November 2, 2015
True to the global nature of the Roma to the Nations gathering, one of the most informative and transformative talks was given by a Dutch Scholar in Hungary, translated into Mandarin. Anne-Marie Kool, in addition to her academic credentials and output, has a powerful heart and voice that calls loudly to the church to wake up and do the hard work required of us to understand and make common spiritual cause with the Roma peoples.
It’s encouraging to learn along with these Chinese “newcomers” from this level of scholarship and deep engagement in the spiritual and cultural issues that make up the relational fabric tying together church, culture, history and Roma. These lessons are important not only to those who care for the Roma – or even the church in Europe – but to anyone who grasps the historical and theological realities that the church in mission either moves toward the margins, or it withers. 