indigenous orthodox christian youth ministry

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Practicum on Youth Ministry Indigenous Youth Ministry 11/26/13 Michael E.M.K. Odegaard

Bet te r a l aw-ab id ing

B a r b a r i a n t h a n a

s c a n d a l o u s G r e e k were St. John Chrysostoms words quoted

by the Very Rev. Fr. John Bakas after the

Divine Liturgy on the first Sunday in May

2006, the day after a million Hispanic residents peacefully marched the streets of

downtown Los Angeles the day after the California legislature

adopted severe anti-immigration laws. The first Indigenous

American Mayor of the city, Antonio Villaraigosa, appeared at

St. Sophia Greek Orthodox Cathedral that morning, and the

Good News he heard there was that the essence of

citizenship is to obey the law -- nothing else, certainly no

legal documents. Since the Reconquest of Spain in 1492

Europeans in America have enjoyed a legal right,

established by fiat and based on their national identity to

invade and seize indigenous lands, to dominate indigenous

peoples in spite of those peoples sincere efforts to

internalize their religion. Today our Marines still hymn their exploits From the Halls of

Montezuma to the Shores of Tripoli. Thus our country hosts millions living

within its political borders of those who by fiat have been made second

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class citizens by virtue of their indigenous national origin and skin

color. I grew up with friends who freely crossed the border to

visit their families in Mexico before when in 1964 their crossings

were monitored and restricted by the U.S. government as

Germans movements were restricted between East and West

Germany or Palestinians movements restricted today in Israel.In 2007 the United Nations addressed Indigenous

Rights through its International Declaration on the Rights

of Indigenous Peoples to include their right to pass on

their languages and cultures to future generations. The

United Nations defines Indigenous Persons as the

descendants of the original people or occupants of lands

before these lands were taken over or conquered by

others. Last year, the World Council of Churches issued

a statement on the impact of the Doctrine of Discovery,1

the idea that European

Christians enjoy a moral

and legal right based

solely on their religious

identity to invade and

seize indigenous lands

2

http://www.oikoumene.org/en/resources/documents/executive-committee/2012-02/statement-on-the-1

doctrine-of-discovery-and-its-enduring-impact-on-indigenous-peoples


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and to dominate, on indigenous peoples

often in spite of their progress in

enculturating the colonial religion. It is

estimated that 80% of the worlds biodiversity

remains on the 20% of land held by indigenous peoples. #2

# Centuries of Indian wars resulted at the end of the

19th and early 20th centuries with Federal laws outlawing

the practice of traditional religious ceremonies. As an

alternative to removal to reservations, the concurrent U.S.

campaign of cultural assimilation of indigenous Americans

attempted to transform Native American cultures to

European-American culture between the years

1790-1920 with policies designed to encourage this

civilizing process, the primary method of which was

public education. Boarding schools were established

which indigenous children were forced to leave home to

attend where children were beaten for speaking their

mother tongues and forced to speak English, attend

Protestant church worship services, and leave behind

their cultural traditions. This era was further complicated

for the indigenous by a simultaneous popular monolingual

3

__________________________________________##

2 http://firstpeoples.org/who-are-indigenous-peoples


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white national movement that

assimilated European immigrants

into a dominant Caucasian

caste as sangre azul was

practiced in Spain during and

after the Reconquista (and this

invented white/Caucasian/fair-

skinned category maintained

t h r o u g h h y p o d e s c e n t i s

perpetuated in American policy), causing linguistic

apartheid that rewards speakers of English principally

through the licensing of urban professions exclusively in

the English language, and their public financial

subsidization within this context, at the expense of those

whose mother tongues are indigenous. This majoritarian

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emphasis on consolidating immigrant political influence

through language was legitimized through the

institutionalization of doctrines of Augustinian Inherited

Guilt in religion, Manifest Destiny in foreign policy and

Social Darwinism in domestic policy against the

indigenous as these were interpreted in mass relocation

schemes, anti-miscegenation marriage licensing laws,

homesteading and gun rights laws, eugenics, public

expositions and mass media, as well as through racial

discriminatory economic practices. Stigmatization of

indigenous minorities, along with the inability of

Western Christianity to address practice of white

privilege provoked the rise of neo-paganism as well as

the abandonment by many indigenous of totalitarian

Western Christian faiths for the more sympathetic, and

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authentic, Eastern Orthodox

Christian faith retained by

indigenous Alaskans.#

# The long term effects of

forced assimilation policies,

especially language suppression

and marginalization, resulted in

indigenous popular resentment

as well as illnesses of dislocation

such as disproportionate levels of

poverty, incarceration and school

dropout rates. Native American3

children, like other indigenous

children, have long been given

the message that they can be

either a Native American or a

smart, educated person, but they

can't be both. Indigenous lan-#

__________________________#

3 http://www.justicepolicy.org/news/1907#

# #

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gauge revitalization programs have

been key to reconciling these two

ident i t ies. By using indigenous

languages for instruction in schools,

children no longer see a conflict

bet wee n edu cat ion and the ir

indigenous identity. #4

# The benefits of late 20th century

efforts to address cultural genocide through

official bilingualism as well as language

revitalization in public education, as

a l t e r n a t i v e s t o i m p e r i a l i s t i c

monol ingual ism are now widely

accepted. Dr. Jared Diamond, Pulitzer

Prize winning author of Guns, Germs

and Steel: The Fates of Human

Societies and Collapse: How Societies

Choose to Fail or Succeed identifies

recent research showing that personal

bilingualism promotes a key cognitive

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http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2003/05/20_lang.shtml4


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skill called executive control. Heritage bilingual5

immersion programs respond to the threat of

extinction of language and culture of an indigenous

people, since cultural learning that is non-Western is

taught alongside and through the indigenous

language. Bilingual education in America also has

enjoyed popular support since the turn of the 21st

century, with many of these schools exceeding State6

average standards of graduation and college

enrollment rates. #

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5 http://www.today.ucla.edu/portal/ut/PRN-learning-languages-benefits-brain-156973.aspx

http://www.gallup.com/poll/8782/does-bilingual-education-translate-success.aspx6


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# Today there are 35 such Hawaiian language

revitalization schools operating in the State of

Hawai$i (whose Constitution has specified two official

languages since 1978) serving students

representing the spectrum of the States diverse

ethnicities who desire Hawaiian-English bilingual

education. Since loss of language use accompanied

loss of culture and identity, the benefits of these

programs within the community extend also to the

pride developed and identity regained by the

children who attend. Children enrolled in these

programs have a much greater sense of who they

are and have regained a sense of heritage. Loss of

identity for teenagers often leads to gang activity,

alcohol and drug abuse, in addition to a high dropout

rate. The success of the Hawaiian language

revitalization project, like the Hebrew revitalization

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project in Israel, has depended upon the

warmth and structure of parental

involvement and support, including that of

indigenous language authoritative

communities that set moral expectations

and encourage spiritual and religious

development of their youth. #

# Noteworthy in Albert J. Schutz The

Voices of Eden: A History of Hawaiian

Language Studies, are his observations

of churches help during era of

indigenous language persecution by

colonial American governance during the first half of the 20th century in Hawai $i, how

some churches continued to serve the indigenous Hawaiian speaking community

through their newspaper publications, radio broadcast sermons, church services and

Sunday school taught in the Hawaiian language. To the extent that English has been

associated with irresponsible business and political activities, including the exploitation

of the living environment to which indigenous persons relate in familial ways, Hawaiian

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languages role as a me di um of sp ir it ua l

c o n n e c t i o n t o t h e Hawaiian heart and spirit

( m a u l i ) h a s b e e n reinforced. $O ka $%lelo

k e K a $ & o k a Mauli (Language is the

fiber that binds us to our cultural identity) is the

motto of the Ka Haka $ Ula o Ke $ e l i k ' lan i

Col lege o f Hawai ian L a n g u a g e a t t h e

University of Hawai$i at H i l o . P r o t e s t a n t

H a w a i i a n r e l i g i o u s c o n t e n t i s n o t

segregated from many public Hawaiian immersion schools whose programs often

include singing of hymns during school assembly meetings, although this has been

criticized by secularists as well as anti-Western neo-pagans who also operate others of

the immersion schools. #

# Within this materialistic context of politicized and fragmented religion, an integral

Orthodox Christian ethos will help us to navigate through this post-colonial era of

multilingualism and multiculturalism, especially now that a fundamental linkage has

been established between language, traditional knowledge, and biodiversity. Studies

suggest that indigenous language loss has had a negative impact on biodiversity

conservation. Since indigenous communities have elaborated complex classification7

systems for the natural world, reflecting deep understandings of their local environments

embedded in indigenous names, oral traditions, and taxonomies, which can be lost

when a community shifts to another language, the urgent need to follow up Western

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http://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/Endangered_Lang_Conf/Endangered_Lang.htmland http://www.unesco.org/7

new/en/culture/themes/endangered-languages/biodiversity-and-linguistic-diversity/


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missionary Bible translation efforts to further translation and contextualization of the

services of the Church, especially the Divine Liturgy, into the same indigenous

languages becomes even more clear. #8

# Aware of the fact that the Western Christian missionary drive was

unfortunately associated with colonialism, which cultivated an attitude of contempt

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http://missionsinstitute.org8


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toward the religions and values of other peoples who were viewed as uncivilized

$savages, the evangelical Archbishop Anastasios Yannoulatos points out that

Christians of the East have often lived in societies characterized by cultural, linguistic,

and religious diversity, as well as have always allowed a great deal of latitude

regarding personal freedom of expression, but always within the framework of the living

t radi tion. Indeed, the O r t h o d o x C h r i s t i a n

imp ort anc e of hum an personal freedom and

equality is immeasurable because of its conviction

that humanity is capable of transcending itself. (B)y

denying the importance of the human person and

personal freedom, one- party ideologies have left

little room for the creation of real culture, says the

Archbishop. Imposing a culture of uniformity and

m o n o t o n y a l w a y s threatens to lead humanity

to an appalling state of impoverishment. Orthodox Christendom has always accepted

cultural diversity and doesnt identify itself only with one region or people. The distinct

singularity of local communities does not prevent different peoples from being united by

mind and heart in a profound unity that is anchored around the mystical center of the

Divine Liturgy; the power of the Gospel enables a culture to realize all of its human

potential through the Churchs rhythm of worship, adopting local traditions, investigating

indigenous symbolism, and promoting the individual characteristics of each society

using its own particular tone and phrasing in its transcendent effort to know the Gospel. #9

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A. Yannoulatos, Facing the World(Crestwood, NY, 2003),pp. 88-1019


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# The Archbishop identifies Globalization as being clearly associated with the

invasion of a culture whose creators claim that it is the best and founded upon western

capitalism and on the logic of a free economy, whose dynamic is dependent on the

uninterrupted flow of profit. Further, he says, It is the invasion

whether by direct or indirect means of a system of thought that

either ignores or destroys the unique characteristics of individual

people and nations. Orthodox Christian ministrys emphasis here is

not on ethical laws and rules per sebut on the principles of neighborly

love, freedom and contextual reason that respect communities$ability

to maintain the integrity of their indigenous identities in the process of

their own ethnic development. Millions of people are being

marginalized by the technologically advanced access to information

enabled by globalism, and Archbishop Anastasios sees how the ability of local societies

to stabilize themselves through their own intellectual and social structures has been

disrupted, with direct effects on the youth who seek escape through self-abandon,

violence, and drugs. Respecting the complexity of systems that comprise integral

cultures, the Archbishop has indicated principles that create a philosophical framework

to address problems caused by globalism: #

People who have different beliefs never lose the

basic attributes of their spiritual identity: they

never cease to be children of God, created in

Gods image, and hence our brothers and

sisters.Consequently, a spontaneous and

sincere openness to making contact and serving

all human beings, all peoples, without expecting

anything whatsoever in return, is the criterion by

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which the true Christian is to be measured. #

#Orthodoxy nurtures a willingness to accept people as they are, with

deep respect for their freedom and without requiring them to adopt

Christian views. This makes it easier to communicate with others,including those who belong to other religions or hold other

ideologies. It also instills deep respect for human rights and an

eagerness to work with others to attain universal acceptance for

human rights and to defend them.#

#We can remind people that the way to achieve spiritual equilibrium is

not to subordinate nature to the desires of the individual, but to

subdue our own, individual desires through renunciation,

asceticism, and purification of the self.(R)eligious communities will

become centers of resistance to the tendency of a particular center

of power to impose one culture on everyone else.Instead of globalization that

transforms nations and people into an indistinguishable, homogenized mass,

convenient for the economic objectives of any anonymous oligarchy, the Orthodox

religious experience and vision propose a communion of love, a society of love, and

call on people to make every effort in that direction.The Orthodox ethos compels

us to respect, with complete sincerity, the individuality and freedom of others,

regardless of what they believe or even whether they believe. Fanaticism,

xenophobia, and the transformation of ecclesial belief into some ideological

construction are all out of keeping with the free spirit of Orthodoxy. #10

#

# In our engagement of indigenous youth into

their relationships with the persons of Jesus Christ

and the saints, our challenge will be to do so in

ways that are meaningful to them within the

context of their cultures and communities while

also remaining faithful to the ideals of the Gospel

as they have been defined in the Ecumenical

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ibid., pp. 43-45, 76, 193-20310


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Councils. The Rev. Fr. Dr. Emmanuel Clapsis reminds us

that the apostolic faith, although it is always expressed

and indigenized through particular cultural symbols, is

transhistorical and transcultural in nature, and so the

active presence of God in all cultures, either of the past or

of the present, implies that Christians do not bring God to

anyone through their mission, since God is always present

and ahead of them. For us, this means that Tradition

gives and gains new life as its significance is realized in a

new situation. In our faithfulness to the Gospel$s vision,

Fr. Clapsis says we must be open to the possibility that every $other culture provides

a new and vital understanding of the Christian faith that ultimately enriches the

catholicity of the Church. #11

# Examples of the successful indigenization of Orthodox worship in recent history

may be found all over the world, from the adaptation of indigenous tonal systems,

healing and starring traditions among trilingual native Alaskans, Australian Aborignial12

Orthoodox to Ethiopian Orthodox architecture and art, Indian and Indonesian13

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E. Clapsis, Gospel and Cultures: An Eastern Orthodox Perspective from Orthodoxy in Conversation11

(Brookline, MA, 2000), pp. 158-163

S. Crawford, American Indian Religious Traditions: An Encyclopedia, Volume 1 (Santa Barbara, CA,12

2005), p. 513, M. Oleksa, Alaskan Missionary Spirituality(Crestwood, NY, 1987), and http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=3889

http://www.cnn.com/2013/06/27/travel/rock-churches-lalibela-ethiopia/13


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Orthodox iconograpny, or Georgian Orthodox and Korean Orthodox psaltic chant.14 15 1

Professional standards of todays language revitalization efforts have set expectations

for Christian education media which include not only printed materials but also various

forms of electronic media with which many of todays indigenous youth are already

familiar. We should not be surprised to find17

that indigenous cultures may not have highly

developed youth cultures as may be found in

industrialized societies, but that their youth

may be more integrated in the traditional adult

occupations of their families. #

# As youth workers, we must ask

ourselves, How do we sometimes want to

make people in our image, and in our likeness rather than seeing people in Gods

image? and Have we forced others to conform to the culture and language of the

Church? We need to be cognizant of problems created by those who have said to

indigenous persons, Our music is Gods music and your music is pagan while at the

same time be capable of sharing transcultural insights and techniques when they are

desired. As worship is the foundation and starting point of Orthodox Christian youth

ministry, we cannot ignore that far too often the language and symbols of one culture is

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http://yahz.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/img_1674-p1.jpg14

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6V8CoyzBc4E15

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nihdihp1i-416

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAUgc5hHAHU&list=UUQElH-17

OXARO_PycfKd6HPUg&index=9&feature=plcp


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forced onto another as the only acceptable

way to worship the Triune God. We must ask

ourselves, How can worship using

indigenous language and symbol help us to

express who God is? since imposition of

culture affects identity, and worship engages

us in a process of becoming the people who

God made us as followers of Christ. We must be aware of the special needs and

reconciliatory challenges our indigenous neighbors face to recover their stolen land, air,

and water resources, to challenge negative propaganda and stereotyping, to secure

equal responsibilities and rights as members of the international community, to develop

their own cultures, and to work, to serve and be served in their own languages; our

success will be measured, in part, by their attainment of these goals, as well as by the

strengthening and stabilization of their families.

Therefore, our comprehension of the language

and engagement within the culture of those

indigenous youth who welcome us must be

reflected in worship and practice of charity,

adaptability, fidelity, hospitality, philanthropy, and

compassion, so that we may both incarnate and

serve Christ among indigenous youth according

to our high calling to make disciples of all

nations.

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