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Waking up to machine-gun fire
Father Nicholas Wheeler is Priest Missioner in one of Rio de Janeiro’s most deprived communities. This week he’s back visiting the Camden churches who sponsor his work and talking about his experiences since he moved to Brazil in March 2008
IT’S not every priest who spends his day walking around Bible Square, down Gospel Street or up Faith Avenue.
But it’s now my daily routine as Priest Missioner in the City of God, one of Rio de Janeiro’s most notoriously deprived communities.
The City of God is a housing estate built on the outskirts of Rio in the 1960s to provide top quality homes for the poor.
All the roads were given the names of people or places in the Bible to help create the impression of paradise on Earth.
But the City of God, made famous by Fernando Mireilles’s 2003 film, didn't stay heavenly for long.
Sadly, it was quickly forgotten by the powers that be and drugs gangs took control of the neighbourhood, mounting deadly gun battles that made Camden’s drug scene look like a vicar’s tea party.
My job is to help to develop the life of the Anglican Church in Cidade de Deus (its name in Portuguese) and enabling it to contribute more effectively to the futures of its 100,000-strong inhabitants who experience low school achievement, high unemployment and poor health.
We already provide space for projects offering job skills, psychotherapy and English classes and play host to the local branch of Alcoholics Anonymous.
There’s been an Anglican Church in Brazil for the best part of 200 years. The Parish of Christ the King in the City of God is one of about a dozen Anglican churches in Rio. While it is small I believe it has an important opportunity to contribute to the strengthening of the community and the generation of hope.
The people in my church are not Englishmen abroad but ordinary Brazilians so learning Portuguese was essential.
But, as languages go, it’s no pushover!
The grammar is a nightmare and I’m still at the stage of saying what I can rather than what I want to say. And in my business when you’re talking to people at key moments in their lives that can be pretty frustrating.
In days gone by missionaries were often perceived to be representatives of a rich and powerful European civilisation in which the crucifix and the sword operated together as instruments of conquest and oppression.
Today Christian mission has got to be about listening and learning together if it’s truly to be done in the name of Jesus Christ, the man for everyone.
I do not live in Cidade de Deus – the bishop thought it would be too dangerous – violence is never far away.
I live next door to a shanty town in another part of the city and I have to admit that it’s the first time in my life that I’ve been woken up by the sound of machine gun fire when the police launch an operation. It really can feel like you’re in a war zone. But that said I’ve only been mugged twice and on both occasions – neither time in the City of God –- it was during carnival when street drinking and petty crime reach a peak.
I found it very hard to celebrate Christmas in temperatures of 40 degrees Centigrade and when a torrential downpour stopped anyone from coming to church on Christmas Day and it was just me and God I felt a long way from home!
However, New Year’s Eve on Copacabana beach with two million other revellers watching stunning fireworks and throwing gladioli into the sea will stay in the memory for a long time.
Last November life took an unexpected turn when police mounted a surprise raid on the City of God, killed drugs dealers in a shoot-out and began a 24-hour occupation of the estate that is set to last at least year.
In the past you’d see young guys doing drugs deals on street corners carrying rifles on their backs. Now there are 150 armed policemen patrolling the community day and night. For now the violence seems to be a thing of the past but it will probably depend on how long there’s the political will to invest the money in the police presence.
Suddenly, Cidade de Deus has become a symbol of change for a city that’s hosting the 2014 World Cup and hoping to stage the 2016 Olympics.
It’s gone from being a neglected backwater to taking centre stage in government policy. Maybe part of the church’s role is to ensure that this moment of change is more than just a flash in the pan.
Most people in the City of God are living extraordinary lives against the odds with little going for them but their faith and hope shines through. Brazilians have a huge respect for priests. I rarely go far down the road without somebody asking for a blessing and that includes the drug traffickers.
Yet I’ve missed Camden immensely. The incredible diversity of the community, the vibrancy and vitality of life on the streets, the people I knew and worked with for more than a decade.
But I can’t say I miss the New Journal because I try to read the online edition as often as possible to keep up with events in my old neck of the woods.
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Your comments:
Thanks to the CNJ for giving publicity to the changes being planned for our local health services: changes being planned before consultation has even begun. If readers want to know more, there will be a deputation to the Camden Health Scrutiny Committee on Thursday 18 June.
June Grun, Savernake Road NW3 |
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