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by Ken Sehested

Two things distinguish the “Jesus Prince of Peace” icon (displayed below). One is the sheer fact of the hand-drawn images of brutality and violence surrounding the central figure. This isn’t normal iconographic practice.

The second distinctive is that the iconographer is a Baptist—not your usual religious affiliation for such artists. And he is from Georgia, but not that Georgia.

The artist’s name is Mamuka Kapanadze. He is the iconographer for the Evangelical Baptist Church of The Republic of Georgia, whose liturgical culture is heavily influenced by the Orthodox tradition.

As tensions were building before the 2008 war between Russia and Georgia, Mamuka wanted "to think of something as an expression of protest against the injustice we were experiencing, but on the other hand be nonviolent and speak about peace." His friend and pastor, Evangelical Baptist Bishop Malkaz Songulashvili (yes, Georgian Baptist have bishops) said “we need an image of Jesus as Prince of Peace.”

"I wondered if it was okay with iconographical dogmatics to paint Jesus in the middle of war,” Mamuka said. “I had ideas in my head, but I could not visualize how could it be that Jesus was in the middle of fighting with someone who is dead, someone who is exploded. When I finished the icon I took a photo and sent it to Malkhaz and asked if he was happy. He said it was perfect."

Malkhaz later took a photocopy to a meeting of the European Baptist Federation where Russian Baptists were present, and it was part of the reconciliation between the Georgian and Russian Baptists. It was first published in a British magazine.

At an ecumenical meeting the Russian Patriarchate was supposed to participate but then backed out. Malkhaz set a photocopy of the icon as an offer of friendship, and the Russian Orthodox representatives came to the meeting. Jesus amid war is a new item in iconography.

Georgian Baptists have been at the forefront of numerous civil rights struggles in that country, including advocacy for religious freedom and opposition to discrimination against Muslims and gayfolk.

Georgia (Georgians themselves refer to their country’s name as Sakartvelo) lies between the Black and Caspian Seas, with Russia and the Caucasus Mountains on its northern border, Turkey, Armenia and Azerbaijan to the South. The oldest human remains outside of Africa are from this region.

The Georgian language belongs to its own ancient linguistic group, including their own alphabet, unlike no other language spoken outside the region. It first became a unified kingdom in the 9th century; was conquered for a period by Mongols in the thirteen century; was the subject of rivalry between the Ottoman and Persian empires; was annexed by Russia in 1801; and did not regain its independence until 1991 after the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

The eastern Georgian Kingdom of Iberia became one of the first states in the world to convert to Christianity in the early fourth century, when the King of Iberia Mirian III established it as the official state religion. The missionary who effected this conversion was a woman—Saint Nino (pictured at left), thought to come from a Greek-speaking Roman family in Cappadocia (part of modern Turkey). Nino is venerated by Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Churches as well as Roman Catholic and Eastern Catholic Churches.

I think St. Nino would have been proud of this part of her legacy.

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©Ken Sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org
For a profile of Georgian Baptists’ first female bishop, see Ken Sehested’s “Listen to the Daisies: A profile of Georgian Baptist Bishop Rusudan Gotsiridze.”

I am indebted to my dear friend Dan Buttry for alerting me to this story and for providing key pieces of information. Dan has been present, shoulder to shoulder, with Georgian Baptists and others in nonviolent direct action resisting injustice in that country.

by Ken Sehested

      Baptists and bishops have never played well together. With a few exceptions, neither has been friendly to clergywomen. So how to explain the anomaly of Bishop Rusudan Gotsiridze of the Evangelical Baptist Church (EBC) of the Republic of Georgia?

      Certainly one of her influences was St. Nino, the 4th century Cappadocian woman who first evangelized her homeland, the region then known as Caucasian Iberia, which became only the second kingdom, following neighboring Armenia, to officially convert to Christianity. But there was also her grandfather, a Baptist pastor.

      “When our Archbishop started a Bible school in our church, lots of young women came to study theology. Most of us thought we would use this experience teaching Sunday school, or being good mothers for our future children. We never imaged some of us would become ministers.”

Right: Rusudan Gotsiridze (foreground left) during her 2008 ordination.

      I first met Rusudan at the 2009 Global Baptist Peace Conference held in Rome, Italy, where she led compline prayers each evening, and then noon prayers one day at the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls, hosted by the Benedictine monks who shepherd that congregation. What many conferees considered liturgical boundary-crossing was no stretch to a Georgian Baptist, whose worship is heavily influenced by the Orthodox tradition, complete with incense, icons and colorful clerical garb.

      In their own country, the EBC is more known for human rights advocacy. Rusudan’s mentor, Archbishop Malkhaz Songulashvili, was a key figure in the nonviolent Rose Revolution of 2003 that swept from office holdovers from the country’s previous Soviet-aligned regime. He is known by many as a major voice in support of human rights and interfaith collaboration.

      Rusudan herself played a pivotal role in her country’s expanded protection of religious minorities. In July the parliament passed an amendment to Georgia’s Civil Code recognizing five other, non-Orthodox groups, including Baptists. Assigned to represent the EBC on a committee shaping that religious liberty legislation, Rusudan initiated a meeting with leaders of the other recognized religious bodies and convinced them to remove all limiting language, effectively extending legal status to all faith communities.

      Significantly, one of the first human rights initiatives taken by the EBC after the demise of the Soviet Union was opening a path to ordination for women. Though her graduate degree is in Western literature and language, she continued to take theology courses. Her talents were noticed by EBC’s leaders, who appointed her to a succession of church leadership.

      Long story short: On Pentecost Sunday 2008, the EBC ordained Rusudan as a bishop. Though, along with her pastoral duties, she also is a trainer on gender justice with the International Centre on Conflict and Negotiation, which she says “is just another form of my ministry.”

      “Perhaps the most difficult obstacle I faced [with church leadership roles] was my own self-perceptions. Being young, and being female, are two great disadvantages. It took some time before I could give myself the needed affirmation.”

      Sound familiar, anyone?

            “I never would have imagined taking on the responsibility of a bishop. On the Sunday I was ordained—kneeling in front of the altar with a huge open Bible over my head—all I could see was a bucket of daisies. The little flowers were looking at me. And I knew God was there with me, saying do not be afraid, my daughter. I will be with you.”

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This article was originally published in the Winter 2012 issue of Folio, newsletter of Baptist Women in Ministry.
©Ken Sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org

by Ken Sehested

       In case you missed this historic video (1:10)—of President Barack Obama and family deplaning in Havana, Cuba, on Monday morning, 21 March 2016.

        Even now, during the Christian community’s Passion Week, a countersign—the Promise embedded within the Passion—can be discerned. History, despite its bloodied face, is not fated; and we, among history’s actors, need not abandon the field in hopes of a private realm of bogus atonement detached from fleshly circumstance.

Right: Air Force 1 on approach to the José Martí International Airport in Havana. Photo by Jose Luis Casal.

        The last (and only other) sitting US president to visit Cuba was Calvin Coolidge, in 1928, and then only to speak at the 6th Pan-American conference. Following his term in office, former US President Jimmy Carter visited Cuba in 2002 and 2011. In fact, shortly after Carter was elected in 1976 he issued a secret directive on Cuban policy aimed at normalizing diplomatic relations.

        (For more background on Carter’s visits to Cuba, see Jennifer Lynn McCoy, “How Jimmy Carter Paved the Way for Cuba Breakthrough” Newsweek,  and Peter Kornbluh, “Jimmy Carter: Lift Trad Embargo Against Cuba,” The Nation.)

         Following the Spanish-American War of 1898, when the US took control of Cuba and instituted a military occupation, planning for an “election” were set in motion, with US Administration vetting potential candidates with the intent of restricting the “mass of ignorant and incompetent” and promote “a conservative and thoughtful control of Cuba by Cubans,” in the words of US Secretary of War Elihu Root.

        Despite that move, members of the independence party of Cuba defeated most of the US-back candidates for office. Although the US recognized the new government, work began immediately on what became the US Congress’ Platt Amendment as part of the Military Appropriations Act of February 1901 governing the military occupation, which allowed control of Cuba without actual annexation.

        “Article I, limited the Cuban government from entering into any treaty or contract with a foreign power that would allow that foreign power any control over Cuba, politically or militarily.

        “Article II barred the Cuban government from contracting any public debt, paying interest on any debt, and ensured that the government of Cuba maintained adequate funds for government expenses as well as revenues of the island.

        “Article III stipulated the United States reserved the right to intervene in Cuba for the purposes of maintaining Cuban independence as well as ensuring that the Cuban government was capable of protecting human life and property.

        “Article VIII required these tenets to be incorporated into the new Cuban constitution.

        "Lastly, the Amendment ceded Guantanamo Bay to the United States for use as a naval base in perpetuity.” (Quoted in Ann-Marie Holmes, “The United States and Cuba: 1898-1959”)

        Forced to choose between partial sovereignty and no sovereignty, the Cuban legislature approved these stipulations.

        This particular story is a classic example of the “big print giveth, small print taketh away” aphorism and illustration of a longer, highly ambiguous pattern of US promotion of democratic values around the world.

        Before we can address these matters, we must first know them.

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©Ken Sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org