I'm sitting in bed, wrapped up in blankets in the loft of my dorm at the YFC Cyara Campsite in Magaliesberg where I'm attending the Amahoro Gathering, along with several hundred others from all over Africa and some from the US. (Thanks Melanie and Barbara for the tip on the loft-I love it!).
One thing that stood out for me after the morning session yesterday was the diversity of God. In the keynote address yesterday morning Dr Kenso Mabiala from Ugana mentioned that God is not one in spite of being three but God is one because God is three. The suggestion was that for a Western way of thinking the trinity causes endless dilemmas (how can God be three and one at the same time?) but that in an African paradigm, God's 'threeness' is the very thing that makes God one.
And because God is diverse God can encompass all our complex diversity.
The first day of the conference has been excellent and I've enjoyed every conversation I've had so far with such a wonderful diversity of people, from Kenya, South Africa, Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda, and the US.
Steve Hayes blogged about his thoughts prior Amahoro here and will probably soon blog about his thoughts with regards to yesterday. Roger has also blogged about it here. His description of what happened during a session with Adrian Vlok (former Minister of Police during the Apartheid regime) is a must read. I will blog about it myself when I get a chance.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
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4 comments:
Elucidate please. God's threeness makes him one. I am intrigued! Just what is the African mindset that informs this? Perhaps we need to introduce it to western thinking!
Hope the conference goes well. I will look forward to you post concerning the police officer during apartheid. Archbishop Tutu's book, No Future Without Forgiveness was a compelling read.
Blessings!
John
Curious...
What does "amahoro" mean?
John,
Amahoro is apparently a Rwandan word that means "peace".
It has us puzzles for a while as well -- the hearest I could thing of was "amahora", which is Zulu for "hours".
John, I think it relates to the African concept of 'ubuntu' which loosely translates as 'I am because you are'. It is a deeply relational understanding of the self. The self is only possible because it is embedded in others, in community. It is completely oppositional to western individualism.
In the West a single, indidivual God makes sense, but we struggle with a God who is community in and of Godself. Wihtin an African paradigm it makes sense for God to be three as this resonates with an African understanding of what it means to be a self: fundamentally relational.
I don't know if that clarifies things at all...!
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