People of the Rise An Invitation to eDARE 2021

People of the Rise

An invitation to eDARE 20211

By Jione Havea

“People of the Book” refers to people who profess and commit to their monotheistic scriptures (that is, scriptures which sanction belief in and regulate teachings about only one God). In the world wide web of religions, this reference points specifically to Jews, Christians, and Muslims.

We in Christian communities, however, do not understand our Book (Bible) in the same way. This is unavoidable: with respect to insights and convictions, no faith community is one-size-fits-all. Diverse and conflicting interpretations are inevitable. Notwithstanding, our communities will be helped if we open our eyes wider and lift our minds from the traps of local struggles – and read the Bible anew. We may not agree in our interpretations but being open to new inspirations and to alternative imaginations can help keep at bay those of us who are quick to enforce our own understandings of the Bible on others.

From the beginning, the Bible has resourced public discourses. And since the Reformation and the burgeoning of publishing presses, the Bible has become a popular and a public book – made to speak into local and social struggles, around intercommunity agendas, and behind transnational missions. Over the ages, the Bible has also become a tool, a marketable product, and even a weapon. In other words, the Bible is not locked up in faith communities.

Truth be told, the Bible is not the only book that shapes Christian faith. Faith and church communities are not shut out from the rest of the world. Rather, like the Bible, faith and church communities exist in public places. In this connection, two of the key concerns that eDARE 2021 will help us in are to be church, and to rise to life,2 in public spaces.

22-year-old Sudanese student Alaa Salah during an anti-Bashir protest in Khartoum. Image via Povo News.

i See information about eDARE 2021 at https://edare.cwmission.org.

Taliban

I began to write this reflection the day after the Taliban entered Kabul (Sunday, 15 August 2021). Time will tell what the next chapter of the Taliban regime will look like, and the costs to lives and cultures in Afghanistan and in other parts of the world. Attention will be drawn first to the human costs and at some point, the tolls to the rest of creation will be accounted.

The Pashto term “Taliban” translates as “students,” referring to a religious community whose teachings and practices are based on strict interpretations of Sharia (Islamic law, rooted in the Quran). In some corners within and beyond the Muslim fellowship, the Taliban are celebrated as faithful interpreters of their Book. But in other corners, within and beyond the Muslim world, the Taliban’s interpretations are harsh and uncivilised. With respect to interpretations and theologies, when the tallies are taken, the Taliban will draw mixed judgments. Notwithstanding, they have reawakened fear and trauma across the landlocked Afghanistan. But how different are the Taliban from “faithful students” of Christianity and Judaism who propagate strict interpretations of our Bible?

My intention here is not to demonise the Taliban or the Muslim world in general, nor to discriminate against the Quran, but to point to the need to open our minds when we, as People of the Book, read our scriptures. Our denunciations and praises of the Taliban, and of other students of monotheistic scriptures, apply to our Christian communities as well.

Armed locals protest in support of the Afghan government in Jowzjan Province during the 2021 Taliban offensive. Image by Abdulbasir Ilgor (VOA).

Contexts

Today, the contexts in which we do church and seek to rise to life include the Taliban, Covid-19, Climate change, and many other local and global concerns. There are too many of these concerns to list, but i present some of them here according to the keywords in the program of eDARE 2021:

Oct 25

Racism, Necropolitics, Defiance, Queer, Childbirth, Rape, Body

Oct 27

Labour, Menstruation, Fools, Syrophoenician Woman, Aboriginal Mural, Massa Jesus,Leviathan

Oct 29

Disability, Dalit, Wind, Beasts, Technology, Inter-carnation

2 See “CWM Strategy Framework 2020–2029” at https://issuu.com/cwmission/docs/gs_report_2021/2.

These concerns will be addressed by artists, authors, and poets (read: students of the Book in a variety of ways) who will engage one another with the aim to help their own communities and the eDARE participants work out ways to do church and rise to life in today’s public spaces. The panel of artists, authors, and poets have gifts and creative ways to open our eyes wider and lift our hearts beyond the tips of our noses and fingers.

One of the artworks used to promote eDARE 2021 is from the Syrian Banksy project in the Kesh Malek Organization. This work is one among many that depict the Sudanese activist Alaa Salah, when she stood on a car to inspire and activate her people during the 2019 uprising to remove President Omar Hassan al-Bashir.

This work celebrates the courage of Alaa Salah, herself a student, and at once encourages viewers to rise against oppressors in their own contexts and push back against the scriptural interpretations that justify their behaviours. In Rastafari-speak, the work encourages “chanting down Babylon” (rising up against the oppressors) and the “shitstems” (interpretations) that authorize them.

This work is set in a public place, so it is a public text, inviting viewers to embrace and testify to Liberty. This work brings Alaa Salah to the mind of viewers who, at the current time, would wonder where Liberty stands for the people of Afghanistan, for the victims and survivors of Covid-19, for the lives at the frontline of Climate change, and for the many people who struggle with the concerns listed above. How might we study our Book in conversation with this artwork? How might we do church and rise to life in public spaces where Liberty is not yet alive with flesh and blood?

Syrian Banksy - Image by Kesh Malek Organisation.

3 See https://edare.cwmission.org/program-2021-day1/. 4 See https://edare.cwmission.org/program-2021-day2/. 5 See https://edare.cwmission.org/program-2021-day3/.

Life

As students in different contexts and opportunities, we will not agree on what the Book says much less what it means and requires. So be it. Such is our lot, for we are humans with flesh, blood, faith, desire, and will.

But we can learn to be People of Life who point the way to Liberty. This is one of the dreams of eDARE 2021 – that we do not stop at rising to life but that we also point to and enable life for the many people who do not see and feel Liberty.

Put another way: eDARE 2021 is an event at which artists, authors and poets will help us learn from one another how to irritate shitstems6 that enslave7 our practices, communities, missions, and theologies.8 On this platform, we will learn to detour9 from illness, from poverty, from injustice, from corruption, from oppression, from unhopefulness, from hypocrisy, from strict interpretations, and from several other limitations and restrictions.

Rise

In my humble opinion, we need to go further to also become People of the Rise. This is where and when we free ourselves from the traps of individual and local struggles, in order that we may see further and think deeper. Many artists, authors, and poets have released me from such traps,10 and in their shadows i close this reflection with the prayer of a young Tongan Australian.

Tau’alofa Anga’aelangi’s prayer is titled “Ko e Fonua mo e Moana” (The land and the sea).11 The prayer is confessional, where Anga‘aelangi apologizes to mother Fonua (land) and guardian, teacher Moana (sea) because she has inherited the “sins of anthropocentrism” and not kept her relationship (tauhi vā) with them. There is no disconnection between Fonua and Moana, and Anga‘aelangi prays that fellow humans keep their relational responsibilities with Fonua and Moana. I close this reflection with Anga’aelangi’s closing, binding words:

Rally held in Melbourne as part of a national day of action, called by Warriors of the Aboriginal Resistance, to mark 30 years since the Final Report was handed down following the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody. Image by Matt Hrkac (Geelong/Melbourne, Australia)

And, so as I go from here today, I now realise that I will embrace the land-fonua, ocean-moana, my relationship – the tauhi Vā all that you’ve created as a part of me, and I am a part of them. Amen.

6 See Jione Havea, “Rise and Irritate.” Insight (Apr 2021): 51–53 (available at https://issuu.com/cwmission/docs/insight_issue_16/8). 7 See Peter Cruchly, “Rising Up and Leaving Behind the Whitewashed Tomb...” Insight (Apr 2021): 28–29 (available at https://issuu.com/cwmission/docs/insight_issue_16/8). 8 See Eve Parker, “From Life-denying to Life-flourishing: Curricula in Theological Education.” Insight (Apr 2021): 47–50 (available at https://issuu.com/cwmission/docs/insight_issue_16/8). 9 See Michael Jagessar, “Rising Up: Emmaus and Beyond.” Insight (Apr 2021): 44–46 (available at https://issuu.com/cwmission/docs/insight_issue_16/8).