Doing Theology, No. 25 June 2008
A bi-monthly theological reflection from the
School of Ministry of the Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina

Pilimatalawa

The Theological College of Lanka is nestled on a hillside in Pilimatalawa, near Kandy, in the hill country in the center of Sri Lanka. It’s a lovely spot, with rice paddies below, and with coconut palms, bananas, papaya, cardamom trees… a pervasive lush green surrounding airy buildings. One is the women’s hostel, with a large plaque declaring it a gift from the United Thank Offering.  

 The new college year began yesterday with ‘The Principal’s Tea’ (appropriate for this major tea-producing island), followed by worship, seated barefoot on mats on the floor of the chapel. We passed the peace as Buddhists do, hands together, pointed upward. Later we talked about the classes, each taught in three languages: Sinhala, Tamil, and English. (I have yet to ask faculty if this cuts classroom preparation by a third.)

I am visiting theological colleges in Sri Lanka and India as part of an initiative of a group associated with the Council of Deans of our Episcopal seminaries, the task to reflect upon the qualities of partnership between seminaries that might render them more mutual and sustainable.

I routinely ask about the gifts these colleges might perceive would come from Episcopal seminaries, and the gifts they would offer us. Here the answer to the latter question comes quickly: The experience of being a minority faith in a multi-faith society. Sri Lanka is overwhelmingly Buddhist. In the midst of civil war, where differences in ethnicity and religion are heightened, the small Christian community has tried to model reconciliation and tolerance. Minority status has many facets, of course, and sometimes it leads to insularity and defensiveness. For many in the Church here in Sri Lanka, it is marked instead by a vision of a reconciling and reconciled people, open to a broad understanding of the children of God.

I don’t want to idealize their approach, for it is nuanced, and in any case, inter-faith engagement is a complex theological matter. How do we reconcile the verses in John 14, that ‘no one comes to the Father except through me,’ with our tendency to openness for all children of a universal God? At home too often I hear a simplistic’ it doesn’t matter’ that dilutes the gospel message. But the Sri Lankan vision of reconciliation across faith boundaries is not a bad thing for us to experience, a counter to our dominant culture and dominant faith. How would God’s world look to us were we surrounded by other, majority, faiths that claimed power and truth? Would we live into these realities with tolerance and dignity and respect? Maybe. Maybe not.

Yours faithfully,
Leon Spencer