ANGELA YOUNGMAN speaks with Steven Horne about his exploration of Gypsy, Romany and Traveller theology…
Writing a dissertation on Gypsy, Romany and Traveller culture and what it meant to the church proved to be eye-opening for both author Steven Horne and his tutors.
Steven Horne.
Born of a Romany father and Gorger (non-Romany) mother, Horne had grown up in the intersection between two cultures. While training as an religious education teacher, he decided to decided to focus on a subject that interested him.
“The dissertation resulted in 10,000 words of questions and few answers,” Dr Horne tells Sight. “My tutors gave me a first and said they would like to put me forward for a PhD scholarship to research Gypsy, Romany and Traveller [GRT] theology. I felt I was being inspired by God to continue looking at it.”
It turned out to be a unique subject. Traditionally, GRT communities have focused on an oral culture, and any writing on faith has been short in length and independently produced. GRT families have traditionally sought out Roman Catholic or Church of England churches, but during the 20th century many began forming their own evangelical Pentecostal churches.
Horne, whose research took him across the continent visiting traveller communities, became the first Romany person in the UK to gain a theology PhD. He has recently published a book on his research, Gypsies and Jesus: A Traveller Theology, which provides a revelatory insight into contemporary GRT religiosity and spirituality, demonstrating how a “Traveller theology” can work as a way of practice and thought for everyone, regardless of race and ethnicity.
“I looked at the way Gypsy Christians prioritise Christianity and how it is part of their life. GRT see themselves as different to settled people, by politics, by purity. The concept of purity is pivotal.”
Purity is seen as being more than just avoiding sex before marriage, it is an integral part of GRT culture with homes being kept spotless, men and women sitting separately at events, and different crockery used for gypsies and non-gypsies alike. There is a strong emphasis on heritage, with family names linked to ancestors.
“Purity is important. It is not just talking about separation between travellers and non-travellers, but purity of self. Distance is needed – Christianity is a like a journey, emphasising purity and keeping free from sin.”
Another key element in GRT theology is that of the ‘edgelands’.
“The ‘edgelands’ is where ‘others’ reside, and where separation is maintained,” Horne explains. “Ever since their emergence into Europe, GRT people have been kept physically, socially, politically and educationally to the margins of our wider society.”
“Jesus spent most of His ministry in the ‘edgelands’ spending time ministering to those whom society deemed unfit and unworthy. He also created His own edgelands, spending time alone in prayer and even dying on the edgelands on the Cross. I want people to see how they are both called to pay attention to and walk alongside the marginalised and ostracised, and how they maintain the sanctity of boundaries within their own edgelands of prayer, virtue and walk of faith.”
Horne says that while “everyone goes through many transitions during a lifetime”, in Traveller theology the most important is the journey from God and back again.
“Traveller theology places nomadism and impermanence in central positions of faith,” says Horne. “Such thinking reflects the way in which all people get involved in a church, going from one big moment in life to the next, always moving, always changing.”
“Our journey through this life is just that – a journey. It cannot be halted, paused or reversed.” Horne writes in the book. “We are all sojourners in one way or another.”
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