World Cup Churches: 30.Ghana

Continuing a series of blogs heading round the 32 qualifying countries in the 2022 World Cup - I will pick out one church in each one.  I am not going to choose only churches that are to my liking.  This is an exploration not a recommendation! To see all in the series select the label 'World Cup Churches' below.

Ghana, it must be said, is not short of Christian churches.  In fact, even if Ghana started last year where Saudi Arabia is - with no Christian churches - it would still not be short of churches given the exponential growth it has.  New churches appear every Sunday.  It is an example of why, despite the miserable decline in many European countries, the Christian Church across the world continues to grow.

Spoilt for choice (or more accurately overwhelmed and bewildered by choice) I am going for Action Chapel International for this World Cup Churches blog. This probably has more to do with the founder-pastor Nicholas Duncan-Williams (or perhaps rather his current wife) than with the church itself, which is 'just another' vast Ghanaian church (with a Communion table that might trump the ones in St Peter's Basilica in the Vatican).

Speaking of Trump - here he is on the front row in the rather more humble (at least in size) St John's Episcopal Church, Washington, prior to his Inauguration, with Melanie at his side.

There on the platform is the Archbishop, Patriarch, Founder-Pastor and General Factotum of Action Chapel International, headquartered in Accra, Ghana, leading prayers.  Those of us that have not heard of Nicholas before are probably revealing more about ourselves than about him by not knowing him.  

How does he end up in St John's on that auspicious day?  I am not privy to that, but it has something to do, I feel sure, with his wife.  Rosa Whitaker is American, but not just any American (with apologies to the others).  The CEO (and founder of course) of TWG (The Whitaker Group) a US based African Investment enterprise she has served different Presidents, represented the US in Trade negotiations and agreements across Africa yet also worked in various Christian enterprises including Mercy Ships International and Pan African TV.

Or to put it another way, to step into the vast auditorium of ACI is possibly to fail to grasp the reach of this and some other African churches across the world where Western churches have often lost their voice.

Whether Nicholas prayed for the right things - and whether his prayer was answered - I leave to the wisdom of Almighty God.

Trump Street

The end of the Trump presidency is at hand.  As typically happens in the current age there is Trump flight going on, building's names being questioned, big tech suddenly finding censorship tools that had magically not existed when it was financially inconvenient to use them, golf tournaments suddenly moving contra-Trumpwards and politicians and pastor-politicians who lauded him, leaving him.

But in one little corner of London . . .

Disappointingly for Donald J. this street was not named for him but for those who made the likes of trumpets and horns, a naming that predates the United States.

For those who remember Donald Trump's election in 2016 and its aftermath of allegations of Russian interference it is worth noting that Trump Street is now only half a street - the other half of it is called Russian Row . . .

World Cup Blogs 16: Mexico

During this World Cup Mexico is the star of North America.  Canada has only appeared once (1986) and this time the USA miserably failed to qualify.

Nor is this stardom anything new.  Mexico has appeared in the Tournament more often than almost any nation, including England and has hosted it twice.  The 2026 World Cup, now to be co-hosted by the three North American nations is not hosting match of equals.

Not of equals.

When I visited Cuidad Juarez many years ago across the border with Texas, USA the experience in the photograph was true then also.  On the left is the (clear) highway from the USA into Mexico.  On the right the highway from Mexico to the USA.  Getting to Mexico was not a problem, getting (in my case back) to the USA certainly was.  Donald Trump is simply an unpleasantly boisterous and arrogant version of an old truth.

The migrants in the Mediterranean represent the same stark inequalities, but the Mexican-USA border is the land-link which most illustrates the way of the world.  It was once the British Empire, of course (before I begin to sound self-justifying).  After the Windrush celebration this weekend I am very mindful of that. 

Again - keeping the World Cup in perspective - were Mexico to win the competition there would be wild celebrations yet the situation on this border would not change on the Monday morning afterwards.  America First.

They are not, however, the blindspots of heaven - a border that no Mexican, Briton, American or Somalian has any right to expect to cross - ever.  But by grace . . .

After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands;

And cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb.

Sabbatical Picture No 4 The Poster

There are few more politicised places in the world than Jerusalem.  The time I spent there was relatively peaceable but 'peace in Jerusalem', despite its Biblical pedigree, seems almost a contradiction in terms.

Mr Trump had visited Israel not long before I was there.  In the UK our Prime Minister invited him to visit almost before he sat down in the Oval office but later reflection has led to some pause as to the wisdom and timing of such a visit.  Outside the USA - and in several parts inside the USA - this poster would not have survived a night, never mind several weeks.  In several parts of Jerusalem it wouldn't have survived ten minutes.  Yet on this and several nearby boulevards it and its cousins hung undisturbed long after Mr Trump had departed West.

Such is the black and white politics of modern Israel.

Will true peace ever come?

By one measure Jerusalem had its chance and blew it.

“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!"

But the same Book that tells me of that missed opportunity, tells me that the King of Jerusalem will return one day and, following the End, peace will be the everlasting state of affairs.

Make Jesus Great Again.

Of gods and men

People have been noticing that whereas in previous years there was an unpredictability about the news, now there is guaranteed at least one daily news item involving the word Trump.  Though on reflection there has probably not yet been a day with only one such item..

My attention was caught by the superfan of Donald Trump who prays every day in front of a cardboard cut out of his hero. A thousand comments flood my mind but for now I return to Upper Clapton and The Ark of the Covenant of the Agapemonites I referenced last week on this blog.

On September 7 1902 Smyth-Pigott, the leader of the Agapemonites (and still a priest of the Church of England which he had banned from his newly built church building) replaced the Communion table with an elaborate chair on which he sat. 

And then he stood.

And then he infamously said (as reported in the Hackney and Kingsland Gazette) that his predecessor had prepared the way and that

'I am that Lord Jesus Christ who died and rose again and ascended into heaven; ... Yes I am he that liveth and behold I am alive for evermore.  The Lord from heaven and the life-giving Spirit to those who know me and come to me.

... I am the Son of Man and you, each one of you, must be judged by me . . .'

Most of the congregation agreed with this astonishing revelation.  The cardboard cut out of God had his followers.

The locals were less happy and near riots ensued whenever Smyth-Pigott appeared thereafter.  He decamped to Somerset with his several spiritual brides.

Which, I contend, only goes to show that you can fool some of the people any of the time.

A Baptist President

Being attached to a label over which you have no control is an occupational hazard in many walks of life, including ministry.  Ask a Muslim, or a worker at Trump International, for example.

'Baptist' is a term that a vast range of churches can adopt so there are plenty of reasons to be wary of over-indulging it as a label.

Donald Trump is not a Baptist.  There have been Baptist presidents of the USA: four in all - which is four more than the number of Baptist Prime Ministers of the UK.  Given the new arrival in the White House I imagine the two that are alive - Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter (though he's no longer a Baptist) - are not feeling very happy just now.

But the one that arrests my attention is the one before them - Harry S Truman.  He was certainly not a Donald Trump.  In listings of US Presidents by wealth he occupies a very lowly position.  He grew up on a Midwestern farm and his parents could not afford to send him to College. But for the intervention of World War 2, may have stayed there but that war brought out leadership qualities in him that led to the Senate and at last to the Vice-Presidency.

And then, 82 days into a fourth term of office in 1945, the near-legendary President Franklin D Roosevelt suddenly died.  FDR had led the USA through the War following Pearl Harbor but also through the post-Depression 1930s.  His death was not on the radar.  And Vice-President Harry S Truman became President.

On his inauguration day he turned to the reporters and said, "Well boys, if you ever pray, pray for me now".  Within a few weeks he had to decide whether or not to drop nuclear bombs on Japanese cities with the intention of bringing the war to an earlier close.  It was a decision to take tens of thousands of lives in order to save more tens of thousands of lives.  The only person who has ever authorised the use of nuclear weapons was a Baptist.

There is amazing incongruity in that.  Baptists are often somewhat pacifist, sometimes committedly so, and rarely devotedly pro-military by comparison to many other people.  It is a reminder that whatever our stories in Sunday School the world thrusts difficult - perhaps cataclysmically difficult - decisions upon us.

We will all have a critical opinion on the decision that will forever mark his name.  But perhaps the lesson to learn is that we must pray for our leaders - whether they know we must or whether they don't.  Some of them have thought they are God, but none of them are.

Hear the trump proclaim the Day

The inauguration of a human being as the second most powerful man among men is not just another day.  His power is the more noticeable because of his bombastic, his unpredictable character and because of his great wealth and fame prior to taking office.  It is not easy to find people happy about the new President outside the USA and there are many unhappy people in the USA too.  Coming years are certainly unlikely to be boring.

Americans, deeply divided, cannot even agree on whether, or how, to pray for President Trump. The arch-liberal Washington Episcopal Cathedral has been heavily criticised for hosting its traditional Prayer Service for a new Presidential term.

The reason to pray - we should always pray - is that we pray to the MOST powerful man alive today.  By becoming President, Donald Trump moves into a key Biblical category.  He moves there in the manner of Joseph Stalin, Teresa May, Abraham Lincoln, Idi Amin, Harry Truman (more on him in another blog), Mao Tse Tung, King Henry VIII and Julius Caesar to name but a few.  He becomes a 'Lord' or a 'King' - a ruler for his fellow human beings.

This category has some reserved information provided in scripture.  If Jesus was a carpenter, he is nevertheless not called the carpenter of carpenters, nor described as the healer of all healers though he might be both.  He is, however, named the King of kings and the Lord of lords.

Donald Trump is suddenly very responsible, very directly accountable.  Does he know it?  Looking at the list above reminds us that some leaders grasp(ed) it and others didn't and don't.

But whether Trump gets to grip with his Boss or not - it would greatly help worried people the world over if they will embrace the Ascension truth that (whether in The Gambia or Washington DC) there is always Someone with more power than the one with apparent power.  And that Someone is going nowhere - until the trump proclaims the Day and He holds us all to account.