How do you redeem ground that’s been tainted by an evil history? Cathleen Falsani writes about a church in Zanzibar that was constructed on the site of an old slave market. The result is an amazing symbolic statement, made not with costly monuments and elaborate architecture, but with the church’s physical location:
The Anglicans purposely built Christ Church atop the former slave market as a statement of redemption and resurrection, as a kind of re-consecration.Christ Church’s altar, decorated with a triptych of mosaics depicting scenes from the life of Christ—including a central rendering of his crucifixion—sits precisely where the slave market’s whipping post once stood. Slaves were tied to it and lashed to demonstrate their strength for potential buyers.
Falsani filmed her exploration of the slave cells still preserved at the church. Can you imagine being faced with this piece of history each time you came to church to worship?
We normally think of “sacred ground” as a space where something holy or wondrous happened. But Falsani, reflecting on her tour of the church, wonders if sacred ground can be paradoxically created by suffering and evil as well. If you’ve ever been to a site that witnessed great evil or suffering (see this account of a modern-day visit to Weis Church and Dachau), there’s no denying a certain sense of “sacred space” as you are forced to ponder the things that transpired there.
Have you ever experienced this? Anybody care to share other examples of “sacred space” created by, or redeemed from, historical evil?
Loading ...
December 5, 2007 at 17:42
Every time I sit at the front of a bus is sacred ground for me. I know that people like Rosa Parks and The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. fought long and hard to give people of color that privilege.
December 6, 2007 at 10:16
It’s amazing to see that clip. I think it’s a symbol of God’s love and grace that a church would be built on such a site, after all God made the ground it sits on and he made the people that went through the place both slaves and free. It’s amazing how God can move society forward.
December 6, 2007 at 13:12
That is exactly what redemption looks like. Thanks for sharing a powerful story. I wonder what a modern American application for this principle would be? Hmmm.
December 6, 2007 at 22:47
I often wear a cross around my neck. What more horrific symbol of evil could there be? And yet, to those of us who know the great good that came of that evil, it is a symbol of beauty beyond any other. It seems entirely natural to me that the site of great evil would be holy ground. God’s tears are there. (And so should ours be.)
December 7, 2007 at 01:55
The baptismal font at the church at Belmont Abbey College in North Carolina is hewn from a piece of granite from a former slave auction site. The sign on the font says, “Upon this rock, men once were sold into slavery. Now upon this rock, through the waters of Baptism, men become free children of God.”