Dear Rainbow Circle Supporters
Our first Sunday became nearly a full-circle experience. To mark the start of Holy Week, we began the day with a Procession of Palms which led us to Peace Cathedral. It was a new tradition for me as we walked through the streets of Tbilisi with clergy and laity carrying heavy palm branches.
The liturgy of the Georgian Baptists is influenced by Orthodox tradition making for a rich experience filled with much ritual, including lots of incense. The Gospel reading for the morning was John 12:12-15, Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem. As I’d been invited to offer the sermon, I suggested that perhaps the Fourth Gospel writer gives us not a triumphal entry story, but a story about a protest. In short, the palm branch in first century Jewish life, was a religious symbol rooted in the Feast of Tabernacles. Rome, the occupying Empire, intentionally took this Jewish symbol and placed it on one of its coins with the Emperor’s head on the opposite side. This gesture was more than a subtle message to the Jews that they were under Rome’s iron fist. We can imagine then Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem with many of his friends waving and laying down palms, was perhaps a protest gesture suggesting more than subtly in return, “Rome, you may have placed one of our sacred symbols on your money, but we still hold it in our hands.”
Sunday’s service at Peace Cathedral concluded with much meaning as well as with greetings from about a half dozen visitors from around the world.
While it was not on our original itinerary, we concluded the day in an actual protest.
The Georgian government’s Legal Committee endorsed on April 15, a controversial bill “On transparency of foreign influence” — legislation that compels civil society organizations with foreign funding to register as “organizations carrying out in the interests of a foreign power.” Essentially, and in brief, this will put control mechanisms in place so the government can enact other pieces of legislation, such as making it a crime to identify as LGBTQ+. For the Peace Cathedral and for tens of thousands of Georgian citizens, this is an unacceptable course of action which people are vehemently protesting.
As we stood in a crowd of nearly 115,000 people carrying signs and waving flags, I couldn’t help but imagine if we were participating in an act such as we reflected on in John’s Gospel during the morning service. In my mind, the signs and flags carried by Georgians were modern day palms. As Jesus invited people to stand up to unjust authorities in his day, people were doing similarly in Tbilisi.
It’s unknown yet if the protests will change the government’s plans. As you listen to Georgians, however, it is apparent there is a heaviness of heart and a growing sense the proposed legislation will in fact pass. As we marched during the protest, in addition to the waving signs and flags, I saw some marchers carrying their palms from earlier church services. I wondered if they too were encouraged by the story of Jesus.
On Monday morning, we visited another centuries’ old cathedral. The fresco painted high above the nave in the main dome shows an image of Jesus looking down on everyone below. As I lit candles in memory and in honor of friends, I prayed, hoping, the memory of Jesus and the power of his stories can help people today do what is yet possible to make our world, our communities, our churches, safer and better places for all.
Thank you for your monthly support to AWAB. As I visit with Georgian Baptists, experience some of their culture, and learn more about their history, I can see how AWAB has the opportunity to give hope to people who are losing hope, even as it has done for congregations and individuals for over thirty years. I’m sensing that AWAB’s ministry will be needed in the years to come, for all of us, perhaps more than ever before.
I’ll share more again in the next couple days. For now, peace.