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May 2001, Page 1.
Index of articles.
Vicar's Letters:
index,
Old dog,
Purpose,
Racism,
Jesus risen,
World faith,
General election.
Race & Faiths:
index,
Multifaith,
Racism,
World faith,
Riots.
World faith or Western faith?
This month we have four artists from different parts of the world staying with us in Eccleshill. They are here because Church Mission Society has asked us to host them, and they are staying with families in our parish for three weeks while they visit schools and other places. They will also visit our church, and take an active part in one of our services.
What do I hope we can learn from their visit?
They are all artists, whereas I am a scientist. So they can bring a fresh insight into Christianity that I can’t bring. They can touch parts of our inner being which the vicar cannot touch. They can speak to our emotions in a deeper way than my sermons. It takes all sorts to make a world, and the church must minister to the whole person and not just a part of him/her. I hope we can be touched inwardly by the art they share with us.
They are all artists from other parts of the world. If we aren’t careful, we can imagine that Jesus spoke with a Yorkshire accent and worked as a carpenter for the woollen industry. We can imagine him eating mint sauce with his lamb, or Yorkshire puddings with his roast beef. We forget that God is equally the father of every nation, and shows no partiality to the white-skinned or the English-speaking human, and that his Son Jesus Christ gave up his life so that whoever believes in him should have eternal life - no matter where on earth they come from. I hope we can come to appreciate the genuine faith of Christians from other lands.
Friends who have travelled abroad tell me we have a lot to learn from Christians from other cultures. Africans can learn from the mature scholarship of English Christians, but England can learn from the unashamed enthusiasm of African Christians. The Eastern Orthodox world can be reminded of justification by faith alone by the reformed Protestant tradition which underlies Anglicanism, but we can be reminded of some spiritual disciplines of meditation and adoration which are better known in Eastern spirituality. I hope we will realize that we are not so complete in our own faith as we like to think.
In Revelation 3, Jesus says to a church: “You say ‘I am rich, I do not need a thing,’ but you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked.” I hope the visit of other Christians opens our eyes to some of our weaknesses, so that we will be open to God’s strengthening plans for us.
John Hartley