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Global and Local

Dealing with the current pandemic will take global cooperation, but it will need to be applied at a local level. Likewise, the daily life of the church is expressed through local communities, but we are at our best when we learn from each other, serve each other and complement each other regionally, nationally and globally.

I remember thirty or so years’ ago, a Kouya Christian leader expressing the opinion that the world was about to end because there had been some unseasonal rain and cloud formations over a couple of villages deep in the rain forest. Now, it would be easy to laugh at the idea that the apocalypse was being signalled by extreme weather in a very small corner of the world. However, for those who lived in that corner of the world and who had very limited contact with the outside, local events appeared as though they were global.

Today, with the COVID-19 pandemic, we are truly living through an event which is global. It is unlikely that there is anyone on the planet who will not be impacted in one way or another. Although this outbreak may not be as deadly as some earlier events such as the black-death, it impacts will be wider; firstly because of the speed of international travel which moves the virus around the world at an incredible speed and secondly because of the development of international media which spread news, rumours and conspiracy theories even faster.

However, even though this pandemic is global and affects all people (which is where the derivation of the word comes from), people treat it as a local event. Partly, this is a normal and necessary reaction; the effect of the lockdown on me, my friends and my neighbours is of more immediate concern to me than its impact on the other side of the globe. However, there are a number of other – less rational – ways in which the thing is being viewed locally.

I have read African writers saying that the pandemic is a Western plot to reduce the population of Africa. While deploring much of the West’s attitude to the African continent, this conspiracy theory completely misses the global impact of the disease and seems to ignore the fact that there have been far more European and North American fatalities than African ones. It’s not all about Africa.

Equally, I have read American church leaders say that the pandemic is God’s judgement on the USA for accepting gay marriage. Once again, this simply ignores the fact that the vast majority of victims of the disease lie outside of the USA. God seems to have killed a large number of non-Americans in order to judge the American church. It’s not all about the USA.

My point is not to criticise these particular groups, it just so happens that these are things which I’ve come across on my social media feeds on a number of occasions recently. I’m pretty sure that if I trawled around on the internet enough, I could find similar ideas emerging from just about every nation under the sun – including the UK. The thing is, even though we have access to far better sources of information than my Kouya friend did, all those years ago, we still tend to view the world as though it revolved around us.

Christians are part of the largest movement in human history. We are truly a global phenomenon; there are believers in every country in the world and the impact of the gospel is growing worldwide. Our local fellowships are, quite rightly, the most important part of the church to us as individuals. However, we must never lose sight of the greater whole, nor should we assume that “it is all about us”. As we in the West struggle with Zoom church and wonder whether when we will be able to meet again, believers in cities in the developing world are setting up structures to provide food and medical help to those who are suffering because lock-down really doesn’t work in the cramped conditions that so many people live in. What we are living through in the UK is not normal, it is stressful, but it is far from universal. Most Christians in the world are in very different situations to us.

At an even more basic level, we need to realise that we cannot generalise our local experiences, onto the world church as a whole. Our culture wars, our localised theological disputes and our engagement with the particular society that we live in are simply not relevant to the whole church in its geographical spread and diversity. Yes, the church in other places can learn from us but equally, we can learn from them. The countries of Europe and North America have suffered because they failed to learn from the experiences of Asian and African countries who had recently dealt with SARS and Ebola and so were far better equipped to deal with the current pandemic than we were. We risk making the same mistake in church life when we assume that our ways are best and that we know more than them (whoever “they” are).

Dealing with the current pandemic will take global cooperation, but it will need to be applied at a local level. Likewise, the daily life of the church is expressed through local communities, but we are at our best when we learn from each other, serve each other and complement each other regionally, nationally and globally.

Dealing with the current pandemic will take global cooperation, but it will need to be applied at a local level. Likewise, the life of the church is expressed through local communities, but we are at our best when we learn from and serve… Click To Tweet