I got back on Sunday after a good but somewhat exhausting trip. Here are some rather scattered fragments of a disrupted life that I wrote while in SA but couldn’t post due to internet connection problems…
- Cairo airport has improved since I was last there twelve years ago. Well, it could hardly not have improved, but that is not to say that it is quite what European travelers expect, and I found myself rather torn between worlds in my own reaction – on the one hand irritated at the superior amusement of some fellow travelers and on the other hand not terribly pleased at where I thought I’d have to spend a few hours in transit. Fortunately we were herded back onto a bus and taken to a more comfortable terminal.
- Sitting in a transit lounge in the middle of the night I was struck by the natural piety of several travelers who appeared to be reading the Qur’an as if it was the most natural thing in the world to do.
- Oliver Tambo International Airport, formerly Johannesburg International Airport, formerly Jan Smuts International Airport, has changed beyond recognition. Apparently it’s all connected to the soccer world cup next year.
- Praying in English again is really strange! It’s made even more confusing by the fact that the English translations of the Mass have changed which everyone else seems confused by as well. And, no, I’m not getting involved in commenting on the controversies around that!
- It’s not only the Dutch Church that is a liturgical wasteland. I attended a parish Mass on the weekend and encountered a priest who, had one written a caricature of a superficial, feel-good homily and liturgical practice evacuated of content, could not have been more depressing. Fortunately that was somewhat offset by a rather good homily by a young Dominican the next day, but it did make me realise that there is much that I take for granted. It also made me realise that I miss my monastery, which is not a bad thing to realise.
- Moving is stressful!
- Had a good conversation with a friend in which we wondered whether we are becoming conservative in our old age early middle age? More seriously, we expressed frustration at the power dynamics involved in many current western ecclesial contexts in which it is very difficult to question the wisdom and success of some of the post-conciliar reforms without being labeled reactionary. And I told him to read Discerning the Mystery – well, I tell everyone who will listen to read Discerning the Mystery!
- It is more difficult to keep a white habit clean here than it is in the Netherlands!
- The Christian presence in South Africa is very Protestant. And very western. There is probably more that I can say on that, but I had better desist.
- I read an article by a former lecturer of mine, an Anglican, who argued in a rather amusing and self-deprecating way, for ecclesial tolerance. But what struck me was his comment that if the Church had not expended so much energy on the Arian controversy in the fourth century the whole of North Africa and the Middle East might be Christian rather than Moslem. And I found myself wondering why one should find Arian Christianity preferable to Islam.
- Cultural differences do exist. And, while I feel a stranger in the Netherlands, it is rather disconcerting to find myself becoming a stranger in my own country. Yes, I know about xeniteia, but it’s still rather disconcerting.
- Had a good discussion with friends on how the internet is changing human communication – there is lots to reflect on there that I may post on sometime.
A vow of conversation 
February 3, 2009 at 5:16 pm
Welcome back, Sr Macrina! You were sorely missed!
February 3, 2009 at 9:23 pm
Let me second Aaron Taylor, welcome back Sister, you’ve been missed!
February 4, 2009 at 3:30 am
Very edifying post, Sister Macrina. I hope you don’t mind if I re-post that last quote from Zizioulas on my blog (and I’ll let ’em know where I got it from). Thank you for posting this.
February 5, 2009 at 12:41 am
And I told him to read Discerning the Mystery – well, I tell everyone who will listen to read Discerning the Mystery!
Hilarious! And well done! Keep spreading the word!
I’m happy for your safe travels, and that you’re back home.
Your Anglican lecturer friend is a bit mixed up. The Vandals in North Africa at the time of the Muslim invastion were Arian. One wonders what his point was….
February 5, 2009 at 6:44 am
Thank you, all. And David, of course you’re welcome to post Zizioulas quotes – and thanks for the link.
February 6, 2009 at 6:44 am
if the Church had not expended so much energy on the Arian controversy in the fourth century the whole of North Africa and the Middle East might be Christian rather than Moslem
Far more damaging was the monophysite controversy of the 5th century, which led to a schism in the 6th century which has lasted to this day. Arians have vanished, unless you count Muslims and Jehovah’s Witnesses as such.
Concerning that, however, I once edited a Unisa study guide written by a Lutheran theology professor and noted exponent of black theology. He dismissed arguments about the two natures of Christ as purely European concerns and having no relevance to Africa. I pointed out to him that it was a bad example. Most European theologians did not understand the issue and had no interest in it; on the contrary it was an African issue and only in Africa was it really considered important. He didn’t really believe me until he visited Egypt a year or two later, and on his return remarked that “Those people really think the question of the two natures of Christ is important, they argue about it all the time.”
February 6, 2009 at 3:42 pm
Steve, that’s a lovely account! I once taught a Christology course as a graduate assistant to a Lutheran theologian. (And I’m not Lutheran bashing here, it’s probably coincidence or I suppose it’s possible that it could have been the same person). He was shocked when I gave the students Saint Athanasius’ On the Incarnation to read and protested that they wouldn’t be able to understand it or relate to it and wanted to given them his own existentialist-orientated texts. Fortunately I persisted and was delighted to discover that the students were certainly able to relate to Athanasius.
When I was home recently somebody (a priest for whom I do have a lot of respect) said to me that people aren’t interested in what the tradition or what the Fathers teach. And, thinking about it afterwards, I realised that the problem is that people have no idea of what the Fathers teach. And there is of course something particularly ironic in people being deprived access to the African tradition (e.g. St Athanasius) on the grounds that it is “western” and “European”!
February 9, 2009 at 10:44 pm
Sr., I’ve only just found your blog. As a non-Dutchie living in the Netherlands, I also have sensations of fitting in neither here nor there. It can be so unsettling sometimes!
February 15, 2009 at 3:24 pm
Puella, thanks for your comment. It can be unsettling living “between worlds”!