community, walls and god - jurnal teologic otniel bunaciu... · that particular story brought back...

Community, Walls and God

The Revd Prof Dr Otniel Ioan BUNACIU

Dean of Facultatea de Teologie Baptistă, University of Bucharest

[email protected]

Abstract: Community, Walls and God represents an inquiry in and a reflec-

tion on the service and witness of a local community of Romanian Bap-

tist believers (Providence Baptist Church). The church has responded to

the need of the Roma community which surrounds it and to a vision to

serve this community addressing one of their needs in a direct way. Af-

ter 22 yeas of service a theological reflection is being a;empted based on

a study of the community done by the University of Bucharest.

Since the interaction between Roma and Romanian communities

in this way is not usual part of the reflection is intended to serve as a

starting point for a dialogue that might lead to further developments es-

pecially based on the way a local community which sometimes has simi-

lar needs decides to help a poorer group because of their faith and

values.

Keywords: Roma, qualitative research, narrative theology, ecclesiology,

ethnography, Baptist, Ferentari

Ephesians 2:11 Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh,

called the uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision, which is made in

the flesh by hands — 12 remember that you were at that time separated from

Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the

covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 13 But

now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near in the

blood of Christ. 14 For he is our peace, who has made us both one, and has bro-

ken down the dividing wall of hostility, 15 by abolishing in his flesh the law of

commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in

place of the two, so making peace, 16 and might reconcile us both to God in one

body through the cross, thereby bringing the hostility to an end. 17 And he

came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were

near; 18 for through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. 19 So

then you are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens

with the saints and members of the household of God, 20 built upon the founda-

tion of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, 21

in whom the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in

the Lord; 22 in whom you also are built into it for a dwelling place of God in the

Spirit.

BUNACIU, Otniel Ioan / Jurnal teologic Vol 15, Nr 1 (2016): 37-57.

38

About walls and contextI come to this discussion as a practitioner first, secondly as a min-

ister and only thirdly as a theologian. In spite of being a theologian it

was seeing the need in the local community after an outsider pointed it

out to me, which made me hear a call to become socially involved. I

started to recognize this as God’s call as my personal involvement grew

more. The congregational context I come from in Romania considers that

the way we live our lives as believers relates somehow to how we under-

stand and use Scripture. This is not to say that things always happen like

that but there is a desire, an intention and an a;empt to live by that rule

or conviction. Theology in a Baptist church in Romania starts with Scrip-

ture and then it moves to trying to understand how that affects our lives

as people and as communities. This means that when reading the verses

in Ephesians 2 it makes us think of real walls. The text speaks about the

dividing wall between Jews and Gentiles and about how this old divi-

sion can be transcended by a new community, which is the church. Such

and understanding urges our present community of believers to find

ways to overcome our own walls. In the congregation believers are “fel-

low citizens with the saints and members in the household of God”. The

transformation that takes believers from “then” to “now” is paralleled

by the move from “far” to “near”. This is done through Christ’s achieve-


39

ment but in a Trinitarian flow. We learn that through Christ “we both

have access in one Spirit to the Father” and we are told that in Christ be-

lievers joined in the church form “a dwelling place of God in the Spirit”.

As a pastor of a local church and as a theologian trying to under-

stand what the life of faith in a church fellowship means, this text also

challenges me to try and understand how being church can become the

presence of Christ which is able to brake down our dividing walls.

Therefore, my reflection is about very practical concerns related to the

ministry of a local church in its community.

In 2013 in the city of Baia Mare in Transylvania, Catalin Cherech-

es the local mayor decided to build a 1.8 m high wall around a Roma

community1. This was a particularly poor slum area where people lived

in make shift housing or in decaying communist blocks. The official rea-

son for the wall was that it would keep the Roma children safe from

wandering on the busy road that ran between this housing complex and

the rest of the city. In fact, the mayor was trying to isolate the Roma

community from the wider population who saw them as a threat and as

an unwelcome presence.

1. h;p://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2285796/Romanian-gypsies-living-condemned-ghe;o-mayor-built-wall-around.html


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That particular story brought back to me a memory from when I

was twenty years old. In November 1979 the English rock band Pink

Floyd released an album called The Wall2. Romania was a communist

state at the time and for us a lot of the western music was difficult to ob-

tain as it came from the capitalistic societies of the west which were try-

ing to corrupt the communist ideologies of the Soviet ear countries. We

were to be protected from the west by all kinds of walls and the most fa-

mous of all was the Berlin Wall3. However, because of the progressive

nature of its music Pink Floyd was well known in our country and there

were various ways to obtain their music. The Wall however came was not

easy to understand and it came as a surprise for me. I remember strug-

gling to understand the words of the song while listening to it on the ra-

dio, as my English was not good enough. I was especially puzzled by the

one of the songs: Another brick in the wall. The second part of that song

became rather famous for the well-known words:

We don't need no education

We don’t need no thought control

No dark sarcasm in the classroom

2. h;p://www.pink-floyd-lyrics.com/html/the-wall-lyrics.html

3. h;p://www.history.com/topics/cold-war/berlin-wall


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Teachers leave them kids alone

Hey! Teachers! Leave them kids alone!

All in all it's just another brick in the wall.

All in all you're just another brick in the wall4.

Pink Floyd thought of “the wall" as being some sort of self-isolat-

ing barrier and the "bricks in the wall" are the people and events that

turn us inward and away from others. Personally, at the time, I was very

puzzled that education was seen in the west as being thought control.

We all considered in the east that the western world was free and open

and therefore the words were dissonant with our understanding of west-

ern society which we could not experience.

Although I was raised as a Christian believer in an education sys-

tem that was very controlling and promoted communism against other

ideologies and especially against Christianity most of us thought of edu-

cation as a way of liberating ourselves from the very thought control that

the authorities were trying to impose through it. It was a lack of an

awareness that we tend to understand things contextually through the

lenses of our culture and experience. In fact, in 1980 in the Cape Town

Townships of Elsie's River and Ravensmead the same song was under-

4. Ibid.


42

stood and used as a liberation song by students who held a demonstra-

tion to commemorate the four-year anniversary of the Soweto uprising.

As a result, the South African government banned the song at the time.

A friend from Sweden sent us recently at Project Ruth an article

from a publication called Expressen. The name of the article is: That is why

the beggars come and it was published on the 29th of November 2015 and

it is part of a series articles describing the life of Roma in Romania. The

story is wri;en by a journalist from Expressen, who spent 7 weeks in an

urban ghe;o in Ferentari, Bucharest which is where our church is locat-

ed. According to her, the particular street she is describing which is

called, Aleea Livezilor is an “alley of hell where people leave from to go to

Sweden to steal. Others wait to be carried away in a coffin. In fact they are all

dead already. Their hearts beat and they walk through the rubbish trying to

fight their demons, but in fact they are already dead. It is only that each one has

a different timing and a different although equal suffering to get there. This is

the destination which is the only way that leads out of the Allea Livezilor:

death”.5

Whether it may be a concrete wall, or it is alienation, or discrim-

ination in various forms or whether is the threat of death, walls seem to

5. h;p://www.expressen.se/nyheter/longread/darfor-kommer-tiggarna/ro/

livezilor-bukarest--en-plats-for-de-levande-doda/


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have a close and defining relationship with community. In communist

years we loved the warm and close fellowship that the walls raised by

society enabled us to have. Walls provide protection but also generate

estrangement. Providence Baptist Church in Ferentari is such a commu-

nity that exists among walls. It is a Romanian community among Roma

people. It is a poorer community in the capital city of Romania, which is

the wealthiest city in the country. It is a community of Baptist believers

in a country where the large majority belong to the Orthodox Church. It

is tempting to think that the story of Project Ruth is the story of how this

community was called to deal with its walls. However, the Ephesians

text gives a further and more positive call, which is to become for those

it serves, Christ’s holy temple, which is a dwelling place of God in the

Spirit.

Project Ruth The initiative to start Project Ruth came in 1992 through Provi-

dence Baptist church in the Ferentari district of Bucharest. This is located

in the fifth district of Bucharest, which is a city with about 2 million in-

habitants6. The district has 271,575 inhabitants and the larger neighbor-

hood area where the church is located had about 90,000 inhabitants. As

6. According to the 2011 census there were 1,883,425 inhabitants in Bucharest.


44

was evident from the article in the Swedish paper, Ferentari is consid-

ered one of the poorest areas of the city and also one with the highest in-

cidence of crime. This criminality is generally a;ributed to the large

presence of Roma people. Providence Baptist Church was the first

church of any denomination established 90 years ago in the district. Cur-

rent membership is 300 with 200 in regular. Although the church is locat-

ed in an area with many Roma people these do not a;end the church. A

daughter church was established some years ago at the request of some

Roma who wanted to be in fellowship with our church but desired sepa-

rate services. About 3 or 4 Roma families a;end the main church but

these have abandoned Roma traditions and have adopted “Romanian

ways. In the area are several other Orthodox churches and a few Evan-

gelical churches as well. Interestingly enough official statistics (data ob-

tained from a World Vision study) found, that only 27,322 Roma in

Bucharest and only 7,980 Roma in the entire fifth district. The low num-

bers that are reported are explained by the fact that the Roma themselves

tend to avoid declaring that they are Roma because of the stigma that is

a;ached with such an identity.

The initiative to start Project Ruth came as a result of a challenge

brought by a missionary from the US who was a member of our church.

With the help of volunteers from the church a day center was organized

and for several years the activities were informal, similar to a club or a


45

day center. The name Project Ruth was given by the young people of the

church because they thought that Ruth was accepted as a foreigner

among the people of God. The project grew in time and today it is one of

the larger Roma Projects in Bucharest and probably in Romania.

The main activities of Project Ruth reflect the needs of the com-

munity and currently these include: Education - The Ruth School is an ac-

credited school in the Romanian educational; Food - Project Ruth pro-

vides a daily meal for all the children with the intention to address basic

needs of good nutrition; Hygiene and health - Hygiene and health is an

important focus for Project Ruth and is lead by family doctor and a

nurse; Humanitarian assistance - Project Ruth tries to find partners to help

support children and their families cope with their situations; Leadership

formation and equipping - Project Ruth has engaged Roma communities

through churches by providing leadership training especially in the

Gypsy Smith School. This provides training in a 2 year long program;

Counseling and job training for women – In the Roma culture women have

an inferior social status and are frequently abused. Project Ruth started

the Naomi Center which operates a counseling program for women and

a sewing club where women can learn how to sew and also produce

things that we try to help them sell; Community development - In an effort

to develop good relationships with the Roma communities various pro-

grams are developed o build trust and avert suspicion and lack of inter-


46

est by involving parents in information exchanges and in discussion is-

sues of general interest like drug use, trafficking and unemployment;

Advocacy and Resource center - Project Ruth is involved in advocacy and

also in developing a resource center in which the experience gained is

made available to those working in similar communities; Witness - The

main work of Project Ruth is to address the needs of those who live in

the area where our church is located and mainly the needs of the Roma

community. However serving those in need Project Ruth has also be-

come a witness for the presence of Christ in our area.

Impact studyAfter 22 years of practical involvement by addressing the needs

of the area where the church is located we decided that it would be a

good idea to see what impact we actually have through what we do. A

research network was set up which included: Providence Foundation

(the legal parent of Project Ruth), The Faculty of Sociology and Social

Work, The Faculty of Baptist Theology, The Centre for Research and In-

novation in Social Services and The Centre for Faith and Culture. The

qualitative study was conducted between August and October 2014. The

research methodology included two major components. The first one

was researching of standards and legislation. The second component

was the qualitative evaluation itself, which was based on semi-struc-


47

tured interviews, which were applied both to beneficiaries and to the

specialists involved in the work. Focus groups were also organized both

with beneficiaries and community leaders. Interviews and focus groups

were led by trained researches from the Sociology and Social Work Fac-

ulty. The results were discussed and assessed by the two research

centers. The evaluation focused on the social needs of the community to

which the beneficiaries belong.

From the data, which resulted from the qualitative research, I col-

lected the responses of those involved to which I added responses from

financial supporters and church members obtained in separate surveys.

Beneficiaries“… When I came to Ferentari, believe me that it is like moving in the

jungle. What I saw there for me … was science fiction! I locked myself inside

with the children, stuff like that… you could hear screams and cries on the hall

way, wooooo …. crazy … I thought I cannot not survive there. All this time I

tried to protect the children as there were all kind of wretched people and drugs

on the streets. What could I offer to that child? Is this education? Then I heard

about this school. And I thought that this is my opportunity to move children

further”.


48

“I do not know if God was the one who … (laughs). I was looking for a

kindergarten but I did not know about the Ruth School. I was walking on the

street and someone told me: if you are looking for a kindergarten there is one

run by the repented ones. I came here with Miss. Angela”.

“The Foundation also helped me in the second year, they paid for half of

the cost for my nursing school. With three children that was very important for

me (mother 44, 3 children)

“I was depressed and for a year I went only to the counseling center …

after that year I started to go to the sewing workshop and my life changed a lot

because I started to have more confidence…” (mother 26, 2 children)

The Ruth School is perceived as a Christian school although it is

not registered as such. The help offered to those in need is perceived by

some of the beneficiaries as a form of Christian witness. Some parents

claim that Christian values promoted in the school ensure the more suc-

cessful social integration of the children. Parents are aware of risks their

families would be exposed to if Project Ruth would not exist. Some bene-

ficiaries seem to believe that they are entitled what the charity offers dai-

ly and want to receive more resources. Lack of money is a big problem

and has lead some to be in debt. Many are in a desperate situation and

are grateful for the help.


49

Specialists “Providence Foundation has knowing in its 20 years an intelligent and

sustainable development based on a vision grounded in the needs of the benefici-

aries. It existed in the midst of the needs of the people, close to their suffering

gaining in this way organizational maturity and strategic for the community”.

(DB, 158)

Specialists pointed out that Project Ruth became a good model of

church involvement in the needs of society by responding to a vision of

service. This was developed over more than two decades of involvement

with the needs of the community.

Church members:“Project Ruth represents the work of the church in the hearts of children

and parents”. (John, 41-55)

“Project Ruth is the fingerprint of the church not only in Ferentari or

Romania but internationally too”. (George, 25-30)

“Project Ruth is the living proof of the impact, which a community of

believers can have in society, thus making Providence Church an international

model of involvement. Through Project Ruth, Providence Church shows the

world God’s love, and care taking of our neighbor”. (Peter, 18-24)


50

“The church fulfills its vocation: its witness is strengthen, the church

proves a real concern for the need of the neighbor”. (Mark, 31-40)

“Project Ruth is the chance to practice biblical principles of serving the

community in the midst of which we are located”. (31-40)

Church members indicated that Project Ruth represented a vehi-

cle through which the work of the church brought international visibili-

ty, it represented God’s fingerprint, was in fact the vocation of the

church fulfilling her biblical mandate and a living proof of its presence.

Supporters:“What you are doing for the people of Romania is awesome. I taught in

a room in the school and saw daily the hand of God. You are a tremendous tool

for Jesus and it is a joy to share in your ministry in a small way” (Minister in

the USA. 60).

“Project Ruth is very relevant especially for the XXI century. We all

know that education is the way out of poverty and for breaking the cycle of

poverty. What started 20 years ago with the church’s aqempt to help a few poor

Roma children grew into a program that that changes lives and it is larger than

we dreamed. I have come to Ferentari since 1997 and the changes are transfor-

mational not only about buildings and roads but also people”. (Nancy)


51

Sponsors noted that they can see the hand of God in a local

church effort that has grown significantly and it is transformational.

Trying to make sense of the presence of church incommunity

In his article in Perspectives on Ecclesiology and Ethnography

(Ecclesiology, Ethnography and God) Nicholas Healy asks the question:

why community? He notes that trying to understand what motivates a

local church in becoming involved in the community where it exists is

what Rowan Williams describes as beginning “always in the middle of

things”7. Having said that as I a;empted to think through what our

church does from that vantage point I discovered that things are rather

messy and therefore they are difficult to understand or at least it is prob-

lematic to try and describe what is going on without imposing some ex-

ternal ordering which may not reflect in fact the complex situation on

the ground but an understanding of it.

After that Healy quotes David Martin’s claim that forms of com-

munitarian ideology propagated by mainstream religions “do not con-

7.Rowan Williams, On Christian Theology, (Oxford: Blackwell, 2000), p. xii.


52

form to any reality” and are “based on delusions”8. I am not sure that the

description is a helpful one for Romania.

If we agree that the model of Trinitarian relationships can form

the basis of understanding the Christian community as participating in

the movements in God one of the questions that needs to be asked is

how does the person relate to earthly community. I found it helpful to

reflect on this by starting from the four pastoral concerns that Paul Fid-

des raises in his book Participating in God9. The first one is the distinction

between person and personage. This relates to how we can communicate

with the person who is beyond the mask of the personage. As we are not

able to remove the mask of our own personage “like a coat or suit of ar-

mor”10 the encounter with the person of another remains somewhat

mysterious. The concern is therefore how to deal with the discord be-

tween the personage and the person even if this effort takes place in the

often reductionist understanding that communities have “a grammar”

or rules for living. In the context of our community the so-called gram-

mar is not shared between communities that otherwise share the same

8. David Martin, Reflection on Sociology and Theology, (Oxford: Oxford

University Press, 1997), p. 131.

9. Paul Fiddes, Participating in God, (London: Darton, Longman, Todd, 2000),

p. 19.

10. Ibid. p. 21.


53

physical space. One of the ongoing difficulties is how to be a Romanian

and a practicing Christian in a section of town with a fairly large Roma

population of whom most consider themselves to be Christians although

they do not practice their faith . What our research seems to indicate is

that social involvement provides a way to look beyond the personage

from both directions by providing an openness towards the others.

The second concern is the balance between the integrity of the

self and openness to others. Paul Fiddes calls this as being uniquely-cen-

tered without being self-centered. He starts from Pannenberg’s concept

of the open person11 to remind us that humans are born with an open-

ness to the world illustrated by the relationship of trust to the mother. In

time this openness is eroded as the self closes itself in defense of others

by gathering everything in an ego center. It is in the tension between the

self and the ego understood in Pannenberg’s way that Fiddes sees the

challenge. If we really want to help others we need to understand our

own needs otherwise we will not be aware of the self-interest that might

motivate our efforts. He goes on to write about Campbell’s12 idea that

one needs to be prepared to be with others by finding God’s presence in

others and by practicing solitude in order to be grounded in God by re-

11. Wolyart Pannenberg, What is man, (Fortress Press, 1970)?

12. Campbell


54

turning to the still center13. Practically the openness to others means that

one needs to listen to others and take them as they are rejecting general-

ization. This difficulty is particularly dangerous in Project Ruth engage-

ment with a community, which is stereotyped, to an extent that it is easy

to not see how existing generalizations may influence strategy and deci-

sion making. The difficulty in resisting this cannot come easily from ma-

nagement theories or even cross cultural studies but it may come from a

willingness to be open and listen carefully aware that God’s presence is

also in those who are helped as well as in those who help.

The third tension is between dependence and independence.

Charitable efforts even with the best of motivations can be susceptible to

generate dependencies. Fiddes, following Wesley Carr suggests that we

need to distinguish between relationship, which is about relationships

and mutuality, and relatedness which is how people relate to each other

through their roles or through the personage. He argues that we need to

keep both together as relationships although can bring people together

faster create dependency while relatedness develops mutual responsibil-

ity. Our experience at Project Ruth is that dependence is one of the

biggest challenges especially when working with a very poor communi-

ty. The capacity of relationship tends to be exploited for personal benefit,

13. Fiddes, 24.


55

which in turn develops dependency. What do you decide when someone

begs? On what basis do you make that decision?

The last tension is between unity and diversity. This points out to

human reaction when encountering someone who is quite different than

us. Whether it is fear of the unknown, or just being uncomfortable with

the different the reaction generally is that we insist on some normative

standard, which we then call normality. This denial of diversity happens

not only outside church but in the church as well sometimes. This can

lead to ignoring the differences that exist and pretending that the others

are like us. In our particular situation our congregation has a small num-

ber of Roma families that a;end the church. However, we also have a

Roma mission church that meets across the street and they refuse to

meet exclusively with us. The question is why do we accept so easily

those who are in our church? Because they accepted to behave like us

and therefore we are content to pretend that they are like us.

ConclusionThirty-four years after the launch of the album The Wall in UK,

Roger Walters produced in 2013 in Bucharest the show The Wall Live. I

could not miss such an event connected with my youth and went to see

it. At the end the cry was tear down that wall and the show ended with


56

the demolition of the wall and the tearing apart of the pig puppet float-

ing above the crowd. Although it was a nice trip down memory lane I

wondered what my son’s generation saw as their walls today. And I

could not help feel that after all it was just a staged show. As it happens

in life, the wall will be rebuilt for the next representation and then torn

apart at the end of it. I knew that the church must do be;er than that if it

wants to give meaning to the words of Scripture which although ad-

dressed to a specific audience seem to have more enduring power to

change: 14 For he is our peace, who has made us both one, and has broken

down the dividing wall of hostility, 15 by abolishing in his flesh the law of com-

mandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in

place of the two, so making peace, 16 and might reconcile us both to God in one

body through the cross, thereby bringing the hostility to an end.

Twenty-two years after the start of Project Ruth looking at what

was achieved seems miraculous for those involved. Ongoing reflection,

assessment and involvement with the work of Project Ruth has the po-

tential to make its impact more significant in addressing the walls that

exist in Ferentari and by doing so continuing to be a witness to the pres-

ence of Christ through whom believers can become a dwelling place of God

in the Spirit.


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community, walls and god - jurnal teologic otniel bunaciu... · that particular story brought back...

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