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.

My Covid Walk 1. Mariupol

I've been walking.

During the past year most of us have.  Exciting destinations like East Finchley, Friern Barnet, Bounds Green and Hornsey.

But what would have happened if I had just kept walking in one direction in a Forrest Gump-like fashion?

First, I'd have walked a long distance away, and secondly the results are, at best, mixed!

Heading East (for these purposes I can walk on water of course) I would be at MARIUPOL.

Wanderer777, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Wikipedia says . . .

Mariupol lay within a broader region that was largely devastated and depopulated by the intense conflict among the surrounding peoples, including the Crimean Tatars, the Nogay Horde, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and Muscovy. [More recently] The city was seized on June 13, 2014 by Ukrainian troops, and has come under attack several times since.

Is it Covid-safe?

Ukraine is not doing very well at the moment. 

On the Plus Side:

It's by the sea!

On the Minus Side:

Russian border tensions are rising in the news this week.

Has it got a Football Team?

FC Mariupol haven't shaken the world, but are a respectable representative of a steelworks city.

Has it got a Baptist Church?

Ukraine has one of the largest Baptist communities in the world, and some remarkable churches.  Here the link to one http://domboga.com/index.php/o-tserkvi

Prospects out of Ten:

Two.  Based on the prospect of a walk with a Baptist pastor along the beach.