An Obadiah Slope column
Suddenly the Global Anglican Futures Conference (Gafcon), which Obadiah has been reporting all week, seemed like a Sydney Swans home game with a phalanx of people dressed in red and white. They were the Bishops, filling one end of the grandstands around the circular Kigali Conference Centre. They were dressed in their robes for a Bishop’s picture, a gafcon tradition – well, a tradition if doing it four times counts. So they really did look like Sydney Swans Australian Rules Football team fans.
“Cheer, cheer the red and the white,
Honour the name by day and by night,
Lift that noble banner high,
Shake down the thunder from the sky.”
The club song might need adjustment, but we have been lifting Jesus’ banner high in worship and Bible teaching and shaking down thunder on those making life difficult for orthodox Christians.
As the bishops in the red and white robes filed in, Obadiah could not help himself. He sang it.
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Teaming up: Besides the Other Cheek, Obadiah was behind the scenes (mostly) for the Heart of Gafcon video podcast. It ran live for countless hours, anchored by the indefatigable Dominic Steele. The team included Korede Akintunde and Azuka Ikeliani from Nigeria’s Anglican TV channel; Ugandan Family TV’s Joseph Ssali; Ettie Tate, who runs a church channel in the UK, ClaytonTV; TheOtherCheek.com and the person behind the eponymous DavidOuld.net.
It was great to meet and work with media people from across the world. And Obadiah must give a shout-out to Tess Delbridge from Tasmania, who had the email address [email protected] for a few weeks.
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Obadiah is one almost-white speck among a sea of black people this week, and next, when he walks outside. Kigali does not fit any scary stereotype; it is full of friendly people who are sharp dressers.
The most scary moment for Obadiah was one day when he walked up the steps at Caringbah station in Sydney and into a sea of white people. It felt so different from his Inner West home.
(Actually, Obadiah should include a couple of muggings in Sydney years ago. He promised himself he would not react with racist thoughts against those two gangs. He hopes he’s honoured that promise).
But back to Africa. Kigali is a very beautiful city. It is coming to terms with its past, and the Rwandan Prime Minister was upfront about it when he welcomed Gafcon to the capital. When Obadiah looks out of his hotel window, he sees the roof of the Hôtel des Mille Collines, known as the Hotel Rwanda in the book and movie of the 1994 massacre against the Tutsi. So on either of KN 67 Street, we have the past sitting there and the new Kigali in the form of this shiny Grande Hotel Ubumwe built in 2016. Ubumwe means “unity” in Kinyarwanda. From a fleeting visit, Obadiah can see they are building that too.
Kigali would be a wonderful place to live. It makes Obadiah’s list alongside Seoul and Reggio Emilia in Northern Italy. But no one’s offering him a job in any of these places.
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Another hat Obadiah has worn this week is being a stringer (freelance writer) for Christianity Today. You’ll find it here for readers who want a distilled view of the Kigali conference.
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Quote of the week. Obadiah hopes to reflect in his life the kindness and mercy of God: “At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. But when the kindness and love of God our Saviour appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy.” (Titus 3:2–5)