“Our nation is at war with a treacherous enemy”
(E.B Koroma, President of Sierra Leone, 17/12/2014)
With the exception of church services, the entire population of Sierra Leone was ordered to stay at home during the Christmas and New Year holidays. We are currently in a state of partial blockade for the festive period. No restaurants, no sporting events, no outdoor celebrations, no wedding receptions, no public celebrations. All stores must close at 6 p.m. on weekdays and 12 noon on Saturdays, and do not open at all on Sundays. Even church services were restricted – they had to be held during the day and only until 5 pm. Services on New Year’s Day were forbidden. Indeed, the army, together with volunteer patrols, was on the streets to ensure that these orders were enforced. Violators will face the penalties of the law. And to this list of bans, add attending classes in schools, colleges and universities.
Why? Are we experiencing some kind of anti-Christian campaign instigated by the state? No! Then why all these draconian measures during the Holy Days – or rather indefinitely and until further notice? The simple yet tragic answer is that this nation is at war again. Like ten other times over the last twenty years, this nation is at war again during Christmas, New Year’s Day, Epiphany. But this time there are no AK47s and bullets killing innocent people. This time there are no guerrilla groups invading towns and villages and indiscriminately amputating arms and legs. This time the enemy asks no questions, takes no prisoners and makes no exceptions to his killing spree – infants, toddlers, teenagers, adults and the elderly all live under the shadow of impending death.
- This time there is no mercy.
- This time the enemy is silent, invisible and more deadly.
- This time there can be no truce or treaties. You win or you lose.
- This time the enemy is not the United Revolutionary Front that mutilates people!
- This time the enemy is an incurable tiny virus that causes a terrible and deadly haemorrhagic fever!
- This time, the ambulance sirens are constantly screeching, spreading gruesome fears!
- This time the enemy is called Ebola!
For this reason, the Government has ordered all Christmas and New Year celebrations to be cancelled to avoid crowds of people gathering indoors and thus reduce the risk of physical contact – the main source of Ebola infection. When I first heard this new decree, my initial instinctive reaction was negative. But then I reconsidered the situation from a purely spiritual perspective. What is the real meaning of the Christmas, New Year and Epiphany celebrations? Is it to dance drunkenly in the streets? Is it the wild parties? Is it alcohol and other forms of drunkenness? Is it getting drunk all night? Or as is the custom here in Sierra Leone, is it the all-day and all-night parades in the streets by the indigenous people who call themselves “Devil Dancers”? Perhaps these harsh measures are an unintended blessing in disguise.
By banning all unnecessary commercial and unspiritual fiddling from Christmas, New Year and Epiphany, Sierra Leone now has the opportunity – albeit reluctantly – to focus more on family gatherings than on raucous outdoor parties. He has the opportunity to reflect more on the real meaning of the Bethlehem event, the arrival of the New Year or Epiphany in a spiritual way and not in the indigenous “devil dance” parades. So, in light of the current Ebola epidemic, there is hope to think more deeply on the issues related to personal physical hygiene and spiritual health. Indeed, alongside these measures, the President of Sierra Leone has recommended a week of national prayer and fasting after the New Year as a post-physical campaign against Ebola.
I realise that many of you outside West Africa who are reading this message are also facing many difficulties. We all live in a world of apocalyptically growing political, economic, environmental and medical uncertainty – incurable deadly epidemics and plagues, wars and savage violence, young children being recruited and turned into killing machines, mass refugee displacements, devastating wildfires and even-even the spectre of nuclear war looming ominously on the horizon in a New Cold War setting. All these upheavals threaten the delicate and fragile shell of our global civilization. And as if we were not content with our relentless lust for power and money, we are irresponsibly polluting our waters and degrading our natural environment, endangering even the very oxygen we breathe. And the final nail in our negativity? Traditional moral values and hagiographic truths are considered outdated in a world obsessed with perverting and proclaiming injustice as justice.
But all is not lost!
We Christians are now more necessary than ever to proclaim and hold fast to the eternal and unchanging truths of the Bible.
- Let us try to live this New Year in holiness and obedience to Christ!
- Let’s be peacemakers.
- And let’s help the unfortunate!
- In other words, let us bring back the authentic meaning of these Holy Days in our lives.
You, who have helped and continue to help our Orthodox Mission in Sierra Leone, the Brotherhood of Orthodox Foreign Mission, our sponsors and individual donors from Greece, Australia, Canada, Canada, Romania, Russia and the United States, please accept on behalf of all our people here a warm expression of gratitude. Many people have lost their jobs due to the Ebola epidemic and now need food. We distribute the valuable food you sent us (rice, oil, sugar, tomato juice, etc.) as best we can to cover these needs, as well as the protective gloves and masks you donated.
Thank you!
May the blessings of our Christ be with you.
Archimandrite Themistocles Adamopoulos
Freetown, Sierra Leone
