The Russian Orthodox Church on the move in Africa
Cornelius Hamelberg
Assensoh, Akwasi B.
Brother Cornelius:
Does the African brother in the church photo speak the area's language? That, in fact, reminded me of what I saw during a Fulbright research visit to an Indonesian village, near Yogyarkata, in the mid-1980s. In that remote village, I encountered a Nigerian brother (a Computer Engineer in his 40s in age) and his Indonesian Muslim wife as well as a Ghanaian brother (an Architecture Professor in his mid-60s in age) and his Ghanaian wife. As I shook hands with the African brothers, gasping with wonder, I said: "Brothers, so you live here?" The older Ghanaian brother retorted: "Well, if you go to the cold Eskimo-land, you will find an African, if not some Africans..!"
Today, Africans are everywhere, just like the axiomatic lost tribe! And it is not their fault, as our governments back home have no new jobs to absorb the unemployed younger generation, regardless of their education. How sad! Sometimes, in Ghana -- in retrospect -- I remembered how the C.P.P. government, in the early 1960s, established the Workers' Brigade, the Young Farmers' League, etc., mainly to create jobs for the people. Is that impossible now?
A.B. Assensoh.
Sent: Tuesday, January 25, 2022 1:41 PM
To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <USAAfric...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: [External] USA Africa Dialogue Series - The Russian Orthodox Church on the move in Africa
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Cornelius Hamelberg
Ice-cold Stockholm, Sweden
27th January, 2022
Wofa Akwasi,
You cannot imagine how wonderful it is for me to be thinking along the same lines as your great mind! It's exactly the same question I have in mind for this theologically interesting blogger and Orthodox Christian missionary Craig Truglia, operating in Cambodia. I really want to know, does he speak the local language and if not, how does he communicate with the locals that he's there to mission-ize unto salvation through Christianity's Lord and Redeemer, Jesus Christ ?
As the Ghanaian Missionary Brother & his Indonesian Muslim wife plus the other Ghanaian Missionary Brother (an Architecture Professor in his mid-60s in age) and his Ghanaian wife rightly told you in that Indonesian village, near Yogyarkata, as you shook hands with them and asked in wonderment what they were doing so far away from home : "Well, if you go to the cold Eskimo-land, you will find an African, if not some Africans..!"
True we are here, there, and everywhere. When we arrive in Heaven ( the far country of our ancestors, we will be reunited there in that one place. In the meantime, I'm sure that you will find some of us in the South Pole too, fighting on arrival, fighting for survival, seeking both the political and the spiritual kingdom of heaven, as Ambassadors of the All-Mighty, spreading the knowledge of God and of man to the four corners of the earth - from Africa, to everywhere.
Indeed, we will find Africans everywhere, just as the late Runoko Rashidi spent much of his life telling us...
Man proposes, God disposes. That's what our Ghanaian missionaries were doing or believed they were doing: Spreading the light. With all the babble and counter-babble in this forum, about colonialism, neo-colonialism, imperialism, postmodernism etc., on the more positive side, i.e. from my own African point of view and in the name of Pan-Africa/ Pax-Africana, let us seriously consider what's happening :
It could be stage one of the colonisation/ re-colonisation of Europe by Africa/Africans :
Africa sends missionaries, ostensibly to civilise Europe and to save their souls.
Right now, it seems unlikely though that at a near future date we will have some Swedish-style Archbishop Tutu crying, "When the African missionaries came to us, they had the Bible and we had the land. They said '"Let us pray" , we closed our eyes. and when we re-opened our eyes we had the Bible and they still have the land." ( sob, sob)
I can hear Sweden's Mr Svensson and Messrs Bacon & Winter-Bottom with the Union Jack firmly strapped on their backs, yapping in unison, "Not bloody likely, mate !"
It should interest you to learn that Sweden has changed a lot since you were last here, that mass immigration from e.g. Türkiye, and some of the really rough neighbourhoods in the Middle East including Israel, heartland of the Bible, Iraq, Iran, Yemen, Syria, Kurdistan, Pakistan where Usama Bin Laden was hiding), Afghanistan, North Africa's Algeria, Libya, Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco, East Africa's Eritrea, Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, West Africa's Sene-Gambia, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Cameroon , Sierra Leone, and last but not least, Ghana and Nigeria, have imported with them some of their fanatical religious fervour, so it shouldn't surprise you to know that there are Nigerian and Ghanaian Christian Missionaries ardently at work in Sweden, on the side trying to convert the heathen Swedes to Christianity, but mostly attending to their own immigrant countrymen - so there are a number of Nigerian churches such as Redeemed Christian Church of God gaining ground over here , and another one known as " Mountain of Fire" ( I once met their pastor, a Yoruba lady) and many many others. The African churches operate more or less on a national basis. Does the same question arise ? Do they missionize in Swedish, the language of the host country? And why should they when their various flocks speak the languages of their home countries?
BTW, the Swedish evangelists that I have met so far (sporadically) are no match for the Bible-thumping Nigerian pastors with their souls on holy fire...no match...I have never found my own personal Nigerian teacher wanting. He is utterly wonderful, humble, etc. etc. etc...
I thought that posting this item about Russian missionary zeal would provoke some discussion, since Eastern Orthodox Church activity in Africa South of the Sahara has been practically non-existent - did not go hand-in-glove with colonialism as did some of the colonization efforts of the main actors at the Berlin Conference of 1884-1885 ( Catholic and Protestant imperialists
So is Russia's entry into the fray - to save the souls of Africans but phase two of the Cold War being played out in the African theatre this time not Marxist machine-guns & bullets for the liberation movements but the soft sword of the word made flesh in Jesus, side by side with China who are manifestly not out to save our souls ( not even out to save their own souls) but to improve our material standards of life and to enhance theirs by further mineral exploration, extraction and exploitation of our natural resources - with Africa getting back in return a lot of the necessary infrastructure which the Chinese - God bless them - are developing in Mother Africa....
As far as the future of the Russian Orthodox Church in Nigeria is concerned, it would seem that their rivals the Roman Catholics who are very accommodating to African cultures , African languages as the language of their liturgy etc., are so firmly established in the Igbo-lands of Eastern Nigeria that it would take at least a few generations for Eastern and Russian Orthodoxy to replace or displace them there and that when it comes to Western Nigeria where Protestantism and the Pentecostal Movement seem to be more firmly rooted - operating in the supernatural cultural context in which it is The Holy Spirit of the Church of Christ versus the enemy , namely witchcraft, the demons, the evil spirits , sickness, disease, spiritual death, it seems to me that those already converted to Pentecostalism would/ could be less attracted to the more pietistic, ascetic, contemplative strains of Eastern Orthodoxy whose main aim is theosis . But what do I know? And all is not just politics.
As it is written, "In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams."
So, of course, that day is fast approaching . For more rapid success ( blessed with the Holy Spirit) the Russian Orthodox Church could do what the missionaries have not always done : build schools teaching science and technology, along with religious seminaries where the spiritually thirsty could learn and then teach true Christian Orthodoxy. I'm sure that the American and other Western Missionary Churches don't like the idea of the Russians "intruding" in their African territories, even if what they have in common is the Holy Trinity; in that regard - unity of purpose, the Russian Orthodox Church could equip the youths and old men with inspiring texts such as the Philokalia.
Nuff said.
Holy man of God, please pray for us …all of us...we all need prayer, Africans, Russians, Americans, politicians, sinners....