Bibles for indigenous peoples

The newspaper Dagen has today an interesting article about the Bible in China (http://www.dagen.se/dagen/Article.aspx?ID=154957. China, as you may know, prints today more Bibles than any other country (Amity Press has capacity to produce 1 million Bibles a month), but then there is an enormous need with that much people.
Dagen mentions also this: "China has 55 officially recognised minorities. Bibles in their languages has had low priority. Those who want to have permission to translate and publish them, must wait long periods of time when authorities make decisions." I am sure that this is so, but things are moving even there. When I was in Yunnan a few years ago, the province with most minorities (25 of those 55) I did see that many are still without Bible, but also that work was going on in eight languages at that time. I met some translator groups and they are doing a good job. And the Church has a vision for those minorities, educating pastors and translating with the restricted means they have, which I can lack sometimes in the West. (I know that things are not always the same all over this vast country of course). We may have other kinds of hindrances than the Chinese, but fact is, that most European minority languages are without Bible translation today - so do we do so much better than China? Europe has around 220 spoken languages (not counting immigrant languages) according to Wycliffe. Only 48 of them have a whole Bible, another 13 the NT and another number have only small portions. Even in Sweden a complete Bible is lacking for the Sámi languages. North Sámi is going to have one in a few years. But Lule Sámi has only a NT and for South Sámi portions are being translated. So we have still much to do in our own part of the world as well. And how is the situation in North America? Australia?

Back to China. We might be able to help with those minority translations, and we already do. The West has been supporting with finances and in other ways. But, important to see, we might also be able to learn from them. How a church can focus on minority work with rather small means for example. By opening up for the language and the culture. we have to do that more. We can be inspired by others, all around the world. It ismportant to have the Bible in the language of the heart. No matter whether that language is spoken by millions or only by a small community.

Do we need the union?

In Dagen (http://www.dagen.se/dagen/Article.aspx?ID=154846) pastor Tommy Lilja goes against the rather new section of one of the big trade unions, now having a department for church employees. Tommy means that we do not need the union, that being a pastor is not an ordinary job and he himself wors 60 hours a week and never takes full holidays and is doing fine.
I respect him, and am glad that all works so well for him. John, pastor at New Life Church is on the same line (http://synergistic.wordpress.com/2008/06/25/leadership-in-the-church-dealing-with-the-hireling-mentality/) and him I respect very much, knowing him a bit better than Tommy Lilja.
I myself am pastor in the Mission Covenant Church of Sweden MCCS. We had an employee organisation of our own, facilitating the setting of wages and helping in conflicts between employees and pastors. That organisation became part of the big union SKTF recently. I was content with our small orginasation, but my feeling about the present situation is not entirely positive. I can feel partly the same as John expresses in his blog. I really do not know whether I will stay in the union or not.
Why not? Because being a pastor is not an ordinary job. Because it is a call from the Lord. Because it is He who gives us our places and calls us. Because the pastor and the church must find consensus.
Why stay? Because many churches are not as ideal as they should be. Neither are pastors. Because I have seen more than one case where a very difficult situation for a pastor in a conflict with the church would have been much more difficult without the unions help. Because pastors do get unemployed and in Sweden you need to be organised to get any support of society. Swedish society works in a certain way, so you probably cannot draw any conclusions workable for all countries.

In a perfect world we do not need a union-like organisation. We would not need any paper regulating the relationship between the church and its pastors or deacons or other workers. But the world is no longer perfect, as can be read in Gen 3. Even Israel had to put in place worldly institutions. Even Paul struggled with some of his churches (just read 1 and 2 Cor).

In my church, I still feel that we talk as church leadership and pastors. We try to get consensus, I do not sense a feeling of "try to get out as much as possible out of negotiations". As long as things work as they do now, I can still be in the system. Called by God, to a place in this Swedish society, where unions are so important compared to many other countries. Maybe He calls some of us to be here like that, and others to live and serve in other ways.

I learned once that it is good for a missionary (and are we not that as pastors) to be as much as possible part of the society like other people. Not too rich, not too poor, experiencing life as anybody does. To be able to build relationships and to communicate the gospel in the best possible way.

A big loss for the Christian indigenous community

On thursday June 12 Monte Ohia died suddenly in his home town Christchurch in New Zealand(Aotearoa in Maori language). Monte became 62 years. Monte Ohia was a Maori leader of high importance. He has been active in education and politics and has served in important positions in New Zealand. He served as a director for the Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology. He has always struggled for the culture of his own people , the Maori.

Monte Ohia was also known as a deeply religious man. Being a Christian, he had since worked for the possibilites for his own people and for indigenous peoples all around the world to be allowed and able to express their Christian faith according to their own traditions. Monte was one of the pioneers in the Christian indigenous movement. Among other things, he and his wife were the founders of the World Christian Gathering of Indigenous Peoples (WCGIP) which was held for the first time in New Zealand in 1996. Since then five more gatherings have been held, the 7th is to be held in Israel later this year.

In Monte Ohia, the indigenous Christian movement has lost a pioneer and an inspiring leader, a humble and passionate man as those who knew him say.

See:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/4583147a11.html
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA0806/S00173.htm
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=10515934
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10516069

Seventh Session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues

Just now the Seventh Session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues is going on in New York. (http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unpfii/en/session_seventh.html) This time, issues on climate and biodiversity are in focus. Important issues. In the opening session, Bolivias president Morales (belonging to an indigenous people himself, the Amaya) warns against ethanol growing which threatens the land rights of indigenous peoples in South America.
It has been stressed that indigenous peoples should be part in negotiations on climate issues. On the one hand, many indigenous peoples way of life are heavily affected by climate change. We can see already what warmer winters will do to reindeer husbandry in Sápmi and to the Inuit of the Arctis. On the other hand, indigenous peoples have traditional knowledge to offer which can be of great value.
The view of many indigenous peoples on the way we ought to treat the earth, as stewards rather than just taking its resources, shows a way to live in a sustainable way on this earth. Too long, western society has not acknowledged that we are stewards and that our life and all creation are interdependent.

For a Christian this should be clear. Man is put to steward Creation in the Bible, and creation theology should be an important cornerstone in any theological system. Strangely enough, this has not been the case in most of western theology. The church has joined the rest of society in exploiting rather than stewarding the earth. Only very recently, climate issues and creation theology has become more important in the west. We should however not think that we have to do everything ourselves. Let us listen to what the indigenous peoples traditional values have to learn to us - in society as well as in church.

Doing Sámi church

Developing Sámi ways of doing chuch and theology is not so much a theoretical issue, even if that plas a role as well. Sámi ways of doing churh must spring out of living Sámi culture. One way of doing this is by means of a "Sámi church workplace" if that would be an acceptable translation of Samisk gudstjänstverkstad in Swedish.

Last weekend Luleå Diocese of the Church of Sweden organised one together with the church in Vittangi in the Sámi village Badje Sohppar.

Around 30 participants gathered friday evening and Saturday. There were some talks of a practical nature (about symbols in Sámi culture, about yoik in church) and then all split in groups. Working with music, with handicraft to have in church and also a childrens group. Beatiful creative things came out which were used in church that Sunday. The church really was transformed. There was no preaching but in stead some people told a little story from their life, illustrating a short Bible reading. In the evening, some of us sat late and tried to put all different elements into a service.

A weekend like this gives a lot of experiences which can be used in further development of Sámi church life.

Sorry to aboriginals

The Australian government plans to say sorry to the Aboriginals. Sorry for the injustice done in earlier years towards the Aboriginals, and sorry especially to the 100 000 children that against their will were taken from their parents and put in boarding schools, reports the newspaper "Dagen" among others in Sweden. This kind of "mission" by putting children in boarding schools has been done by other countries as well (USA, Canada and also Sweden) and has caused a lot of suffering. Children were taken from their mothers and put in a strange culture. The first time I heard about this regarding Australia was from one of the victims, a lady taken when she was 5 and she was deported far away from her parents. I heard her story some years ago. She did not see her mother again until she was a grown-up. It impressed me deeply and I was shocked when she told me that her fate was far from unique. Shortly after I saw a true story in the film The Rabbit Fence (see it if you haven´t already). My friend who told me this is now around 70 and a Christian, working among her own people with Christian work. I admire her for that after her experiences with the white mission stations.

Anyway, it is a good step that the Government says sorry. A recognition of wrongs that have been done. And a necessity for the next step that hopefully comes: a full recognition of Aboriginal culture and rights.

Sámi National Day

Yesterday the Sámi National Day (Sámi Álbmoga Beaivi) was celebrated. In Kiruna, it was organised by the Sámi Association and the Sámi Parliament. There was an official meeting at the town hall in the afternoon, with talks and music. In the evening there was a Sámi service at the Kiruna Church, organised by the churches in Kiruna together. In my sermon based on Acts 17:22 ff I stressed the appropriateness of celebrating a day like this in church. Different peoples are all Gods creation, all cultures and languages are created by God as Paul stresses. God is a God of diversity. Diversity in unity.

Becoming a follower of Christ does not imply, to abandon your ethnic identidy and culture, as some have understood it (but no westerner does that, and in missions leaving the supposed pagan culture hase mostly ment to become part of western culture - as a Native American friend put it: why should I leave my own sinful culture just to become part of another sinful culture, i.e. the western culture?). It means becoming a Sámi (or whatever is your culture) follower of Christ. To become a Christian as a Sámi. That is important. The church incarnating in your own culture, rather than make people turn their back on their heritages. Of course God has always been present in Sámi and any other culture, even if He has not always been recognized. Paul says that in the text. Sámi have felt the holiness of Creation, the spiritual dimension of nature - somehing western tehology often has missed. Then of course Paul talks about Christ making the Creator known in a new way, and calls upon the Athenians and upon the Sami and all others to become followers of Christ.

When the Sámi - as Sámi, with the whole of their culture - take their place in the circle, together with all other peoples, and Christ is in the centre of that circle the circle becomes whole, as it was meant to be by the Creator in the beginnings of time.

If anyone would care to read the sermon (I warn you it is in Sámi) i will happily email it to you.

Sami national day

Tomorrow is the Sámi national day, celebrated by Sámi in all countries. In Kiruna it will be celebrated at the town hall, in the afternoon, and new for this year, with a Sámi service in Kiruna Church organised by the Church of Sweden, the Mission Covenant Church and the local pentecostal church. You are welcome to join at 18.00. It will be in Sámi and in Swedish. I just finished preparing the sermon, which will focus on Pauls words at the Areopagos in Athens, about all peoples being created by God.
Would you know more - come and listen (if you have the luck of being in town of course :-)

Dutch article

For my dutch friends I would like to just give you a link to an article, published today in one of the dutch newspapers, on indigenous theology.

Voor de nederlandse lezers wil ik u even opmerkzaam maken op een artikeltje van mijn hand over oerbevolkingstheologie dat vandaag verscheen in het Nederlands Dagblad.

http://www.nd.nl/Document.aspx?document=nd_artikel&id=107344

NAIITS Conference

Can a Christian worship with a powwow drum? And can we burn sage-grass (according to traditional Native American practice) when we pray? This kind of questions was up at the North American Institute of Indigenous Theological Studies seminar, 29 Nov-1 Dec at Sioux Falls Seminary, South Dakota.

The answers to the questions above must be: yes. That is my conviction. God never gave western culture any privileges above other cultures. Burning incense or candles as symbols of prayer, or kneeling down or closing your eyes are Western culture habits - nothing wrong with that. Church organs and guitars are also western (and very beautiful) instruments for worhipping. But they are not more holy than native drums. And our prayer habits are not better than traditional native prayer symbols.

Native and non-native theologians/workers gathered a few days to talk around the themes of reconciliation and decolonization. I had the privilege to be one of the speakers at this conference, focussing on the road of reconciliation in Sámi culture in Sweden. We spoke about the wounds in native communities, caused by the churches in the name of the Christian God. We heard about abuses, and I understand why many natives despise Christianity. I understand the need of contextualised christian work. I am convinced that God has meant Native Americans to become followers of Jesus in their own way, and that He enjoys their worship through their own culture.

For me, it was a strong experience to pray with my Native American brothers and sisters in their own traditional way. It made me even more aware of the richness and diversity in Gods creation, and, really, in the Creator himself. It strengthens us in the quest for a Sámi way of worhipping and doing church.

NAIITS is doing a great job, not only for Native Indians but for all the indigenous peoples in the world. And, not the least, for the worldwide Church.