A letter from Burkhard Paetzold in Germany
Lent 2012
Dear friends,
Roma girl in the Reformed school in Nagydobrony, Carpath Ukraine
As we journey through this time of Lent, I’m looking forward to Easter, when Christians in every corner of the world who come together to celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has overcome the powers of death and division, and challenges us to do the same.
The peace of the risen Lord be with you all!
This year Christ’s promise and challenge has a very special meaning for me: Holy Week and Easter coincide with a special time of prayer for peace and reconciliation. Presbyterian Women (PW) are preparing for another cycle of “Ten Days of Prayer and Thanksgiving for the Roma” between March 29 and April 7.
This is my invitation and challenge to you: As an individual or in a group, please join the prayer circle: pray, learn and share about the Roma. The PW booklet provides Scripture, information, and prayers, as well as links to videos, articles and other online resources.
This year International Roma Day, April 8, coincides with Easter Sunday. You will read in the PW brochure that International Roma Day celebrates Romani culture, history and people. It’s also an opportunity for those of us who know little about the Roma (often pejoratively called gypsies) to learn about them, moving past stereotypes and media depictions. This year, as Roma in Europe continue to face discrimination and violence, there likely will be more demonstrations than celebrations around the globe. A report from the Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights noted that Roma people are Europe’s largest and most vulnerable minority, subject to exclusion, discrimination and hate speech from Europe’s citizens and governments. (Download the report at www.coe.int/t/commissioner/source/prems/prems79611_GBR_CouvHumanRightsOfRoma_WEB.pdf.)
Jolan and Bela, Roma church leaders in Carpath-Ukraine
After their Global Exchange program with Central and Eastern Europe in 2008, Presbyterian Women initiated the first prayer cycle in 2011. That cycle shared facts and figures from 10 different countries in Europe, together with prayers of Romani women. So this year you can use the one from 2011 or the 2012 one, or both. The 2011 booklet is more country-specific; that for 2012 focuses more on issues of concern.
For more than 10 years PC(USA) World Mission has been working with partner churches and Christian organizations in Europe to seek to address the root causes of Roma poverty and social exclusion and to support pilot projects. Several PC(USA) mission workers and young adult volunteers have been working alongside our European partners and in close cooperation with members of other U.S. congregations. PC(USA) mission groups have established relationships with Roma congregations as well. Right after Easter and International Roma Day, Presbyterians in Winnetka, Ill., will undertake another journey of discovery and relationship, destination: Carpath-Ukraine.
Each European country has a specific and local history of conflict. Of course worst of all was the persecution by Nazis in Germany, who murdered an estimated 500,000 Sinti and Roma in death camps and villages between 1933 and 1945. Nazis judged Roma people to be “lives unworthy of life.” Sadly, there were Christians, churches and diaconal facilities that were involved in racist activities and deportation. Visitors to the former Nazi concentration, work or death camps often ask: “When this was happening, where was the church?”
Roma children in Beregszasz, Carpath Ukraine
Of course there were many who courageously stood up to racism and persecution, then and now. German groups supported by governmental and EU programs are now working to establish inclusion programs. And yet, ironically enough, German authorities at the same time are deporting families who had earlier been accepted as asylum seekers from the Yugoslav and Kosovo wars and ethnic cleansings of the 1990s. Children in some of these families have grown up and adapted to German society, some preparing for higher education. “They wake up one day to be told that they will be moving soon and going to school in another language before they graduate. Thus the hopeful scholar becomes a scrap-iron collector, beggar or worse” (PW brochure 2012).
Since the last prayer cycle for Roma, hate speech, anti-Roma rallies, pogroms and violence have increased in some European countries. The ecumenical bulletin of the Evangelical Church of the Czech Brethren recently printed an eyewitness account by Constance Šimonovská, a church member in Rumburk, Czech Republic, who bears witness to days of anti-Roma rage:
“I see ‘normal’ residents—not Nazis, but people I meet in the street every day—public employees, parents of my children’s classmates. I see how the crowd moves through the city to supposed Roma houses, faces full of outrage and enthusiasm, as if they were happy to be able to scream out what previously could not be spoken out loud. There were phrases that send chills down your spine: 'Gas the Gypsies!' 'Go after them with pick and spade!' 'Bury them alive!' ”
In response to these actions, Constance and others acted with courage. She continues: “We met with representatives of the Roma and several nonprofit organizations and . . . produced a Declaration Against Racism and Violence. . . . Gatherings for peace took place in various places, among them, the Protestant church in Rumburk, where about 50 people gathered, spoke about their feelings, expressed sadness, asked for hope, prayed and lit candles. To say 'No!' to racism and violence would seem to be a normal thing, but not at this time . . . it took courage to come to the church today. . . These meetings will not resolve the conflict. Nonetheless . . . in the midst of so much hate-filled shouting, other voices should be raised, and we can show each other that we are not alone.”
Twelve European countries have committed to “The Decade of Roma Inclusion,” creating action plans to improve the socio-economic status and social inclusion of Roma from 2005 to 2015. The United States committed in February 2012 to be an official observer of the Roma Decade progress, so realities of Roma life in Europe may now begin to be shared more widely in the United States.
Let us pray for transformation, both for the persecuted and the persecutors as well as for those who stand up against racism and for social inclusion.
Pray with us for the Roma people, won’t you? Pray today and every day for the courage and conviction to stand up to division and hatred wherever it is found.
May God bless you as you take up the challenge and the charge given us by Jesus himself!
Burkhard
The 2012 Presbyterian Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 275
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