is always ambiguity and confusion as to who owns it - and hence who tends it. The article referred to these plots of land as confused spaces and suggest the need to reclaim them.

Confused Spaces started my mind working overtime.In the context of theologising, I love the descriptor 'confused spaces' as this aptly sums up my own journey with its multiplicity of faith impluses that shape me as an Indo-Caribbean-Guyanese male residing in Birmingham. It fits in very well with my call for an Anansi hermeneutics and the reclaiming of limbo and limbo spaces as a paradigm for doing theology. For it is the in-between spaces, the confused and contradictory spaces that offer ripe possibiltiies to experience moments of transcendence and catch a glimpse of the divine - not in the neat and dogmatic categories we tend to parcel out "truth" in. Like Anansi, I thrive in confused and ambivalent spaces as I am forced to risk throwing myself at the mercy of grace, rather than attempting to come up with quick, easy and exact answers that bring closure on the movement of the divine.

In the meantime congrats to the community for taking the initiative!


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