Nagaland visitors
We had four people from Nagaland (NE India) to lunch on Sunday. Two of the women had visited Glasgow in 1988 for the Baptist World Youth Conference, and had stayed with one of our friends, Marjorie (who celebrated her 89th birthday last Thursday).
They have kept in touch ever since, and this year they, along with their brother Nungsang and another friend, are visiting the Baptist World Alliance conference in Birmingham. So they spent a few days in Glasgow with Marjorie, and we hosted them for lunch, along with other people from housegroup.
Nagaland is in the far NE of India, with China to the north, Burma to the southeast, Bangladesh to the southwest, and Assam to the northwest. It is a small state with only 1.2 million people, who are predominantly Baptist! Nungsang is a Baptist pastor, working as part of the Naga community in Calcutta/Kolkata, and the three women work for the Nagaland government and are active participants in their local church life.
The Nagas were very strongly evangelical, which I must admit I found uncomfortable (I did a recent online quiz to find that I was an “Emerging, post-modern” Christian), but it was good to be exposed to a different culture, there was certainly something to learn about enthusiasm and strong faith.
So, very rewarding to discover more about somewhere so different. Without Marjorie’s friends I certainly would never have heard of Nagaland.
Just did the quiz and came out the same at 79%, with fundamentalist way down at the bottom (hurrah!). I can identify with the description of “emerging/post-modern” but would like to see what the other descriptions are. (Fundamentalist: generally hates people…best not go on really).
This was mine - sounds fairly accurate:
You are Emergent/Postmodern. You are Emergent/Postmodern in your theology. You feel alienated from older forms of church, you don’t think they connect to modern culture very well. No one knows the whole truth about God, and we have much to learn from each other, and so learning takes place in dialogue. Evangelism should take place in relationships rather than through crusades and altar-calls. People are interested in spirituality and want to ask questions, so the church should help them to do this.
Emergent/Postmodern 100%
Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan 71%
Neo orthodox 68%
Charismatic/Pentecostal 54%
Modern Liberal 50%
Roman Catholic 43%
Classical Liberal 32%
Reformed Evangelical 21%
Fundamentalist 18%
Caitlin and Riona want to know why Granny is in the picture.
That’s our friend Frances from housegroup.
WOW talk about random! im a naga studying in U.S right now, and Nungsang is better know to me as Uncle Nungsang and my dad taught him at Seminary when he was in Pune. I just wanted to say it was great to read about Nagaland and see his face!