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a healthy church...transformingLIFE

Tasmanian Anglican

September 2004

 

Editor's angle

by Sheelagh Wegman

 

 

'History feels safer when we put it in a museum.'

This remark was made by Dan Wolf in the June 2004 edition of National Geographic magazine and refers to a Holocaust memorial project in Hamburg, Germany.

In this project small brass plaques etched with the names of those who perished in the Holocaust, are embedded in the pavement outside the houses where these people once lived. Artist Gunter Demnig calls these plaques 'stolpersteine', 'stumbling or tripping stones': they trip the memories of passers-by to recall some of the individuals who lived there, not just the anonymous six million who were taken, and to remember that the horrors happened in the streets and marketplaces to real, flesh-and-blood people from the very old to the very young.

Naturally, some residents are affronted by this re-engagement with the past. They feel it should be remembered in a 'proper' museum where one can choose to visit, or not. It is distasteful to be reminded every day while going about one's business and property values will surely decrease.

Is it much different with Christ's history?

Our history too, might feel 'safer' if we keep it locked in our 'museums' - inside our churches, our books, safely enclosed by thick walls, committees, language and secret passwords. We can visit when we choose and thus the enormity of it can be managed more comfortably. The danger can be attenuated.

But what's the benefit of that?

Museums need visitors, they need to tell the story, but to have any influence, history needs to be 'out there' in the marketplace and on the street. To be real it must challenge us, engage with us.

There's a couple of ways to remember history - be disinterested, anonymous, disengaged and store it in a museum.

…or set it free in the wild.

Albert Stacey, too, created 'tripstones' when he wrote the word 'Eternity' many times on the streets of Sydney. What if we were to be human 'tripstones' in the paths that people tread each day? When people 'trip against' us, could our lives draw attention to a living history?