Luton Roma Church on Songs of Praise

Click here and find us 20mins into programme

Economic Migration to UK: why Bobby came to Luton!

click here to see ITV Anglia news item on LRC

Night of Prayer coming up!

We have our second "Noapte de Veghe" this Friday 24 January starting 7pm, finishing 1am.   All welcome to come.  Bury Park URC, 19 Waldeck Road, Luton LU1 1HG.  We are expecting Roma from across the UK to come as well as some from Germany and France.  Watch this space!  Our Roma guys have been praying every night in the build up to this event and there is a huge sense of anticipation.  There seems to be a direct link between the physical struggle to survive and spiritual hunger for God.  

"Though we are many, we are one body..."

"Though we are many, we are one body, because we all share in one bread".  When all rhetoric has fallen silent, and everything possible has been done to build bridges between one community and another; when all our efforts to bring peace to earth have run into the sand, we turn at the last to the mystery of the Lord's Supper.  We eat and drink in memory of Jesus who through his death broke down every barrier that separates one human from another.  Reaching out to the right and to the left, his arms on the cross continue to draw all humankind into his heart.  Many kick and scream, preferring the easy way out of mutual isolation.  But he continues to draw us in...

It's tempting to think that at this, our very first communion, the only barriers to fall are between Roma and non-Roma.  Far from it.  Pastor Viorel (here holding the bread) explained to me that dark spots on the home-baked, unleavened bread, represent Jesus' wounds.  We will continue to wound him until that moment when the process of reconciliation has been completed: between Roma/Gadjo;  Rom/Romni; Adult/Child; Poor/Rich; Roma from Hunedoara/Roma from Toflia; English Gypsy/Eastern European Roma.  "Why do you persecute me?" cries the risen but still wounded Jesus.

But on this same day of our first communion, South Africa is burying one man who continued to believe against all the evidence that Black and White could peaceably co-exist and even come to love one another.  Every generation needs its Nelson Mandelas.  Political vision will take us some of the way.  But ultimately it will only be when we all share of the one bread, that we will finally become one body, the Body of Christ on earth.  

We should not be disheartened by an increase in conflict.  It might just be a sign we are aiming at the right goal.  For in refusing to compromise on unity, the stakes are raised and "the thoughts of many hearts revealed."

LUTON ROMA CHURCH AT WORSHIP - SEE YOUTUBE CLIP!

LUTON ROMA CHURCH BAPTISMS  - CLICK TO SEE OUR RECENT BAPTISM SERVICE!

A Roma baptism doesn't happen at a certain appointed hour in the service.  It happens when the Holy Spirit has arrived is such a way that an overflow into the baptism is a natural development.  The taking of photos of the candidates was part of the 'liturgy' and to my amazement in no way interrupted the spiritual atmosphere.  To film the service was not to reduce it to a Hollywood movie, but to preserve it to be viewed when spirits flag in the harsh reality of everyday life for a Roma person.

Move to new Church premises!

"See I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut.  I know that you have little strength, yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name." [Rev 3:8]  On Sunday 1 December we move into new premises in Luton which promise the chance of a new beginning to our children's work which our old building could not manage.  This new church has two separate halls under the same roof which are perfect for the pre-school children and the older ones.  Meanwhile there's room for 300 adults in the main worship space - so room for growth!   If you are reading this and wonder how you could help do please send me a message!  We need every hand on deck into the future....
mburrell51@googlemail.com

Roma Elders appointed...mission begins...

Last Sunday I spotted this beautiful rainbow as I was going out in my car to bring some Roma people into the service.  From where I was standing, outside one Roma family home, the rainbow seemed to be throwing a blessing over the whole Bury Park area of Luton.  This is where we meet both in church, and on the streets, and in some of the homes.

A little later, in the service, we commissioned our new Roma elders team.  This is a big step forward as the leadership is more widely shared and the Roma guys are picking up responsibilities with great passion.

Today we begin the mission.  "Mission" means only only one thing for the Roma: taking the Gospel into family homes.  At the service we asked who wanted a visit.  As Jesus taught, we seek out the 'people of peace', those open to the Spirit, and join in with what God is doing.

Watch this space...

Baptisms!

We have just celebrated the baptism of 4 Roma guys.  You can see them in the distance in white.  120 came from across Luton and from afar for a service that lasted over four hours.  The absence of an order of service makes it possible to wait for as long as necessary for the presence of the Spirit to be powerful enough for the baptism to proceed.  Just before we got in the full immersion font, photos galore were taken by everyone of the four candidates, just like at a wedding.  For a moment I thought this would turn the worship into a Hollywood set.  In fact the photographing became somehow part of the liturgy.  Extraordinary.

Judge Ryan reports on our mock trial of UK Government

"Mock Trial  -  Luton Roma Community sues the UK Government

At Beech Hill Methodist Church in Luton on Saturday 29 June a group of Roma people based in Luton and others including Bishop Richard of Bedford witnessed a mock trial designed to highlight the plight of their Roma brothers and sisters as they try to make new lives here in our diocese.

Although Romanians can now enter the UK as an accession state subscribing to the European Treaties, until 1 January 2014 they have no right to work other than as self-employed persons. 

This dramatic event, the concept of Rev Martin Burrell of Christchurch, Bushmead, and chaplain to the Roma people in the diocese, was devised by Adam Weiss and Emma Fenelon from a legal charity, AIRE, (Advice on Individual Rights in Europe). 

Employment Judge Tom Ryan, a member of the diocesan Penal Affairs Group and a Crown Court Recorder presided at the “trial” at which Bobby  Bobiica, assisted in giving evidence by Elvis  Calin  who translated for him, explained how the Government, by delaying and frustrating applications by Romanian nationals for National Insurance numbers, effectively prevents them from gaining employment and access to a range of benefits. 

The Government’s “case” was advanced by Professor Thomas Acton who until recently held the chair of Roma studies at the University of Greenwich.  He is and has been an authority on Roma matters for many years and is much more inclined to support the Roma than otherwise but he argued a contrary case to little effect.

Judge Tom Ryan invited the assembly to consider themselves a jury for the purpose of the case. The jury voted conclusively in support of the Roma case. 

We are asked to point out that this was a wholly fictional case in which the Government were not invited to take part.  The drama was intended only to illustrate the difficulties Roma people face and to encourage us all to support them in any way we can." 

[see picture in ealier post below]    

    

Volunteers bring English & Literacy to the Roma families

In partnership with Luton Adult Learning, 14 volunteers have trained how to deliver English Language and Literacy to our Roma families.  Each volunteer is carefully matched to each family and several are now up and running.  As you can see below, we have a wide range of people who have volunteered.  Funding has come from Bedfordshire & Luton Community Foundation.   The needs of the Roma community are hugely diverse, even within the same family.   We hope over a generation to break the cycle of illeracy leading to unemployability, poverty and dependancy.  Above all, if the families start to believe "English is cool," then anything is possible.  School teachers constantly beg us to do anything we can to help their Roma pupils keep pace with the class, Roma parents often ask for help too.  If more funding is forthcoming, then we can train up more volunteers...   Keen to come on board?  Email me here!

A word from the Lord for the Roma

Ezekiel 34:20-31

New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

²⁰ Therefore, thus says the Lord God to them: I myself will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep.²¹ Because you pushed with flank and shoulder, and butted at all the weak animals with your horns until you scattered them far and wide, ²² I will save my flock, and they shall no longer be ravaged; and I will judge between sheep and sheep.
²³ I will set up over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he shall feed them: he shall feed them and be their shepherd. ²⁴ And I, the Lord, will be their God, and my servant David shall be prince among them; I, theLord, have spoken.
²⁵ I will make with them a covenant of peace and banish wild animals from the land, so that they may live in the wild and sleep in the woods securely. ²⁶ I will make them and the region around my hill a blessing; and I will send down the showers in their season; they shall be showers of blessing. ²⁷ The trees of the field shall yield their fruit, and the earth shall yield its increase. They shall be secure on their soil; and they shall know that I am the Lord, when I break the bars of their yoke, and save them from the hands of those who enslaved them. ²⁸ They shall no more be plunder for the nations, nor shall the animals of the land devour them; they shall live in safety, and no one shall make them afraid. ²⁹ I will provide for them a splendid vegetation so that they shall no more be consumed with hunger in the land, and no longer suffer the insults of the nations. ³⁰ They shall know that I, theLord their God, am with them, and that they, the house of Israel, are my people, says the Lord God. ³¹ You are my sheep, the sheep of my pasture^[a] and I am your God, says the Lord God.

Live Mock Trial - The verdict

The UK Government was put on trial at our live, mock trial.  The charge: failure to comply with European Regulations with regard to the treatment of Roma economic migrants seeking to establish themselves in the country.   The audience of c.40 was the jury.  The verdict:  UK Government found guilty.  See the full court line up below... And a great new song capturing the plight of the Roma...

"Wherever I am I am home

wherever I stand I don't stand alone

when I look inside myself

I'm aware of who I be

I belong to the world

the land of the free

we try to fit in society

but we don't want to play 

with their fraternity

I'm on a different radio frequency

and far more deeper than A-Z

my story is a mystery

and the guys who don't know me

Me som Romano shavo (I'm a Romani lad)

hai chi som korkorro (and I'm not alone)

hai me birav sim khere (I have a right to be at home)

av putiera pe tele[?]  

Hai dikh murro traiio (just look at my life)

We have travelled the world 

on the darkest night

looking for a friend

in the candlelight

we do our best to understand

and learn the language of the land

we try not to judge

the lion's in the sand

pointed fingers in my face

so I'm moving on to a different stage

I'm rejected by society 

'cos I'm living my life and I am free

Sostar si Romani bax ka savi [?] (why is Roma luck as it is?)

murri historia si parni (my story is white)

Me som Romano shavo 

hai chi som korkorro

hai me birav sim khere

av putiera pe tele[?]

Hai dikh murro traiio

Somebody help my wife and my baby

it's cold we have no place to stay

the drummers are drumming 

the footsteps are coming closer

and we're running away..."

http://sverigesradio.se/sida/avsnitt/218015?programid=2122&play=4615200&playtype=sändning

This link takes you to a RadioRomano Broadcast. Scroll to last 4 minutes to hear this great new song capturing the plight of the Roma people.  Above are the English-Romani words... If you can help with words email me:

email me

"IT COULD BE YOU!"

Without literacy and English language it's hard to imagine the Roma getting work in the UK.  Schools tell us the Roma children are often keen to learn, but remain years behind their peers in literacy levels. Teachers beg us to help in any way we can.

Luton Roma Church is seeking Volunteers!  Following three training sessions given by the ESOL experts and Luton Adult Learning, our Volunteers will be allocated to individual Roma family homes by our Volunteer Coordinator who has just been appointed.  email Martin

Through trial and error one of our team found that the best way to do the teaching is to make friends with a Roma family and they turn up every week at the same time and teach whoever is there in a fun, creative and engaging way.   Of course, levels vary hugely, but we heard so often from the Roma that they wanted help with this, that we had to act.  It's been especially the Roma mothers who persistently ask to be taught to speak English.

We need to discover ways to excite the Roma about all things English so that they begin to want to integrate more widely.  I listen to RadioRomano, broadcast by Swedish Radio live from Stockholm every day.  An inspirational way to help an minority ethnic group to integrate in their host country.  We need this in the UK!  BBC come to our aid! RadioRomano

Europe on Trial Event coming up!

Don't miss this if you are anywhere near Luton on Saturday 29 June!

A real live, mock trial!   In the dock: Europe!  Why? For the way Europe has treated its Roma.   Professional Legal Team leading the trial.  Live Roma witnesses.   Professor Acton also giving evidence.    Come to Beechhill Methodist Church Luton LU4 8BY.  Starts 11am. Finishes 1pm.   Unique opportunity to hear the evidence presented in a compelling way.  

Blessings & Trials

 Thanks to a grant from our Diocese we now have great new sound kit incorporating the original Roma sounds from E.Europe in a Korg keyboard.

The Roma pastors, evangelists and musicians continue to stream our way for Wednesday worship.

"I have learnt the secret of contentment in all circumstances!"  The joy overflows in inverse proportion to the degree of poverty.

Eleven of our Roma guys and a family came with me to Turvey Abbey for two days of bible teaching from Pastor Alex.  Two utterly different worlds meeting and trying to understand each other:  RC monks and Roma Pentecostals.  Vive la difference!

Bobby and Ana marrying at Christchurch as a fifth refusal for a National Insurance Number drops on the mat and their Luton born triplets approach their first birthday.   

"All I am I give to you and all I have I share with you!" "So me som, me dau le tuke, hai so si ma, me ashau tusa!"

We gear up for a night of prayer... see below.

Pass the word on! 

Aven Romale Aven! 

KHANGERI ROMANI LUTON

INVITATIE

NOAPTE DE VEGHE 

Christchurch, Bushmead, Luton LU2 7SF

29 Martie 

Parashtune / Vineri Seara

20.00  (-  4.00)

Birth pangs of new creation...

Luton Roma Church is on the cusp.   Since Alex and his team began coming to lead our weekly service  back in November 2012, we began to grow as a church.  Every week new Roma pastors come along with Alex, each bringing testimonies, teaching, and new songs.  Last week we had both Romanian and Romani being spoken.  They have all given up their former lives to preach and sing the Gospel wherever the wind of the Spirit takes them.  All they ask from us is the fuel for the journeys from Coventry, Nottingham and London, and some better sound equipment.  Not much, considering they give up a whole day for us, to say nothing of their charismatic gifts of communication.

It's feels like a baby is about to be born.  Mother is wailing.  Baby is longing to breath for himself.   Our little team is doing all we can to bring this about with God's help.  Much depends on us being able to fund Alex's team to do their stuff on an ongoing basis.  The vision is grand.  Watch this space.

Meanwhile, we are about to receive our first instalment from the Church of England's "CHURCH AND COMMUNITY FUND."  For the next three years funds are coming our way to realise the vision we had just before Alex and his brother's appeared on the scene.  Now we can fund our two minibuses which ferry the families in, and much else.

There is much work to be done before the Roma will be ready to lead and run their own church, but it is now just possible to glimpse that future.  Essential to that vision, is that the next generation of Roma children acquire the literacy and language skills they will need to be employable in the UK.  From January 2014 the law will change to make this possible for them. But do they have a will to integrate and break the only pattern they know?  The argument that the Roma need to put back something into the system is a powerful one, indeed a biblical one.  The call to be a blessing to all nations passes from one ethnic group to the next.  None of us live in isolation.  What the Roma uniquely embody is a transnational, international, nomadic people who make no demands to have a homeland - just the hope that every land might be a potential homeland for all.  This is surely the future that the book of Revelation holds open before us.  Do we have the imagination to see what God is doing through the Roma people?  

DVD launch for Christmas

See top right and click "The Story of Jesus" on YouTube.   You can listen in either English or Romani language.   It's taken a year to put these stories together as week by week I prepared a talk for our Wednesday evening meeting.  I chose Gospel events which address issues that I see the Roma here facing.  Using Mudrow and Maximov translations and then consulting the Roma themselves, we put together scripts in a dialect of Romani that most of the Roma here speak [Hunedoara region].  All twenty families will receive a DVD this Christmas.  Since they all have DVDs playing 24/7 this seemed a good medium to use to get over the Good News of Jesus.  

Life, death & growth...

 This panaramic shot gives you a glimpse of the way we are managing growth at our Wednesday meetings.   The pre-school children on the right in the cafe area - the adults on the left in the sanctuary - and meanwhile the school aged children a short distance away in another church.  Since the Roma pastors from Coventry, Nottingham and London began coming a month ago, we've grown from 40-100.  See on the left all the Roma guys who are now coming.  Two minibuses has made it possible to ferry in most of the women and children, whilst nearly all the men arrive in their cars in their own time.  The service rolls for two hours and is touching the Roma deeply.  The word is spreading and our little gadjo team does it's best to meet the growing needs.

 I can count at least 12 births in 2012.  Here you see the growth of the church paralled by the growing triplets.  A three-seater buggy came all the way from Scotland for Maria, Zara and Luca.

We've set up a monthly legal advice clinic which is now helping three families hack through the ever more baffling benefits system of the UK.

A PHD student in Roma studies will be with us all 2013.  Luton provides a clearly defined microcosm of a migrant Roma community seeking to establish itself in an EU country.  We trust the research will help be fed back into the system and help us all understand how best to respond to the issues the Roma face.

With growth comes also tragedy. One mother lost two babies.  Both died on 19 September.  One in 2010.  One in 2012.  Both of the same congenital condition.  Aged 6 months and 7 months.  Mother lost all her benefits.  The only compassion visible was in the faces of the medical team who had fought and lost both battles.

"Lord, you have made us all in your image.  We all bear your divine imprint.  You are beyond time, space, ethnicity, culture and politics.  Yet in your Son, Jesus, you penetrate our darkness, break down all the silly walls that separate us, and weep over our tribalisms and lack of vision.  For in you there is neither Roma nor Gadjo, male nor female.  Pour out you grace on us, that we might glimpse the wonder of your Kingdom breaking into the very places that seem beyond hope. Come Lord Jesus, come!"

Quantum Leap

At last my blog is letting me make a post after a month frozen over!   Last night our little Roma Church made a quantum leap forward.   A group of Roma pastor's who I had met in Luton the day before came and led our service.  They seem keen to move to Luton and settle amongst us.  If this happens it will be one huge leap forward for Luton Roma Church. As usual these days, the school aged children are taken to another local church, as the adults worship with the little children and babies.  Last night, overall we had about 100 on board.  It took 3 round trips in the minibus to ferry people in.  So we have an urgent need to find a way of funding a second minibus.

In the service many were brought to tears as testimony after testimony was given to the accompaniment of real Roma worship led by two accordions, and keyboard with a dulcimer-sounding stop, and voice.  Most of the service was in Romanian with the pastor leaning over to me to translate into Romani!   It looks like I may have now to get to grips with Romanian as well.  They hold the Romanian Bible in very high regard and I have yet to meet a Roma pastor who seems interested in creating a Romani Bible.  It seems odd to me to worship in Romanian when the only language spoken amongst all our Roma is Romani.  They say this is in part because of the great variety of Romani dialects, Romanian thus becoming a kind of lingua franca.  My point however is that in 10 years time all their children living here in England will only know Romani and English. We'll see!

Today, one Roma guy told me he had a dream last night.  He had seen himself in a small room with me and some other people.  Today that meeting actually took place in the Luton Red Cross.  We were amazed.  Another Roma lady told me she had got up in the morning today and found herself singing for the first time in her life.  Her children confirmed this to me!  

No English? No Bank Account!

Trying to open a bank account for a Romanian citizen in the UK is like trying to land a man on Mars.   You'd think that establishing identity and address would be straightforward enough.  But bank staff are clearly trained to grab any possible reason for not accepting an A2 national.  Once they discover your from Romania, the face glazes over and the phoned is reached for.  "These are regulations we are subject to, I'm sorry.  I am being told we do need further evidence from you..."  Sometimes getting that further evidence is almost impossible.

We went along to my own bank too.  "I've been banking with you for over 20 years and have had excellent service!  My friend here would like to open an account with you too!"  I got a nice smile.  And effectively another shut door.  Another bank said bluntly: "If he doesn't speak English we won't accept him." I asked: "What, even if a translator is present?"  "No! We need proof he has understood!"

As a last ditch attempt we entered one the really big banks.  Almost just to see what excuse they would come up with to bar my friend.  We were warmly welcomed. All the papers were shown.  "That's all just fine! What kind of account would you like."  Speechless, jaws on the floor, we muttered "Oh.  Just a normal account will do fine, thanks."  As the interview progressed it became clear that the young bank lady had warmed to us for some reason.  She asked a few personal questions and soon we were showing each other photos of babies and wives.  She said she'd just come home from her honeymoon with her handsome partner from overseas.  That was it!  She'd understood at a heart level what it means to try to settle in a strange land.  The Roma sense instantly if a person is on their side.

Early the same day I had a big God moment.  The word "JUSTICE" came up on the screen as I was singing hymns in my gadjo church.   This is what the whole church thing is for: to fire us up to work for JUSTICE in the world.  It took me a few minutes to recover.  I needed that moment to make sense of all the brick walls those of us face, who try to help the Roma find a life in the UK.