Native Church Research Articles

The Unique Church at Abila of the Decapolis

A church has been uncovered at Abila in northern Jordan having an architectural plan similar to that of the Church of the Nativity at Bethlehem. Dubbed the Five-Aisle Church, it is one of the most unusual examples of Byzantine architecture to be found in Jordan. Until the discovery of the Church, this ancient city was known mainly for its beautiful mosaics and its association with the league of cities known in the Bible as the Decapolis. In this article, the author treats us to a tour of this amazing structure.

Negotiating under the Cross: The Story of the Forty Day Siege of the Church of Nativity

AbstractThis article provides an insider's observation of negotiations with terrorists, in particular, the negotiation process carried out by Israel and armed Palestinians who were barricaded in the Church of Nativity in Bethlehem. By applying various negotiation methodologies, the author describes the challenges, strategies and methods used by the military Crisis Negotiation Unit to manage and resolve this international crisis, and draws general lessons for future negotiation situations developed within the modern counter-terrorism arena.

Narratives of Siege: Eye-Witness Testimonies from Jenin, Bethlehem and Nablus

The testimonies below were collected from 10 to 17 May 2002. I traveled first to Jenin refugee camp. No matter how many images you have seen in the news, nothing quite prepares you for the devastation at the camp's ground zero. The storeys-high mountains of rubble are littered with reminders of lives disrupted: a mattress here, a child's schoolbook there. The 373-dunam camp, which had been home to about 13,600 residents, had been invaded at least twice before the assault that began on 3 April. The camp held out for nine days––a point of pride for many residents. Though a total of only fifty-six bodies have been found, rumors persist of mass graves and of trucks carrying body bags to undisclosed locations. Many of those who lost their homes are living with relatives in Jenin town and elsewhere, further hampering efforts to account for the missing. According to Human Rights Watch, at least 140 buildings were completely leveled and more than 200 others severely damaged, leaving about 4,000 people––more than a quarter of the population––homeless.The Israelis invaded Bethlehem (population 45,000) on 29 March, the second time in a month. The town was kept under siege for forty-four days, though world attention focused almost exclusively on the Church of the Nativity, traditional birthplace of Christ, besieged as of 2 April. Though not subjected to the kind of devastation seen in Jenin and Nablus, numerous centuries-old facades were destroyed or heavily damaged.I had every intention of traveling to Nablus, a city that had put up impressive resistance to the Israeli onslaught (which began on 3 April) and that had sustained heavy casualties and the destruction of large areas of the historic Old City. However, the numerous roadblocks and alternate routes necessitated by checkpoints and settler snipers turned the forty-minute drive to Nablus into an unpredictable journey that could last up to five hours. I had to settle for phone interviews. Official estimates of fatalities in this city of 110,000 run to about eighty.In Jenin refugee camp and Bethlehem, the sight of residents talking to a stranger with a tape recorder tended to attract other residents, and often more than one perspective was offered on events. Because I allowed interviewees to talk, rarely interrupting them, some of their narratives contain gaps and some confusion, even inconsistencies, which I have made no attempt to eliminate. At the same time, I was struck by how careful interviewees tried to be in recounting their stories, clearly distinguishing between what they had seen and what they had heard. No one rushed to accuse the Israeli army of looting (a commonly reported feature of house searches in the Ramallah area, for example); when they witnessed it, they were careful to describe the scope. Some interviewees reported the presence of Arabic-speaking soldiers, some with Lebanese accents (presumably South Lebanese Army soldiers who fled Lebanon after the Israeli withdrawal in 1999); others did not. Above all else, I was struck by the extraordinary dignity and restraint with which these people described terrible moments in their lives––when they lost a son or their homes, when they were put at great risk, when they tried to locate their dead or wounded––at a time when their entire futures were clouded with doubt.

Editorial: Destruction and Desecration of Sacred Sites during Wars and Conflicts: A Neglected Travesty

In April 2002, about 250 Palestinian civilians, policemen, gunmen, and some foreign activists, in order to escape expected Israeli army attacks against them, took refuge inside the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, a city of about thirty thousand. The church is perhaps the most sacred and revered site in all of Christendom, as it is there, ac cording to most Christians, that Jesus was born. Millions of Christians from all over the world visit the site annually. The Israeli incursion into Bethlehem and other cities and villages in occupied territories in Israel was in response to a series of Palestinian terrorist attacks or suicide bombings that killed and wounded scores of Israeli civilians. Of the Palestinians who entered the church, some were armed; some were civilians simply searching for a safe place to hide. Israeli tanks surrounded the area, creating a closed military zone, and the standoff lasted for thirty-eight days. During the siege, Israeli snipers shot several people within the church area, including an Armenian monk, two Palestinian policemen, and a mentally disabled church bell ringer. Most of those inside either escaped or were released. Thirteen gunmen, however, whom Israel described as known terrorists, were by agreement deported to other countries after the siege was concluded, to be dealt with under international law for whatever crimes they are found to have committed, both before and during the siege. As one of the world's most sacred sites, the Church of the Nativity fortunately escaped serious damage during the siege. There was a fire that caused light damage, some rooms inside the church were riddled with bullet holes, and the wear and tear the church suffered from so many people living there for more than five weeks was obvious. But the church, fortunately, was spared serious damage or destruction. But it could have been much worse.

DEFUSING WORKPLACE VIOLENCE

Karen O'Leary, RN, AD, works in the catheterization lab recovery department at Innovis Health in Fargo, North Dakota. She also has experience in emergency and psychiatric medicine. Karen attends Church of the Nativity and is a school library volunteer.Figure

Anatomy of an Experiment: The Sierra Leone Native Pastorate

The process of transformation from the establishment of a mission to an independent indigenous church is one of the most perplexing challenges of the modern missionary enterprise. This paper examines a particular model, framed in response to particular dilemmas of the Western missionary movement, which was first implemented in the British colony of Sierra Leone. Aptly described as the “euthanasia of a mission,” but more popularly known as the “three-selves” theory, the model in question was postulated on the view that the “settlement of a native church, under native pastors, upon a self-supporting system” was the ultimate objective of a mission. The nature and impact of this concept, as an experiment within an African context, forms the focus of this study.

Bethlehem: A Site Assessment

In 1998 the Palestine Exploration Fund considered undertaking some survey work at Bethlehem in the gardens east of the Church of the Nativity, and a preliminary site assessment on which this report is based was undertaken in February 1999. The information derived from this work provides a synthesis of our current evidence for the ancient site.

CHRISTIAN PRESENCE IN THE MIDDLE EAST

PETER E. MAKARI [*] At the close of the second millennium since the birth of our Lord, much attention around the world is focussed on the Middle East, and particularly on the historic land of Jesus Christ's life and resurrection, the land of Palestine and Israel. Pilgrims have for centuries come to the so-called Holy Land to visit the places where the events of the scriptures took place. The biblical lands are indeed special. They offer the Christian visitor a spiritual journey endowed with many meanings and a sense of immediate connectivity with our faith history. It is to this context that so many have come and this that so many have sought. The number of pilgrims expected to come to the Middle East, and particularly Palestine and Israel, during the Great Jubilee year 2000 is staggering. They will visit the Church of the Annunciation in Nazareth and the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem; they will go to Egypt, where the holy family sought refuge from King Herod; they will wet themselves along the Jordan river banks in which Christ was baptized; they will retrace Christ's steps on the Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem as he carried his cross; and they will look inside the tomb from which Christ emerged, resurrected in full glory. They will never forget the experience, or the place; but will they have encountered any of their Middle Eastern Christian sisters and brothers who are struggling to maintain their lives and livelihoods in the land of Christ? The Christian population of the Middle East is often overlooked, forgotten, or simply unknown. Those not familiar with today's Middle East correctly associate Islam with it. Islam is the overwhelming majority religion throughout the Middle East and North Africa's twenty-two nations. From Morocco to Iraq and Iran, Islam is the numerical majority. It is interesting to note, though, that the highest concentration of Muslims is not in the Middle East, but rather in South and Southeast Asia, in Indonesia and Malaysia. As for Christians in the Middle East, we have inhabited the lands of the region continuously since the days of Christ himself. The first people to be called Christians lived in Antioch. The first church, established by the apostle James, was in Jerusalem. This is our heritage. This is our history. Our roots are here. The numerical presence of Christians in the Middle East is proportionately low. The percentages vary from country to country, and estimates vary from source to source. There is no accurate and reliable census or study that offers statistics. We can say that the number of Christians in the Middle East and North Africa, the geographical distribution of churches that are members in the Middle East Council of Churches (MECC), is approximately fifteen million. Percentages of Christians vary from less than 2% in Iran, to about 10% in Egypt, to more than 40% in Lebanon. Virtually all of these Christians belong to one of the four ecclesiastical families represented in the MECC: Oriental Orthodox, Orthodox, Catholic, and Evangelical (including Anglican and Protestant churches). The Environment of the Middle East As we have already mentioned, the prevailing culture and environment in the region is Islamic. That has not always been the case, however. It is imperative that we call to mind that Islam was introduced just less than 1,400 years ago, in the early 7th century. Before that time, Christianity was the main religion of the Middle East. Even on the Arab peninsula Christianity was present and significant. As the Arab armies moved north and west, they conquered much land and important capitals for Islam before the end of the 7th century. Islamic rule was the political norm throughout, but did not immediately become a majority religion throughout the land of political rule. Christianity remained the majority for some decades and even centuries in some places. The fact that Islam eventually became the majority religion can no doubt be attributed to its appeal as a liberating political force from the oppressive Byzantine empire. …

Gender and Religion on the Mission Station: Roxie Reeve and the Friends Africa Mission

Gender and Religion on the Mission Station: Roxie Reeve and the Friends Africa Mission1 Samuel S. Thomas* Introduction In January 1913, Roxie Reeve, anunmarried, twenty-six-year-oldnative of Galena, Kansas, arrived at the Maragoli mission station of the Friends Africa Industrial Mission in what is now North Nyanza, Kenya.2 Over the nextthirteenyearsReeve, among otheraccomplishments, began an orphanage for African girls and engineered the opening of the Mission's first boarding school. Despite the Mission's stated intention ofopening a school for missionary children first, which was to be followed by an African boys' boardingschool,andfinallyanAfricangirls' boardingschool,Reeve'sschool wasexclusivelyforAfricangirls. In 1926,Reevewas strickenwithdebilitatingabdominalpains , probablythe resultofstress andgall stones, andreturned to the United States for treatment. Despite her heartfelt entreaties, in May 1932, Errol Elliot, Secretary of the American Friends Board of Foreign Missions (AFBFM) wrote, I can say that the Executive Committee was deeply sympathetic with your statement and expressed high appreciation for your service and your attitude in this matter. The Committee asked me to write to you stating that there seems to be no opening and therefore an appointment is impossible. . . At the present time the Committee could notseeanyplacein thefuture where an appointment for service in Africa could be made.3 Thus ended the careerofa truly remarkable missionary. She didnot serve so long as some, though it was certainly not for lack ofwill. She was, in the end, a victim ofherphysical illness andthe political tensions bothwithin the Mission itself, and between the Mission and the governing Board in Richmond ,Indiana.4ThroughReevewecanseethewaysinwhichindividualscould affecttheformationandimplementationofmissionpolicy, especiallywithin the peculiar context ofa Quaker mission. In addition, an examination ofthe battles over Reeve's missionary activities reveals the ways in which gender and religion shaped the substance and terms ofongoing debates. While the Friends Africa Industrial Mission was not founded until 1 902, Friends missionary work within the United States began decades earlier. During thenineteenthcentury, Quakersbuiltupontheirhistorical opposition to slavery by educating former slaves in the American south after the Civil War,5 andFriends receivedacommissionfromPresidentU.S. Grantto work towards the "improvement, education and civilization" ofNative Ameri- *Samuel S. Thomas is a graduate student in History at Washington University in St. Louis. His research interests range from religious nonconformity in seventeenthcentury England to Missioneducationin colonial Africa. Gender and Religion on the Mission Station25 cans in Kansas and Nebraska.6 The impetus for much ofthis work, as well as the foreign missionworkwhich followed quicklyon its heels, came from groups ofQuakers more affectedby the evangelical religious revivals ofthe nineteenthcentury. Indeed, the majority ofthe earlyFriends missionaries in Kenya were themselves Gurneyites, coming fromQuakerism's evangelical wing.7 In the second half of the nineteenth century, Quakers opened missions in the Sandwich Islands (1861), China (1884), India (1890), Ceylon (1896-7) and Zanzibar (1898)just to name a few.8 As we shall see below, an integral part of this overseas work was the education and evangelization of "heathen" women, and in most cases this work was initiated and overseenby Quaker women.9 Thus, by the turn ofthe century, Quaker mission work among both men and women was well-established. Establishment of the Friends Africa Mission As mentioned above, the Mission was begun in 1902 by a trio of Gurneyite Quakers, led by Willis Hotchkiss, a veteran ofa failed attemptby Africa Inland Mission to open a mission in Kenya.10 The first of the Africans' "needs" these new missionaries sought to fill were "the Gospel message, habits ofindustry, clothing andmedical care."1 ' Missionliterature was more direct: "The primary aim of the [Friends Africa Industrial Mission] is the evangelization of the heathen."12 Initially, there were four official departments within the Mission: Industrial, Educational, Evangelical and Medical. As the Mission name indicates, the Industrial Department reigned supreme, but only in concert with the Evangelical.13 In mapping out the Mission's future, one ofthe missionaries' stated goals was the creation ofa "self-supporting, self-propagating native church." Missionaries would give African converts the technical training necessary to earn enough money to support their church (not to mention pay taxes to the colonial government), and the religious training necessary for them to become evangelists themselves.'4Within the mission itbecame a truism that"Africa must be won for Christ by Africans," and...

Romancing Freedom: Church and Society in the Baltic States since the End of Communism

In spite of the challenge of 'homo sovieticus' and the so-called 'moral vacuum' the Churches in postcommunist countries since 1989 do not seem to have had the impact they themselves or others thought they would. On the contrary, in the context of newly-acquired freedom and possibilities for expansion the role of the Churches as purveyors of meaning to the individual and society has remained rather limited. In the eyes of many a believer in Eastern Europe this is the result of western influences: since the opening of the Iron Curtain all sorts of evils like liberalism, individualism, consumerism, materialism and (Protestant) sects have harmed the native Churches. Whether this analysis is right still remains to be proven. It is clear however that the events of 1989 were ambiguous for the Churches. Initial euphoria has given way to realism. To what extent are the Churches prepared for the future and what is their contribution going to be in the new, liberal and capitalist society? Let us take the example of the Baltic States.

Goffredo de Prefetti and the Church of Bethlehem in England

To Englishmen of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, few institutions inspired such horrified fascination as the Bedlam hospital, the principal London mad-house. Yet Bedlam, or to give it its proper title, the hospital of St Mary of New Bethlehem, had been in existence for several centuries before its principal charge became the care, or perhaps more correctly the confinement, of the insane. The origins of Bedlam lie in the 1240s, in the reign of King Henry III. To date, the circumstances which gave rise to the hospital's foundation have failed to attract the understanding and attention which they deserve. Bedlam's founders would no doubt have been surprised to learn of the subsequent fate of their institution, intended in origin not as a mad-house but as a link between England and the Holy Land, part of a wider movement in which the cathedral church of the Nativity at Bethlehem and its bishops sought land, alms and hospitality in western Europe. The purpose of this present essay is to investigate the links between England and the church of Bethlehem which gave rise to the foundation of Bedlam. In the process, it is hoped that new light will be shed upon English attitudes to the crusades, upon the reorganisation of the finances and administration of the bishops of Bethlehem exiled from the Holy Land after 1187, and in particular upon the career of one bishop, Goffredo de Prefetti. It was Goffredo who was to be personally responsible for the introduction of the Bethlehemites to England, and so it is with his career that we should commence.

Native and Christian: indigenous voices on religious identity in the United States and Canada

I Spirituality and History 1. Indian Spirituality: Another Vision 2. Who Can Sit At the Lord's Table? The Experience of Indigenous Peoples 3. An Aboriginal Christian Perspective on the Integrity of Creation 4. Rivers of Life: Native Spirituality for Native Churches 5. The Old Testament of Native America II Liberation and Culture 6. Reclaiming our Histories 7. Canaanites, Cowboys, and Indians: Deliverance, Conquest, and Liberation Theology Today 8. Vision and Community: A Native American Voice 9. Spirituality, Native American Personhood, Sovereignty, and Solidarity 10. Native Americans and Evangelization III Tradition and Community 11. Remember the Sabbath Day 12. The Challenge of the Future: Creating a Place Called Home 13. Program Development and Native American Catechesis 14. The Sacred Circle: Native American Liturgy 15. The Meeting of the Two Ways 16. The Native American Church of Jesus Christ IV Transformation and Survival 17. The Story and Faith Journey of a Native Catechist 18. Returning 19. Plucked from the Ashes 20. Two Paths 21. The Native Church: A Search for an Authentic Spirituality

The Short, swift time of gods on earth: the Hohokam chronicles

In the spring of 1935, at Snaketown, Arizona, two Pima Indians recounted and translated their entire traditional creation narrative. Juan Smith, reputedly the last tribesman with extensive knowledge of the Pima version of this story, spoke and sang while William Smith Allison translated into English and Julian Hayden, an archaeologist, recorded Allison's words verbatim. The resulting document, the Hohokam Chronicles, is the most complete natively articulated Pima creation narrative ever written and a rare example of a single-narrator myth. Now this extraordinary work, composed of thirty-six separate stories, is presented in its entirety for the first time. Beautifully expressed, the narrative constitutes a kind of scripture for a native church, beginning with the creation of the universe out of the void and ending with the establishment in the sixteenth century of present-day villages. Central to the story is the murder/resurrection of a god-man, Siuuhu, who summoned the Pimas and Papagos (Tohono O'odham) as his army of vengeance and brought about the conquest of his murderers, the ancient Hohokam. Donald Bahr extensively annotates the text and supplements it with other Pima-Papago versions of similar stories. Important as a social and historic document, this book adds immeasurably to the growing body of Native American literature and to our knowledge of the development of Pima-Papago culture.

Manuel Comnenus and the Reunion of the Churches: the Evidence of the Conciliar Mosiacs in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem

Abstract The twelfth-century mosaics on the nave walls of the Church of the Nativity illustrating the ecumenical and selected provincial councils of the Church are here examined in the context of the negotiations for the reunion of the Latin, Byzantine and Armenian churches in the 1160s–1170s. The existence of this Byzantine cycle according to a strictly Byzantine iconography in a Latin cathedral may argue for a permanent Orthodox monastic community, and even an Orthodox bishop, in Bethlehem.

Manuel Comnenus and the Reunion of the Churches: the Evidence of the Conciliar Mosiacs in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem

Abstract The twelfth-century mosaics on the nave walls of the Church of the Nativity illustrating the ecumenical and selected provincial councils of the Church are here examined in the context of the negotiations for the reunion of the Latin, Byzantine and Armenian churches in the 1160s–1170s. The existence of this Byzantine cycle according to a strictly Byzantine iconography in a Latin cathedral may argue for a permanent Orthodox monastic community, and even an Orthodox bishop, in Bethlehem.

Art and Colonialism: The Mosaics of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem (1169) and the Problem of "Crusader" Art

Art and Colonialism: The Mosaics of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem (1169) and the Problem of "Crusader" Art

‘Too Peculiarly Anglican’: The Role of the Established Church in Ireland as A Negative Model in the Development of the Church Missionary Society’s Commitment to Independent Native Churches, 1856-1872

Henry Venn, the CMS honorary secretary between 1841 and 1872, is rightly regarded as the great exponent of self-supporting, self-propagating, and self-governing churches. I have argued elsehwere that his principles took many years to assume their final shape and that, when they did, they contained what was regarded as an ecclesiological anomaly—that there should be separate bishops for different races in the same geographical area. Between about 1856 and 1872 Venn became increasingly daring in his proposals, abandoned his support for the idea of a single European bishop wherever there were European settlers and was instrumental, not only in having Samuel Crowther appointed as the first black bishop in West Africa or in responding positively to suggestions of an Indian bishop for South India, but also in proposing, both in India and in China, that the needs of a truly culturally integrated independent ‘native’ church demanded that its structures should be separated from those of the imported European church.

Evangelization and Mission: A Roman Catholic Experience

Evangelization in non-Christian lands has been an important aspect of Roman Catholic mission endeavor over the centuries, but it was during the nineteenth century when some of the most far-reaching missionary work was undertaken. The missionaries of this era were dedicated and self-sacrificing, responding to Christ's mandate, “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations.” One outstanding mission leader was Francis Libermann, who had a vision for reaching Africans with the goal of quickly establishing a native church. Among those who were deeply influenced by his teachings were Father Francis Delaplace and Marie Moison, who founded the Servants of the Holy Heart of Mary in 1860, since expanded into many regions with a congregation of more than eight hundred.

From Church to Mission: An Examination of the Official Missionary Strategy of the Church Missionary Society on the Niger, 1887–93

Crowther’s consecration in 1864 did not produce a church on the Niger which was entirely independent of the CMS. It remained financially dependent. Nonetheless, though technically still a mission, it had a very great deal of independence and, in some respects, it seemed to symbolize the Venn ideal - a self-governing native church. That the events of the nineties in the Niger represented a major disenchantment with Henry Venn’s vision of an independent church under African administration cannot be questioned. The curtailment of Bishop Crowther’s powers, the appointment of European missionaries on the Niger, the public criticism and dismissal of African ministers, and the replacement of Crowther by a European all made the point eloquently.

Anglican Parish of Blenheim: strengthening to the Church of the Nativity

The Church of the Nativity in Blenheim is in two distinct structural types. The nave, narthex and tower are of brick veneered reinforced concrete and steel portal frames constructed about 1959 to replace an old timber building. Check calculations showed this to generally meet latest code requirements.
 The transept and chancel was, prior to the strengthening work, of unreinforced brick masonry built about 1906 - with some reinforced buttresses and reinforced concrete bands. The whole building is roofed with concrete tiles.
 The initial assessment of the building was made in terms of Clause 301A of the Municipal Corporation Act in 1976.
 This building is regarded as one of Blenheim's finest older buildings and the members of the Church did not wish to lose, or detract from, its character, either by obvious strengthening or rebuilding.