BRUCE LANSDALE HONORARY DOCTORATE
PART 6
THE POWER OF MYTH IN RURAL DEVELOPMENT
BY
Bruce M. Lansdale
MYTHS WHICH INFLUENCE THE NATION
Two major aspects of people’s thinking have a very profound impact on their attitudes to their country and their sense of pride toward what the Greeks call patrida, something more powerful in its meaning than the English word nation. These two are very closely interrelated, but deserve separate consideration. The first is the spiritual values of the people and the second is their sense of patriotism or loyalty to the traditional values of their country.
THE SPIRITUAL DIMENSION
There is a spiritual dimension to rural development which influences the individual, the family, and the community, but is primarily a matter of national concern. During my sixty years in Greece, myths which have a direct bearing on spiritual values and attitudes among the population have developed through three stages.
During the first stage in the period when I was a boy in the late twenties and early thirties, there was a predominant feeling in the rural areas that Greek Orthodoxy had all the answers to an individual’s spiritual concerns. Individuals in the village who questioned the authority of the church were generally castegated. There was bitter opposition and considerable persecution of the protestant minorities with intense conflict in the few rural communities such as Katerini and Milotopo where there were large Protestant neighborhoods. Even though a large majority of the priests had not even completed the gymnasium, their title and robes gave them unassailable authority on spiritual matters among their village flock.
The second stage reached a climax in the middle eighties as there developed a growing feeling reinforced by government policies that the church was an anchronism, that there were too many unlettered priests, that they tended to “bless their own beard,” and that religion in general belonged to the old days. Religious services still predominated for weddings, baptisms and funerals even though civil weddings and divorce were legalized. Sunday services were attended primarily by old men and women in the villages. In terms of people’s outlook on life, particularly the disillusioned youth, the rejection of the Christian values which had been such a dynamic force in the lives of village folk brought about a new outlook expressed by a commonly heard phrase, “what we can get out of life, our family, our community, our country is more important than what we put into it.”
The third stage seeks to find new answers within the old traditions of Orthodoxy and appears to be gaining strength albeit rather slowly. Maybe it is expressed by the tale of Nasrudin Hodja.
One day Hodja learned that a monk who was a friend had a priceless gold coin which he wanted very badly. He finally accosted the monk and demanded the coin. To Hoja’s amazement, the monk gave it to him quite willingly and sent him graciously on his way. A while later Hodja returned to the monk with a far more humble attitude. “Here friend,” he said, “Take the coin back, but I need something far more valuable. Tell me the secret of how you could give it away so easily.”
A new climate in Orthodoxy which seeks to find expression in Christian values rather than dogma and intense theological disputes appears to be in the ascendancy. In recent years it has found expression through increased participation in monastic life, growing attendance in church services in general, a predominant rejection of civil weddings, and a feeling of dispair among more mature individuals about “godlessness” among youth. The failure of secondary schools to inspire any spiritual values among students, and if anything, a predominance of cynicism among teachers toward the church hierarchy has certainly encouraged this reaction among the young.
I am not personally Orthodox, but Orthodoxy and many of its leaders have had a profound impact on me and my family as well as on the Farm School over the past forty years. I was much influenced by my father’s close association with Patriarch Athenagoras (who appointed him an Archon of the Patriarchate) and with Bishop Genadios of Thessaloniki for whom I had great affection and respect during my early years at the School. Bishop Panteleimon consecrated the Church of Saint John Chrysostomos at the School in 1955 while his successors including the Bishop of Kalamaria, in whose bishopric the school operates, have played a dynamic role in the life of the School.
During my years in Greece we have been blessed by visits from Patriarch Athenagoras, Archbishop Iakovos of North and South America, and Archbishop Stylianos of Australia, a close friend from his days as Igoumenos of the Moni Vlatadon, now under the spiritual guidance of Bishop Rodopoulos.
In the early days of its existence, the Farm School was highly suspect as a protestant school and it was not until the Church of St. John Chrysostomos was completed that this feeling began to subside. But the close contact with so many dynamic leaders of Orthodoxy on the one hand and the regular attendance of staff and students at Sunday services under the spiritual guidance of many inspiring priests has influenced all of us who have been a part of this community.
Some thoughts which I wrote several years ago best express the impact which St. John Chrysostomos has had on us, particularly in the Resurrection Service in a church which even to this day uses beeswax candles instead of electricity.
Why do I love Greece?
Because of Christian Orthodoxy
Is so intertwined
In their daily lives.
On Saturday night
Before Easter,
(For forty days
And Friday nights
For Easter week
Their world all stops
To fast, to pray
To cleanse their soul.)
They plunge themselves,
Their church, their all
Into utter darkness,
Til at midnight, RESURRECTION!
Mankind Reborn!
The priest brings forth
A candle glow
“Take ye the light”
One tiny flame
Pierces the dark.
Candle to candle,
Hand to hand,
Cheek to cheek,
Heart to heart
Christos Anesti (Christ is Risen)
Alithos Anesti (it’s true, He is Risen)
The faithful
Take home the flame
Keep it alight
Throughout the year.
Easter is lamb on the spit,
It’s red dyed eggs,
But more, much more
That midnight light is
Why I love Greece.
The challenge of development programs wherever they operate is to build on local beliefs. Bishop Ezekiel of Melbourne recently presented the Farm School with a copy of a painting of a Black Virgin Mary, entitled Aboriginal Madonna. Patriarch Athenagoras spoke most emphatically about rapprochement between the Eastern and Western Church, describing the urgency for federation, “the meeting of the hearts”, as opposed to union which demanded “a meeting of the minds”.
Talking about religion is not enough, especially for young people. Avrilia Vlachou helped the British Quakers found our Girls School. She later became Sister Gabriella, a Greek Orthodox nun and spent considerable time in India working with lepers. She had not been able to master any one language because her patients came from different parts of the country. After she had been there two years, an Anglican bishop asked her if she had learned the language of the natives.
Embarrassed to admit that she had not, she hesitated for a moment and then said to the bishop, “Oh yes, your Grace. I have learned five languages.” He looked surprised as she went on, “the languages of smiling, weeping, touching, listening and loving.” Students must be surrounded by individuals who speak all of Sister Gabriella’s languages as an example for their daily lives if the myth is to have an impact on them.
A graduate named George Foundas wrote to the head of the dormitory from the island of Limnos where he was doing his military service:
“I will never forget the best years of my life, those spent at the Farm School. That period is almost like a wonderful dream … I think that the spirit at the School encouraged one to find the real person inside. The serenity that prevails there, the stillness and beauty of the setting, instills a certain tranquillity within one. It allows you to think about who you really are, where you are headed, what your goal in life is, what are the real values you hold. It is a pity for whoever lives in a place like the Farm School to miss the chance to discover himself, the purpose in life, not to have discovered a way to communicate with God, to find happiness … Time and distance do not kill love if it is real. To be loved by others is the other half of you loving them.”
A Dutch trainee wrote:
“While at the American Farm School I underwent a metamorphosis of some sort. I now have a wholly different attitude toward others. Mainly because I saw how friendly, helpful and caring your students were even when they faced larger problems than most of us in Holland do.”
A counsellor of the Ministry of Education spoke to the students after spending a week at the School. “I leave you now with something inside me, something much greater than I thought was there. I have come to understand that, above and beyond all else, the particular characteristic that makes this school so special is the tradition. These past few days I have realized as an educator and as a school principal for so many years I have never been able to experience the feeling of completeness that I felt here – that is, the love expressed through cooperation, the common effort, the noble competition, the acceptance of the team spirit and the participation in team operation, as well as the Greek Orthodox Church spirit. This educational climate does not just educate people, does not only prepare in the best possible way the youth of this country for the various agricultural professions, but most of all, it forms responsible people, mature human beings with a deep-rooted faith in their Greek identity and their Orthodox Christian tradition. This part of your school’s identity must be for you a shining star that will light your way your whole life through.”
These three individuals express better than I could the myth which they discovered at the Farm School.
It appears to have helped the young people understand the secret of Hodja’s friend, the monk, which made it so easy for him to give away the coin. Anyone who uncovers this secret has surely found the road to prosperity throughout his life regardless of whether he lives in the city or the rural areas.
ATTITUDES TOWARD THE NATION