World Cup Churches: 26. Cameroon

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.

Cameroon, with its mix of French and British colonial influences and accessibility in Central Africa, has a vast array of interesting churches.  I've gone topical with the one that appears on this old stamp, but which continues to exist today.

The story begins in relatively straightforward fashion.  St Demetrius church in Cameroonian capital Yaounde represents something of an outpost of the Orthodox Church in Africa.  Sub-Saharan Africa is dominated by Catholicism or Protestantism, but the Patriarchate of Alexandria in Egypt sees Africa as its own.  It has some justification for this given the antiquity of the See of Alexandria (which is just about in Africa - top right corner of course) and predating the Schism with Rome, let alone Protestantism.

Then Russia invaded Ukraine.  No - wait - that must belong somewhere else in another blog.  

But no.  St Demetrius has also kind of been invaded by Russia - and in the mind of the Patriarch of Alexandria so has the whole of Africa. 

If you know a little about Orthodoxy you'll know it is deeply cultural, political and hierarchical.  Patriarch Kirill, the Russian Orthodox Patriarch, has gained infamy for his explicit cheerleading of Vladimir Putin in general and his invasion(s), most lately of Ukraine, in particular.  Both Kirill and his Church are fabulously rich and able to project their power quite easily.

So when the Patriarch of Alexandria supported the relative independence of the Orthodox Church in Ukraine from Moscow, the Russian Orthodox Church declared an Exarchate in Africa.  In other words, made Africa a part of its 'world'. Orthodox outliers, such as priests in Cameroon, who had been expected to work voluntarily under Alexandria have been invited to Moscow for training and paid handsomely to be Russian Orthodox rather than Greek Orthodox.

And St Demetrius and its Archbishop find themselves facing a powerful invader in an ecclesiastical imitation of the people of Ukraine.

The Forty Days: 4. A Giant Problem

During the forty days of Lent we have been looking at some other 'forty days' in the Bible.  

As a point of introduction, today it is forty days since Russia invaded Ukraine to plunge Europe into a situation we liked to think had been left behind in 1945.  (Some hope, given European history).

While forty days often seem to have a divine connection in Scripture, that is not always so.  Back in the days of Israelite King Saul his primitive army faced harassment from the Philistines.  One in particular made a mockery of Saul's forces - a giant man named Goliath.  Day after day he issued a dueling challenge:

For forty days the Philistine came forward every morning and evening and took his stand.

On reaching 40 days of the Russian-Ukraine War we can perhaps appreciate the length of intimidation Goliath represented.  And the heart of the problem was that there seemed no more likelihood of him being rivalled on the evening of the fortieth day than on the morning of the first.

Length of time - for all its meaning in Lent - is not a virtue by itself.  As we all know, the contest was settled by the whizz of one stone from David's sling - from a David who utterly trusted in the power of God to make his own learned skills count.

Have you been watching giants for 40 days?  Is it time to fight and trust the Lord? 

Our Church Flags: 7. Hong Kong

On a sadly memorable day in which Russia launched bloodshed upon Europe, it seems appropriate to have a cheerful flag.  The flag of Hong Kong.

That is not to suggest that everything in Hong Kong is going well.  Those who come to our church from that background would not say so.  But the flag at least is a cheerful thing.

In this blog series we have seen often enough that red on a flag usually means bloodshed.  It is hard not to imagine some (perhaps many) years hence a Ukrainian flag with red on it somewhere.

Happily the Hong Kong flag's red is the festive celebratory red more familiarly found in Chinese New Year decorations.

Then there is the flower.  Astonishingly for such a tiny land area, this is representative of a flower that was actually first discovered in Hong Kong.  Nobody looking at the teeming city would imagine it as the place of such a discovery.

Oh for a world that discovers flowers instead of shedding blood.

Our Church Flags 5. Angola

 Continuing reflecting on the flags of people who have come to our church in London

Some flags are boring, some are cheerful, some are weird, but the flag of Angola seems to me to be, well, scary.

It owes its general form to those who fought in its civil war, and to the supporting Soviet Union.  But as Angola reinvents itself as a tourist destination I can't help thinking it is missing a trick or two with the flag.  It looks like some grim European industrialised nation instead of an expansive sunlit African coastal country.  The black stands for Africa, the red (as usual) for blood shed in the fight and the peculiar reinvention of the hammer and sickle representing agriculture and industry.  The latter might have worked for the USSR but Angola is notably poor at both agriculture and industry which makes it a little ironic.

And my mind turns to church and the way we are quite inclined to dress up the good news in ways that are well-intentioned but not very inviting.  

Maybe we and Angola could learn together.

My Covid Walk 2. Arkhangelsk

If, during my year of walking in the pandemic, I had walked in a straight line sort of North East (and across water) I would have reached Arkhangelsk (or Archangel as traditionally in English atlases) in the Russian arctic.

Encyclopedia Britannica says . . .

Founded in 1584 as the fortified monastery of the archangel Michael it was the first port of the Russian Empire to conduct trade with England. The port reached the height of its prosperity in the 17th century but subsequently declined with the founding of St Petersburg (1703) and the exorbitant customs dues introduced by Peter the Great to divert trade to his new town. Arkhangelsk later revived with the building of a railway from Moscow in 1898.

Is it Covid-safe?

Not too sure about Russian cities, but this April it is moderately OK - at least it has big city medical facilities. 

On the Plus Side:

Emerging from its winter deep freeze with a riverside promenade and some sights to look at if they're open, including the brand new Orthodox Cathedral which is part of the Russian Nationalist resurgence.

By Екатерина Борисова - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=68543618

 On the Minus Side:

Fairly bleak urbanscape and a winter to avoid at all costs (for 6 months).

Has it got a Football Team?

Bandy (sort of Ice Hockey) is unsurprisingly the thing here - but it has/does have some low level football - as far as I can tell the only professional team went out of business in the 1990s.

Has it got a Baptist Church?

Yes, at least two, including the Arkhangelsk Bible Church which appears to meet in part of a shopping centre.

Prospects out of Ten:

Five.  Based on arriving now in late April into tolerable weather, and finding someone who knows about the city's positive historical connections to England and so is anglo-friendly.

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 23: Russia

Russia have done a great job hosting the World Cup.  Despite pre-Tournament misgivings it has been very safe and straightforward into this final week.  Their team - almost incredibly - was the lowest ranked of the 32, below nations with inauspicious football reputations such as Saudi Arabia, Iceland and Panama.  Still, they did very well. The last shall be first . . . (well at least a lot higher than last anyway).

Running through the spirituality of Russia is an almost unique streak of similarly bizarre upside-downness: the holy fools.  Lest you think I have dug this from an obscure corner of Siberia I point out that St Basil's Cathedral in Moscow - featuring often in World Cup preliminary picture shots - is named after one such holy fool.

The monastic practice of foolery was an enactment of a Biblical theme found, for example, in Old Testament prophets who behaved in various unorthodox ways (including nakedness) and in Paul's teaching - e.g.

"For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe."

The historic church in Russia is known as the Orthodox Church so it is amazing to think that its perhaps most iconic church is named after a saint who adopted a life of shoplifting.  I'd call that unorthodox.

Basil shoplifted and gave the proceeds to the poor; more orthodox (for a Holy Fool) he spent a lot of time naked (this is Russia remember, a little chilly in the winter).  He also chained himself with heavy chains, also a common practice adopted by Fools.

St Basil's Cathedral was taken into state and secular ownership in 1929. Because it was too iconic to destroy, God was taken out of it instead,  Doing away with God seemed quite a trendy idea in the 20th Century.  Perhaps the authorities at the time failed to see the irony of St Basil's being taken for atheism.

As the Psalmist wrote: The fool has said in his heart "There is no God". There is a greater fool than a holy fool and someone who tries to remove God is such a one.