I want to share a story with you all about heavy-handed behaviour exhibited by a security person at Tauranga airport towards a Russian Orthodox Christian lady who was praying out of the way of others. I expect that it will provoke a discussion about tolerance of those who are religious as well as the issues of freedom of speech and religion.
Only this month a Christian street preacher was prevented from preaching by the police so this ladies story is another canary in the mine warning of the growing threat to freedom of speech and in particular the freedom of religion of Christians here in New Zealand.
Most of Greece, Russia, Serbia, Romania and some other Eastern European countries are Eastern Orthodox. The lady in my story has lived in New Zealand for 19 years and she attends a Greek Orthodox church. There is no Orthodox church in Tauranga so she attends church services in Auckland, Wellington or at the Holy Monastery in Levin.
The prayer that she was harassed about is called Akathist, which means “unseated hymn” and is dedicated to a Saint, the Virgin Mary or God.
Nearly a million people across the world have agreed to pray together by the Akathists. Times are set and they adjust to their time-zone so that they are all praying together, at the same time.
This Prayer by agreement is the prayer of many people praying simultaneously in different parts of the earth.
The prayer, performed simultaneously and collectively, unites people separated in space, and is strengthened many times.The Lord himself said: “…if the two of you on earth agree to ask for any work, then whatever they ask will be from My Heavenly Father, for where two or three are gathered in My name, there I am in the midst them”. (Matt.18: 19-20).
Tauranga airport doesn’t have a prayer room but during this year and last year she has prayed in public in the same manner throughout Asia, Europe and even in Dubai, and she has never received a complaint or comment. This mirrors the experience of the Christian street preacher who has been doing what he has been doing for more than 19 years. Like her, it was only this year that his freedom of speech was censored.
On Monday morning (19th August 2019) I was at Tauranga airport, having just arrived on a flight. I’m an Orthodox Christian, who engages in (worldwide) shared prayer, twice a day, and it happened that it was time to pray.
I found a quiet place to stand out of the way so as not to disturb anyone, and had begun quietly saying my prayer (reading it from a piece of paper), when I was interrupted by a security person asking me what I was doing. I explained that I was praying, and he told me that I had to stop as it was disruptive and disturbed others. This, despite the fact that I was standing in a secluded corner with nobody close to me and was not saying a prayer above the level of a quiet conversation.
He asked me a few questions and told me that I should read my prayers in a taxi. I explained to him that I have to be standing while praying and that it was very cold to do my prayer outside.
Eventually, he asked how long I was going to be, to which I replied: “About twenty minutes”. He then said that he’d be back in thirty minutes and I’d better be gone.
Three times I said that I was very sorry if I had disturbed anyone. I communicated very respectfully and calmly but he still told me that I’d better be gone before he came back.
The area I was in was a public area, not a security area. There were people all around talking to each other, talking over the phone etc much louder than me. I question why he felt the need to harass me – it brings to mind the recent harassment of a Whangarei street preacher.
When I had finished, I asked a woman working at the nearby rental car counter if she had been disturbed by my prayer. She hadn’t, she said she couldn’t hear anything, but had wondered why the security person was bothering me. She was shocked by his attitude once the situation had been explained.
It seemed unnecessary and more about the fact that he didn’t like me praying, rather than me creating a disturbance. I have prayed in public in this manner throughout Asia, Europe and even in Dubai, and have never received a complaint or comment. It’s upsetting that the only negative experience has occurred in my own country. I also wonder whether the security person would have behaved in the same way to members of other religions…