Heritage Column for June 23, 2005
By Fred Anderson
CHIAVARI, Italy – Three weeks among the Italian Baptists and we have acquired many new kissing cousins. We have never seen so much hugging and kissing except at an annual meeting of the Virginia WMU. The typical Italian greeting in the day is a kiss on both cheeks and a cheery “Buon Giorno.”
It all began when we were met at the Rome airport by Betania de Mato, an enthusiastic assistant in the office of the Italian Baptist Union, who helps Virginia Baptists with travel plans in connection with the missions partnership. On our first of many wild taxi rides, Betania, an evangelist, must have been witnessing to the woman driver. When we emerged from the taxi, she said to us, “This woman needs Jesus!”
We were kissed and warmly greeted at the Baptist Union headquarters by Anna Maffei and her husband, Massimo Aprile. We had met when they visited Virginia to launch the partnership. Anna is president of the Union-the first woman in Italy to lead a religious denomination and one of only three women in all of Europe to have such leadership. A painting behind her desk shows a woman holding flax in one hand while reading a Bible. It could depict Anna as she balances a busy life as a wife, mother and career person. She travels all across Italy and beyond, maintains an apartment in Rome and commutes to her own home in Naples.
“It is a challenge,” reflects Anna, “but the people are nice towards me. They encourage me. I go every Saturday and Sunday to a different place and preach and the people are very encouraging.”
Massimo is a compassionate husband who continues to serve as pastor of the church in Naples where he and Anna had been co-pastors. It is the same church where they met, were converted and baptized, married and became pastors together. With 135 members and some 200 in participation, it is among Italy's larger Baptist congregations.
There are some 100 churches in the Union with about 20 of them composed of various ethnic groups. “Ethnic churches grow very rapidly,” says Anna, explaining that “the church is a place where the people feel together from a particular background and it becomes a meeting point where evangelizing and organizing of community can come easily.” She adds: “We really believe in a communion with diversity. We have to plan for the second generation [of ethnic groups] to be Italian. This is a country where conflict can become dangerous if we are not careful and we must prepare ourselves for communities of faith that are totally integrated. We are a minority church ourselves and want to be a place for communion for all.”
The church bells from a Catholic church across the piazza ring out and Anna observes, “They ring when they want.” The bells calling the faithful to mass can be heard throughout the day across Italy and they are a constant reminder of the omnipresence of the Catholic Church. It remains a powerful social and political force. Newspapers constantly report on the views and activities of the Pope; and during our stay there was a public vote on a referendum regarding invitro fertilization. The Catholic Church was against it and the word was given for the electorate to stay home, thereby defeating the measure. It was defeated. By the church's own statistics, practicing Catholics comprise only 17 percent of the population, yet there is a air of dominance by the church.
Raffaele Volpe is pastor of the Florence church. In a city dotted with ornate Catholic churches loaded with priceless art, the Baptist church, located just a block from the River Arno, is typical of evangelical churches in its simplicity. The building has some character because it formerly was a theatre in the 1700s and the preaching platform is decorated with huge columns. The congregation shared a community meal with their Virginia visitors and asked many questions about Virginia Baptists and their churches. Four of their young people will be among a delegation of Italian youth coming this summer to work in a Virginia Baptist camp. Like families everywhere, the parents were both excited and apprehensive about sending their youth.
Raffaele's wife is Ruth Ann Crabb, the daughter of retired Southern Baptist missionaries Stanley and Patricia Crabb of Kentucky. Ann is a professional opera singer. The couple has a very smart young son, Philip. We climbed several times to their fourth-floor apartment. Like the other churches, the Florence church includes ethnics. There are four services each Sunday beginning at 8 a.m. and continuing until 9 p.m. for Romanians, South American Hispanics, Italians and Filipinos.
We found more kissing cousins in Chiavari, a charming city on the Mediterranean. Franco Scaramuccia is the pastor; and as he walks his visitors along the portico-covered sidewalks of his town, he scarcely can walk 10 steps before he recognizes someone and gives kisses and greetings. On Sunday, the Chiavari church played host to another Baptist church whose pastor, Elizabeth Green, a published theologian, was the guest preacher. The text was from 2 Corinthians 5:17-21 and, therefore, my English brain believed the message was on the ministry of reconciliation. Again, the congregation was mixed with numerous nationalities. In this safe place, they all were kissing cousins.
Fred Anderson is executive director of the Virginia Baptist Historical Society and the Center for Baptist Heritage and Studies.