As we get ready to welcome new students, we are pleased to announce our research seminars for the upcoming semester. Seminars will be held fortnightly on Tuesday afternoons in the Martin Hall, and we hope for them to be hybrid on Zoom. Please direct queries to Emma.WildWood@ed.ac.uk.
Guest editors: Romina Istratii and Lars Laamann
In November 2020 a conflict erupted in the Tigray region of Ethiopia. Religious discourse was used to propagate ideas favourable to war by both members of the public and church-affiliated individuals, including close advisors to the Prime Minister. Soon ethnicity became a clear dividing factor in Ethiopian society and the Church, resulting also in the declared separation of the Tigray Diocese from the Ethiopian Orthodox Church (EOTC). A convergence of faith and politics was also seen in the crisis that erupted in Ukraine in February 2022. Not only was there a strong identification of political and Church leadership in Russia from the beginning that favoured the ‘special military operation’ in Ukraine, but religious identity was invoked as a distinctive characteristic of an ‘Eastern’ identity in need of protection from encroaching Western expressions of secular modernity. In this case too, the political events resulted in rifts and divisions between Orthodox Churches in Russia and Ukraine, endangering unity in the broader Eastern Orthodox world.
From the outset of the war in Ukraine, the media conveyed the impression that the Moscow Patriarchate or, more specifically, Patriarch Kirill, either held substantive power over political decisions or was entirely enslaved to political leadership. Conversely, in representations of the Ethiopian conflict the EOTC has often been identified with either the Patriarch’s isolated condemnation of violence against Tigrayans or the inflammatory pro-war narratives of visible Church representatives. In relation to both conflicts, we saw tendencies among observers to reduce complex relations and narratives to homogenising pro-/anti-war lines of thinking, not recognising psycho-political experiences on the ground characterised by struggles of consciousness, self-censorship in the face of stark repercussions and the pressures of group think.
Continue readingby Savannah Weiler
This flyer by the Regions Beyond Missionary Union’s Southern Sierra Team was printed in 1973 to advertise personnel requirements on the one side, and material requirements on the other. The illustrations make the advertisement more eye-catching and invite the reader to read the advertisements. The Southern Sierra Team stated they needed a car, cassette players and contributions towards the establishment of a radio show that transmitted daily Gospel messages (see figure 2).
This use of cassette players and establishment of a radio programme tie into my previous blogposts, outlining the use of these media to spread Gospel messages in areas in the Loreto region. A similar tactic was clearly being used by the Southern Sierra Team. The advertisement for cassette players states that evangelical and teaching messages can be left on these tapes in Quechua or Spanish in villages or homes as part of teaching via the extension method or to foster interest in the mission’s teachings.
The daily radio programme advertisement describes the success of Hermano Pablo, or Paul Edwin Finkenbinder, in using radio Gospel messages as an evangelistic tool. Hermano Pablo’s radio gospel show In Mensaje a La Consciencia garnered many listeners in El Salvador, where he operated as an evangelist.The RBMU wanted to adopt a similar programme, as it was proving successful for other evangelicals in South America. The radio show was meant to garner interest in the Gospel, and could be supplemented by a free correspondence course, another example of teaching via the extension method. This method could also be used by Jan Hellens and Rosemary Flack, two missionaries for the RBMU who wished to go to villages in the surrounding area of Calhuanca on weekly visits, and were asking for a vehicle for their work in the Calhuanca area.
The other side of the flyer states that missionaries applying to the advertised posts often needed to speak both Spanish and Quechua (see figure 1). This would potentialize the effectiveness of their work and allow them to take part in the creation of such radio shows and cassette recordings and effectively reach out to communities in these areas.
This pamphlet is a visually interesting supplement to lots of the heavily textual material housed in the archive, while still being informative and interesting. It shows some of the approaches to missionary work adopted by the RBMU and how they reached out to potential new recruits.
by Savannah Weiler
File 33/39/4 is filled to the brim with decades worth of financial records and correspondence between the different treasurers for the Peruvian Inland Mission, now operating under the Regions Beyond Missionary Union (RBMU) as of 1948. These treasurers were operating out of Great Britain, Canada and the US, and the mission field in Peru from the 1950s until the 70s. In this file I came across a hand drawn map and survey of the Amazonas region in Peru made in the late 1960s by Mark Sirag, a missionary who was part of the RBMU. This map (see figure 1) and the information given in the survey help give an idea of what the landscape and lives of people in this area looked like.
The map was probably drawn in 1967 by Sirag. It is accompanied by a four-page document, hand signed by Sirag, titled “Impressions from Amazonas”. The survey, in his words, gives a general outline of “the trip – by plane, truck and feet; the facts – geography etc.; opinions and recommendations”. This information serves as advice to other missionaries on where would be best to start a mission, based on the level of need of different communities and whether there is already a different mission or Church established in the area. Sirag gives population figures and states how these populations were dispersed into rural or urban settlements (see figure 2). It becomes clear that this area was sparsely populated, and that many lived in rural settlements.
Sirag lists the “recognised Indian communities” in the area. These are the Asuncion, Cheto, Chilliquin, Yambajalaca, Huancas, La Jalca, Levanto, Montevideo, Olleros, Quinjalca, San Isidoro de Mayne, San Pedro and Sonche. You can see some of these settlements dotted on his provided map. According to Sirag, it is the land of “the ancient Sachapuyos (or Chachapuyos or Chacas – the race of Indians conquered by the Incas in the 15th century.)”. Chachapuyos means “Jungle of the Mist”, which further creates a mental image of misty green rainforests and highland plains with river valleys piercing through. Sirag describes the area as follows:
The climate, the people, and the culture is that of the Sierra; typical are the potatoes, the coca, the ponchos, the shawls worn by the women, the eucalyptus tree, and the cool climate and the cold water.
The eucalyptus tree was likely first introduced in Peru, along with Chile, Argentina, and other South American countries, in the late 19th century by Franciscan friars and upper-class landowners. Over the course of the next hundred years, it had become a common sighting in the Sierra of Peru. By the 1960s, when this survey was written, eucalyptus had been readily adopted by many Peruvians in response to growing wood scarcity after the arrival of the Spanish in the 16th century. Deforestation and scarce forest regeneration due to increased demand for wood in housing construction and for use in mining endeavours caused an increased shortage of wood and deforestation. Planting the tall eucalyptus tree, with its fast growing and straight wood, served as a fast solution to this shortage.
A small passage in the four-page survey recounts the journey that Sirag, along with some other travellers, made to various regions and villages in four counties in the Amazonas. The survey details what kind of transport the travellers used. This, along with the population data on the next page, shows how interspersed communities here were and what travel to these villages involved. It says the following:
November 3 we flew to Chachapoyas
4 we went by truck to Leymebamba and visited national pastor David Landa (Presbyterian) and saw his work. We returned the 8th.
9 -11 we visited Pomachocas and Jumbilla, starting by truck, arriving on foot.
13 – 15 we flew to Mendoza (Rodriguez de Mendoza). We hike through the valley, visiting Omia, Milpuc, Chirimoto, Limabamba, and Huambo.
16 We returned to Chachapoyas by truck
17 & 18 we visitied Luya and Lamud by bus
22 We visited the town of Huancas, near Chachapoyas
The dates show an indication of the time it would take to travel to these areas and what mode of transport was used, with flying frequently being used to travel across the mountainous, river filled terrains of the Department of Amazonas. Sirag’s flight from Chachapoyas to Mendoza only took 14 minutes, but the hikes they had to take to the individual villages of Omia, Milpuc, Chirimoto, Limibamba and Huambo each took up to four and a half hours. At the time the survey was written, there were not (yet) roads to some of these communities, so travel by air or by foot was clearly seen as the best way to access some villages.
Sirag’s hand-drawn map and his survey help us understand how isolated some of these areas were. We get hints about the type of terrain and vegetation, what the inhabitants wear, their faith and their dress, and even what their diet comprised of. This all, especially when viewed with the supplementary map, helps form a colourful mental picture of the landscape and people of the four provinces of the Amazonas Sirag travelled through: Chachapoyas, Bongará, Luya and Rodriguez de Mendoza. Mark Sirag’s survey is a determined and concise effort of a missionary to select where would be most suitable to establish a mission. 50 years later, these documents also serve us as an evocative impression of these provinces in the 1960s.