A New Day for Some Gypsies

The BBC ran an article about thousands of Roma (Gypsies) undergoing conversions that change their lives. Click on the title for a link to the entire article, but here are a few excerpts:

"The settlement is built on a ridge, and behind the houses, a cliff falls suddenly onto a green plain below, dotted with brown horses.
And finally a river, which flows into another river. The Danube.
But something was different here from so many gypsy neighbourhoods I have visited. Everyone was busy.
These people are Pentecostalists (sic) - a church movement which has spread like wildfire among the gypsies of Eastern Europe in particular - a form of religion which fits better with their own mythology, than the strict rituals of Orthodox or Catholic.

It is also giving a people much derided as work shy, a protestant work ethic.
"I stole, I drank, I was lazy," Iliya told us later, with a twinkle in his eye, playing the caricature of a gypsy villain, on a stage of his own carpentry.
"And then I got a life-threatening illness. And I started to pray."

That was 10 years ago.

With God's help, he said, his whole neighbourhood practises Christianity now.
Together they have built a church, rebuilt their own homes, and found an energy and purpose in their lives which seems, to a stranger at least, almost miraculous…"

"We sat in a circle. The prayers came thick and fast, between a chant and a mumble, rising and falling like waves.

"Now I'm going to tell you a story," said the prayer leader.
"A man was driving a bus down a steep hill. There was a cliff on one side, a ravine on the other.
"Suddenly, a child ran out into the middle of the road. In the split second that followed, he had to make an appalling choice.
"To kill the child, or all his passengers."
The man paused for a moment. His audience froze.
I felt angry. Why was he telling this story in front of children?
"He drove straight into the child," the man continued.
"There was blood all over the windscreen. The passengers ran forward, remonstrating with him.
"'You should have killed us instead,' they shouted. 'How could you kill an innocent child?'
"Then there was a deep silence." On the bus and in the room.
"Then the driver spoke. 'That child was my own son,' he said, 'and his name was Jesus.'"

The story points out once again, that evangelization, even of those many in Europe would consider to be beyond hope of conversion, does bear fruit. It also raises the challenging question of how much the liturgy can be adapted to new cultures so that the symbols and gestures used are meaningful. Finally, the story told by the prayer leader is an example of the creative ways in which the basic message of the Gospel needs to be told in order to make an impact on a contemporary audience. Not that we don't preach Christ crucified, of course, but that we use analogies, images and metaphors that help people appreciate what God has done – and will do – for us.

hat tip: Pat Armstrong