A different portrait of the Romanian emigrant in Europe - St Veronica's Parish in Coventry, Great Britain
by Dr. Arina Cirstea
I find it hard to believe that a year has passed since I celebrated with the parish priest Cornel Grecu and other Romanians from the city of Coventry (Great Britain) the establishment of a new Orthodox parish. I must confess that I was one of those who did not believe, but saw, at least insofar as I could not imagine that the parish would experience such a pronounced devotion in such a short time. For me, this development is also a symbol for the broader phenomenon that defines our situation of Romanians living outside the country, marking the transition from individual experience of expatriation to collective, through communities that can become islands of living and promoting Romanian identity.
If you came to visit us on a Sunday, you would witness an amazing contrast between the streets typically Victorian, with almost identical rows of houses, dominated by the severe, Gothic-inspired architecture of the Anglican church of St Anne and All Saints and the ambiance inside the modest hall in which we operate. Once you open the door, you will enter a completely different world, where the Romanian language sounds unhindered, Orthodox icons greet you on the iconostasis, and from the tables prepared for remembrance you are invited to traditional dishes. Looking closer you will see a diverse community, including students, young professionals, families with different generations of adults and children. It would be hard for you to believe that only two years ago, at the beginning, only five or six people joined Father Cornel Grecu or Father Mihai Novacovschi, from the parent parish of Birmingham, to the officiating of the Holy Mass. Now, the location rented for religious services has become too small, the courtyard resounds with the cries of children, and the choir, at first frail, composed spontaneously of the faithful present, has come to be composed frequently of professionals, with talent and inclination for music. church.
If it happened that the Sunday you chose was a big holiday, for example on the feast of the Resurrection or the Nativity, you would see that the small Romanian island overflows and includes the neighboring streets. If you came by car, you would probably notice that a conversation in Romanian is heard from the car parked behind you, often combining a variety of accents that suggest that the participants in the conversation keep not only their national specificity, but also that of the area or locality from which they come. It would even be possible to recognize Romanian registration numbers, reflecting, through their origin, the same regional diversity that is rarely found within the country's borders.
It is difficult to say, of course, what gives the specificity of a Romanian parish abroad, and whether our parish is a typical one or not. Following the planned visit, it would certainly be difficult for you to describe us in a single term; for now, we are a group of individuals and families with diverse situations, interests and needs. This diversity means that we still have to grow until we reach a community, get to know each other and support each other as a family; or, even more likely, this ideal of identifying individual interests with group interests will never be achieved, because the way we are involved in the life of a community is different for each of us. What is essential, I think, is that at least once a week, and at important events in our lives, each of us has the opportunity to participate in the service in Romanian, in other words to live, speak and, in the first place line, to pray in Romanian. In his speech at the celebration of the first patron saint since the founding of our parish, on the day of St. Mironosiţe Veronica (July 12), His Holiness Ignatie Mureşanu stressed that this participation must be supported and by deeds. The faith of each of we must be 'working through love,' as St. Apostle Paul writes, that is, externalized by acts of kindness, forgiveness, and support of neighbor, through our prayers for others.
Prayer for others in the community is all the more important for the youngest members of the parish. If we, adults born and raised in Romania, can always use personal experience in the effort to maintain our national and religious identity, our children have a special situation. They are at the intersection of languages, cultures and religions, an experience that can be a blessing but also a burden. For my little girl, for example, Romania is a chimera, the homeland of grandparents and holidays; it's hard for me to believe that he will feel 'at home' on Romanian territory in the same way I feel. When he grows up, he will be faced with an important choice; Although I strongly believe in the role of parents in educating and guiding children, I know that it will ultimately be her responsibility to opt for a 'hyphenated' identity as a Romanian and British citizen, or for only one of the two. Associated with this aspect is the particularly worrying fact that in In terms of religious identity, the British multicultural society offers a multitude of options to a young person, but predominantly of a secularized nature. From this point of view, the possibility for her to know God in the way I know him, to practice the Orthodox faith in the Romanian language, seems to me the essential benefit that the existence of this small parish in the heart of England offers us. Even by a simple calculation, the message of faith transmitted by the church, through its services, through the prayers of its representatives and the community around it, is more varied and implicitly stronger than that transmitted by a single individual, which makes the task to make my parent a little easier.
It was a joy to have my little girl with me this year to celebrate our parish. For a child, such events can be unforgettable memories. I will not try to convince you that everything went perfectly; Those of you who have gone through this experience know that supervising a child in church is at least a complex task that requires tact and patience. In this context, I was struck by the speech of one of the guests - Michael Hammon, Mayor of Coventry - who suggested that the event has a spirit that can no longer be found in the services of the Anglican Church, and the Western Church in general. At first the remark seemed ironic to me; certainly, I said to myself, our children are noisier, and occasionally quarrel among themselves; the faithful bustle between the pangar and the altar, instead of sitting motionless on the benches, and the acoustics of the hall leave much to be desired. But, later reflecting on my own experience, I came to believe that spirit consists in the impression of active participation, in which the community, with all its members, revolves around the church, and the religious service loses its character of spectacle and becomes an integral part of life. believers.
It is precisely that spirit that seems essential to the life of our parish. Unlike older communities, with well-established habits, a young community like this has the advantage that most believers are also founding members, who - like me - have been forced to take on responsibilities for which they would not have been required in other places. circumstances. It is an opportunity for us, and especially for the youngest, to gain perspective 'from inside' on the significance and conduct of religious services that might bring us closer to the faith we feared we might have lost touch with when we left the country.
You have probably noticed that we have avoided the word 'emigrant', or 'immigrant' in connection with us; the reason is that far too often in the contemporary media the Romanian emigrant of the post-December decades has been described as an individual deprived of any material or cultural capital, who abandoned his 'poverty and needs and nation' in a desperate attempt to ensure his livelihood. in other lands. I do not think that this description fully characterizes us. The development of our parish, and many similar examples of on the territory of Western Europe, it is the proof that the expatriate Romanians have at least a cultural and spiritual capital that they want to maintain and pass on to the next generations. Moreover, some of us are in the UK for a limited time in order to study or raise our grandchildren; others were attracted by the opportunity to achieve professionally; only a limited number left Romania because they lived on the brink of subsistence. Some are already British citizens, well integrated into local structures; others live with the thought of returning to the country, in the near or distant future. What we have in common is that by participating in the life of this community - limited, imperfect as it is at the moment - we can enrich both the spiritual being and the ability to represent the Romanian identity in contemporary Europe.