Ioannina: the city

I’ve visited this north western regional centre (Greece’s fifth or sixth city I think) twice now, and we’re planning another trip (this time with the whole family) in May, via Patras on the way there and Meteora (the scene of some James Bond filming years ago) on the way back. I digress.

The reason for these visits, apart from a general desire to encourage students in living and speaking for Jesus, is a specific request from the pastor of the evangelical church there to support the six or so Christian students. For the previous several years there had only been one or two at the most, so this is a veritable flood. None are from the city – Cyprus, Patras, Crete and northern Greece are their homelands. This is significant as the normal pattern is to study in one’s home city. This has implications for church life, social life, priorities, timetables and so on.

The city itself has the feel of a gentle regional centre rather than a bustling capital, making it a pleasant change from Athens. There are hardly any tourists (although I’ve only been in the winter, so I’d better withhold judgement on that) despite it being a good place to wander around.






























It has a nice old quarter, loads of cafes, restaurants and bars and a medieval walled city with a couple of Ottoman mosques. It's built on the shores of a lake and is surrounded by imposing mountain ranges, which is good enough on its own, but behind some of these mountains lie some of the most spectacular and rugged moutain scenery in the country. (It seems to be true that the British are unusual in our desire to slug our way up these mountains for 'leisure', but I couldn't stop thinking about how long it would take to get to some of the snow-covered peaks I was gazing at...)

I took this photo of the plane I was about to board - at a very small airport - moments after a shiny black car whisked away the very frail-looking Archbishop of Greece. I didn't have the presence of mind or paparazzi instinct to snap him.

To drive from Athens takes 6 hours by car, 8 by bus, and there are three flights a day. It’s not the sort of place you pop to for a day, but once there it's good to stay longer and really get to know it.

Ioannina has a reputation (apparently) for being somewhat more refined than Athens or Patras, with a long history of learning and cultural achievement. The university is said to be one of the best in the country (which doesn't say much for the quality of the signposting elsewhere - see below). But, of course, it is desperately needy as far as the good news is concerned.

This signboard on campus shows, in the middle, the Centre for the Study of Greek Language and Culture. I wanted to find this to make enquiries about a hypothetical IFES worker based in Ioannina, to see if this would be a good option for language learning. I think it will be, but it took me AGES to find it. After this sign, there are no more...and it's another kilometre to the building, which no one else on campus seems to know about.

This photo is the view from just outside the student union, looking southeast towards Athens, a mere 460km by road beyond those peaks.



















There's one evangelical church, made up of roughly 10 mostly elderly believers, plus the students, not all of whom ‘attend’ regularly, and no families with school age children. I understand, from Pastor Leonidas, that there is also a pentecostal church, consisting mostly of immigrant African workers. This is in a city of ~100000 people. Can you imagine, first, living as a Christian there? And then, can you imagine how to set about the task of reaching that city – not to mention the hundreds of surrounding towns and villages?

That is Ioannina, in brief. I thought I’d blog about it as a small illustration of the progress of the gospel in Greece. Apparently, 30 years ago or more, the church there was full, with many families – between 80-100 people. Then, fairly rapidly, she dwindled to what we see today. Some people left the city, some abandoned the faith, many died and were not followed in the faith by their children. It’s tough in places like that, it really is.

I was struck by this verse in my reading this morning: ‘All over the world this gospel is bearing fruit and growing…’ (Colossians 1). It is, but in some places there is much more planting to be done before significant growth and fruit is seen. You know what is needed for this to happen? Nothing complex, nothing sophisticated, nothing impressive: just people to go there and get about the business of living and speaking for Jesus.