My Covid Walk: 7. Rhodes

Where could I have walked to if I had walked through a year of Covid in one direction instead of round in suburban circles?  Last time to scary Benghazi - but angling more East I could (with some water-walking of course) reached the island of Rhodes.

When Paul had finished speaking (in Ephesus), he knelt down with all of them and prayed. They all wept as they embraced him and kissed him. What grieved them most was his statement that they would never see his face again. Then they accompanied him to the ship. After we had torn ourselves away from them, we put out to sea and sailed straight to Kos. The next day we went to Rhodes and from there to Patara. We found a ship crossing over to Phoenicia, went on board and set sail. After sighting Cyprus and passing to the south of it, we sailed on to Syria. We landed at Tyre, where our ship was to unload its cargo.  [Acts 20:36 - 21:3]

Paul suffered greatly for the Gospel, but at least had the compensation of the Mediterranean climate (though in his day Rhodes had a lot of snakes).  But now?

It would be difficult to find something missing from Rhodes. The first visitors saw the unique combination of nature, urban landscape, inhabitants, culture and history and made Rhodes famous in all the lengths and breadths of the Earth.  The Old Town is a World Heritage Site, as it is the best preserved medieval settlement in the world. The Street of the Knights and the Palace of the Grand Master will take you atmospherically to other places and other times. 

 

Like all Greek islands, Rhodes is characterized by countless beaches with golden sand, crystal clear blue waters and rare beauty.

Is it Covid-safe?

On or near the UK's current Green List.

On the Plus Side:

Weather, history and natural beauty.

On the Minus Side:

Are there still any snakes?

Has it got a Football Team?

Its oldest Club is Diagoras FC, founded under Ottoman occupation in 1905 as a kind of Greek underground movement.  Hence the unlikely badge which is of a famous wrestler - but definitely at least a free kick.

Has it got a Baptist Church?

No.  Two or three small evangelical or pentecostal churches, at least one of which translates into English if a visitor turns up (according to one reviewer) or not (according to another . . .).

Prospects out of Ten:

Nine.  Thin spiritually and sportingly, but - those beaches and buildings . . .

A Capital Weekend

It was in the shadow of rising Nazism that a Conference met in Oxford in 1937.  Drawn from many different Christian expressions it wrestled with issues that have since - and not least this weekend - shaped the post-War world too.  It was notable for its clarity, something rarely achieved in Ecumenical conferencing.

As the Greek people vote in the most economic of all elections it is interesting to notice the 1937 Conference's warnings about Capitalism.  It was a feature of the Conference that it refused to identify any overarching political system with the Kingdom of God (at a time when every overarching political  system was claiming to be God's or, in the case of Stalinism, god).  Fascism and Communism have (for a while) had their day, Monarchy fell earlier and now we have Market Capitalism and Democracy which are starting to fall out with each other.

"Could anything, possibly, be wrong with Capitalism?", my Western generation asks, expecting the answer No.

In 1937 the Conference believed it systemically brought the following four negatives  - enhanced acquisitiveness; shocking new inequalities; irresponsible possession of economic power; diminishing Christian vocation.

Last night I returned from visiting someone on a nice new well-staffed ward (yes I know that the NHS has its problems but . . .).  Earlier in the day I had collected a regular prescription and dropped it into the nearest pharmacy I was walking past.  This morning I listened to a Doctor in a Greek Hospital telling how there was one nurse for 50 children and that they had to scour the region for drugs that they needed, sometimes failing to find them.

And I thought.  My generation of Westerners has reaped great rewards from Capitalism.  But the negatives those Christians saw are alive and well in the way it works today; where the added suffering of a sick child in Greece is deemed positive to protect a currency union.  It takes a spiritual outlook to believe that the child will, in fact, outlive money and not the other way round.