Basque bon vivant became preacher in French church

The pastor, who was educated at the Protestant Theological Faculty in Aix-en-Provence, sings more than just "To depart is to die a little", because the full text reads: "It is said that to depart is to die a little but to go with the intention of seeking God, that is to find Him!

To seek God and to deepen his knowledge of Church history - Church Father Basil the Great is his favourite - Rev. Bordes returned after he retired to his parental home in Arancou (Bayonne), where he was born on August 25th, 1957.

Beret

Arancou is located in the French Basque country. Bernard Bordes is ethnically a Basque. Outside, like all Basque men, he wears the characteristic black Basque beret. The Basques are neither Spanish nor French; they form a separate people and speak a completely individual language that has no affinity with any European language.

Everyone knows the striking bachelor preacher as the "pastor with the Basque beret".

What religious background do you come from?

Bordes: "My parents, like all Basques, were practising strict Roman Catholics. We walked four kilometres to mass every Sunday. On Christmas night, at the end of the midnight mass, we were given the statue of the infant Jesus. That I became a Protestant and a minister is a miracle. Once, as a ten-year-old boy, I lost my mother in a neighbouring Protestant village. In a panic, I sought refuge in the temple (Protestant church, GVD) and was immediately calmed down. Why? Inexplicable! Isn't it wonderful?"

Was there a Bible at home?

"We only had liturgical books with some loose fragments from the Gospels. I attended a secondary school where all the teachers were priests, and teaching was along the lines of Rome. I became an unbeliever. In my opinion, God existed only in the human imagination."

Apparently, there was a change later.

"Yes. At seventeen, I left for Paris, where I got a well-paid bartender position in the Grand Café near the Place "Saint-Michel". As a bon vivant, I led a life of debauchery. Yet I felt I needed to be certain about whether God exists or not. I decided to pray a novena, praying to God for nine days to get an answer to this question. For nine days, I stood in a niche of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris before the statue of the Virgin Mary. I prayed: "If there is a God, let Him reveal Himself to me within a month. If not, I will banish the thought of God from my life forever."

Afterwards, I walked along the Seine in the dark with a head full of contradictory thoughts and prayed: "O God, show that You really exist!" And a sign came, for back in my little room, it was as if God bowed over me. A great peace came into my heart.

Jean Calvin

A convinced Christian, Bordes first attended Spanish-language mass in the well-known church of Saint-Germain des Prés, then went to services of a reformed-evangelical congregation in Paris and discovered the Protestant faith. After studying theology at the Institute Biblique in Nogent-sur-Marne, he trained as a pastor at the Faculté Jean Calvin in Aix-en-Provence.

After his vicariate in Ganges, Bordes was a pastor for eleven years in Alès, not far from Anduze. After that, he was in Le Mas d'Azil for twenty years.

Le Mas d'Azil is located in the ancient kingdom of Navarra, an area known for its centuries-old Protestant tradition. The city is also a stopping place on the pilgrim route to Santiago de Compostela.

Revival

The danger is that the Protestant faith becomes a matter of empty tradition, says the Basque minister. "It is with pain and sadness that I have to conclude that twenty years of preaching in Le Mas d'Azil has not brought the spiritual revival I expected. Although this can still come. The Lord often gives a revival after the preacher has left."

The Protestant Unepref (Union des églises Protestantes Évangéliques de France), to which the congregation in Le Mas d'Azil belongs, is a small church federation. In 2020 it had 54 small congregations with almost 4,500 members. The number of congregants varies locally from around six to eighty.

This article was translated by CNE.news and previously published in Dutch daily Reformatorisch Dagblad on July 20th, 2022.