The Lost Sheep

It has been reported that His Grace Pope Francis was 'deeply pained' by Turkey's decision to reopen Hagia Sophia museum as a mosque. In his own words "I am thinking of St. Sophia and I am deeply pained.".

There was outrage from others as well. The World Council of Churches has called on the Turkish president to reverse the decision. The Russian Orthodox Church expressed dismay at Turkey's decision, accusing it of ignoring voices of millions of Christians.

The European Union's foreign policy chief called the decision "regrettable". Cypress strongly condemned Turkey's actions and called on Turkey to respect its international obligations.

The US State Department spokesperson expressed disappointment at the decision by the government of Turkey. Greece branded Turkey's move an "open provocation to the civilized world".

But why outrage at this monument alone? There is no doubt it held importance and significance as it was one of the oldest churches, built in the year 537 AD by Constantinople. It remained as a church under various Christian denominations until the year 1453 AD when it was converted into a mosque by the Ottoman Empire.

But the truth is, this is not the first time when a church has been closed, abandoned, sold or converted.

I had the good fortune of visiting the magnificent church of St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican. As our tour guide was guiding through the various marvels of the Basilica, she mentioned that close to 800 churches in Italy were closed. The reason being, with no one visiting the churches anymore, it was not feasible to maintain them. Without any offerings from the faithful it was not possible to keep the churches open. It was absolutely shocking news for me, especially something like that happening in Italy with the Vatican right next door!

While in Venice, I saw a chapel being used as a warehouse for storing marble stones.

When we visited Germany, we came across a big church with tall spires and Gothic architecture. Admiring the architecture of the huge imposing building, we went around looking for the entrance of the Church to spend some time in prayer.

As we approached the entrance we saw a tall beautiful lady in a green dress standing with some leaflets in her hands. On a wooden stand next to her there was a stack of leaflets. My thought was “perhaps some program was in progress, perhaps a marriage”. I asked her if the church was open and could we enter the church. She stretched the leaflet in her hand towards me and answered with a sweet smile and a musical voice "yes it is open, we are devil worshipers and you are welcome to join us". 

I stood there open mouthed, staring at her long fair face wondering if she was joking or perhaps I might have heard her wrong. At the speed of lightning, everyone who was with me disappeared from the scene. I asked her "Are you really devil worshipers? You are not joking?". She answered in her soft voice "No, I am not joking". Still confused and not believing what I heard, I just mumbled a "thank you" and left the place completely rattled by what transpired in the last few minutes.

I have read about devil worshipers, and even seen them in movies. But this was the first time I encountered one in person, face to face. The experience was quite overwhelming. I went looking for my group and as I joined them, the topic of discussion was “why are people leaving the Church!”.

Sadly, many Christian churches are being listed on the real estate market even today by real estate firms all across the world for sale, many of the countries predominantly following Christian faith.

The churches may be closed or abandoned because money is very important for maintaining the structures and its facilities. When no faithful are visiting them, and with no prospect of offerings collection, it becomes a difficult proposition to continue the church functioning. 

But the important question is, where are all those Christians? Why are they leaving the Christian faith? Have they lost their faith in Christianity? Have they found and adopted some other faith? Where exactly are those lost sheep? 

Hundreds of Evangelists, pastors, and missionaries from the US and other western countries go to India, Africa and other countries, all through the year, some very famous, some less known. They go around preaching the Gospel, trying to find new converts to Christianity.

Why don't they go after the "lost sheep" in their own respective countries? Why don't they take inspiration from Jesus Christ? In the parable of the Lost Sheep (Matthew 18:12-14, Luke 15:3-7), when a sheep was missing, the shepherd did not say "it is alright, I still have 99 and I can get another new one". He went looking for the one lost sheep, leaving behind the ninety nine.

However big or small a church, a cathedral or a chapel may be, it is a place of worship and praising God. And without a congregation, there cannot be worship and praising. So, the most urgent need of the hour for the churches, the evangelists, the pastors, and the missionaries is to get that missing congregation back into the churches, get the Lost Sheep back into the flock of Christ.

Source of References:

• World reacts: https://tinyurl.com/y8sxq5wt
• Hagia Sophia History: https://tinyurl.com/y24e7pk8
• 11 Australian churches sale: https://tinyurl.com/yylha2k9
• 21 Australian churches sale: https://tinyurl.com/yx8ws29y
• Top 10 Australian churches sale: https://tinyurl.com/yxjvqt52
• US abandoned churches: https://tinyurl.com/y478lnyg
• UK Church Auction List: https://tinyurl.com/y5xqrtn2
• Church of Scotland Sale: https://tinyurl.com/yxf8jokq
• Scottish Churches Sale: http://www.property.org.uk/unique/ch.shtml
• Italian Churches Sale: https://tinyurl.com/y5ugok4d
• Canada Church Sale: https://realestate.mitula.ca/former-church-ontario

Bye Bye Hagia Sophia, Bye Bye Turkey

Turkey was one of the places of visit in my bucket list. I had a chance of a five day trip many years ago. My wife and I went through the brochure and found the cost quite affordable and more importantly the timing was perfect. The tour was planned to match with the national holidays of the middle eastern country where we were residing at that time. As I was working with a Government organisation, I had nine days of holidays, including two weekends. Quite enough to extend the holiday beyond the five day itinerary if needed.

I always wondered at the grandeur of the imposing Hagia Sophia monument. A friend of ours, who had visited Turkey, raved about the place, especially the monument. Since then, Turkey has been one of the important destinations in my list.

We went to the travel agent, took all details of dates, cost, visa procedures and the forms to be filled. As I scanned through the brochure, I thought to myself, "now here is the chance I was waiting for, to finally make that long pending visit". The prospect of the tour looked good.

During the national holidays, one of the most common topics of conversation with friends was, the holiday plans. I was so excited about the tour that I started sharing my holiday plans with my friends. And that turned out to be a mistake. One of my friends asked me "Did you check out the weather prediction?". I said "No. Why?". He said "You better check it out. It is usually quite cold out there this time of the year".

And, the prediction turned out as my friend had warned. I don't generally like extremely cold weather and extreme weather was predicted for the days of the tour. My wife and I deliberated over this disappointing finding for a few days and finally decided to call the trip off. Instead, we spent the holidays in Dubai, our usual weekend/holiday getaway.

So, Turkey remained in my bucket list until a few days ago. It was reported in the news media that Turkey's President had passed a decree to return the status of Hagia Sophia museum building to that of a mosque. Various reasons were given for this bold move. It was hailed by many Islamic nations. There has also been a lot of outrage and criticism from various quarters of the world. However, the government of Turkey looks intent on implementing the president’s decree.

As for me, would I still be interested in visiting Turkey? The answer is “no”. Turkey is off my bucket list of places to visit

An incident happened when I was a kid. I was always wary of passing by mosques, especially during prayer times. Most mosques had high rising walls around them and a bunch of kids would sit on the walls with heaps of stones placed next to them. Their purpose was to keep the “Kafirs (Infidels)” away from coming anywhere close to the mosque. To me that picture was always quite unnerving. So I stayed away from going anywhere close to mosques.

I had a friend, who was my neighbor and one of my best play buddies. One day, I don’t know what came over him, he invited me to go with him to the mosque for the prayers. After all his unrelenting coaxing, I agreed with lots of hesitation and apprehension. That was a big mistake, one of the biggest mistakes of my life.

We walked together to the mosque, with my friend leading. As we approached the entrance, a barrage of stones were pelted on me. Luckily the stones did not find the intended target, except for one which came quite close to one of my eyes. I ran from the place clutching my face, which felt like it was on fire. Luckily no harm was done to my eye or any part of my face except for a deep gash very close to my eye which took many days to heal.

That day I vowed never to take a chance again to go anywhere near a mosque. I lived in the middle east for over 37 years and during all those years, I kept away from going anywhere close to a mosque. Couple of places where we stayed were quite close to a mosque but I made sure I kept away whenever it was time for prayer.

I had visited mosques a couple of times for offering condolences to colleagues on losing their loved one’s or to attend marriage parties. But during all those visits I was on tenterhooks. The stress I went through cannot be put into words. But I successfully maintained a poignant or happy look, depending on the occasion.

There were many beautiful and grand Mosques around the country. Many a time I was tempted to take photographs. I did take few photographs, stealthily, from a distance, through my window, especially on a rainy day when the sky was filled with thick clouds in the background of the mosque or when the dome and minarets of the Mosque looked beautiful with the full moon shining brightly in the background.

Some of the Mosques allowed visitors irrespective of nationality and religion. But I never dared to visit any of them. Getting anywhere close to mosque scares the hell out me even today.

So, as far as I am concerned, it is Bye Bye Hagia Sophia, Bye Bye Turkey!