14 January 2008

'We are not willing' over Turkish priest

The title of this article does not quite tell all the story, but enough of it to get attention.Bishop locked out of churches over Turkish priest . Perhaps some of the most pertinent background is this "A heady mix of nationalism, anti-western sentiment and Islamic extremism has resulted in Turkey's tiny Christian community being increasingly targeted." You may even recall some of the reports but the most noticeable was the killing of a group of protestant pastors pretty much in cold blood after their study group had been infiltrated by extremists. But apparently, there has been "a spate of verbal assaults on priests, and the vandalism of churches." and "In this climate, hatred for converts to Christianity is especially shrill"
This has created a climate in which congregations are in mortal fear and so the ordination of a native Turk who is a convert to Christianity from Islam has increased the anxiety of those living there to the point where they have denied their buildings to the bishop for the ordination. The bishop is being criticised for not understanding what is at stake. It's interesting that we don't hear the bishop's point of view (his office refused to comment); presumably the point is that if the guy has a vocation and it is recognised by the church we should ordain, all the more if he is an 'insider' to the culture. However, the question is how far that can be set against the potential suffering of persecution. It is hard to tell a bunch of Christians that they ought to suffer for their faith, and the ordination would now have that force in these circumstances. I wonder whether there could be the option to ordain him to a part of London or Germany to work among Turkish expats pending a longer term review of bringing him back to Turkey. I wonder whether we will ever find out what happens?

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