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Juicy Ecumenism – The Institute on Religion & Democracy's Blog

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Tag Archives: Jeff Walton

Hoping Against Hope for Equality in Egypt

15 Monday Jul 2013

Posted by Faith McDonnell in News

≈ Comments Off on Hoping Against Hope for Equality in Egypt

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Anis, Egypt, Faith McDonnell, Jeff Walton, Mohamed Morsi, Muslim Brotherhood

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By Faith J. H. McDonnell (@Cuchulain09)

“At last, Egypt is now free from the oppressive rule of the Muslim Brotherhood!” This exclamation came from the Most Rev. Dr. Mouneer Hanna Anis, the Bishop of the Episcopal/Anglican Diocese of Egypt with North Africa and the Horn of Africa. Bishop Anis, who is also the current President-Bishop of The Episcopal/Anglican Province of Jerusalem and the Middle East, expressed his joy, the joy of millions of Egyptians, upon the overthrow and arrest of Muslim Brotherhood President Mohamed Morsi in a statement from the Diocese on July 3, 2013 entitled Mabruk ya Misr (Congratulations, Egypt!).

Sharing his statement with the entire Anglican Communion (and probably hoping that Anglicans will then influence wrong-headed political leaders), Anis recounts how “The Armed Forces took the side of the millions of Egyptians who demonstrated in the streets since the 30th of June against President Mursi and the Muslim Brotherhood.” As so many others have said, Anis says that the Armed Forces “responded to the invitation of the people to intervene and force the President to step down at the request of the people of Egypt.” Anis and the 30 million Egyptians who marched against the Muslim Brotherhood see the result as a People’s Revolution, created by the people of Egypt – including some eight million Christians. Now, if only the Muslims who participated in the revolution against Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood would acknowledge the rights of the Christians and other religious minorities and include them in the new plans for a new Egyptian government.

Just days before, on June 27, Anis had sent out an urgent request for prayer, entitled “Egypt is on the edge of. . . ?” He said that “Egypt is at the verge of violent demonstrations, another revolution, or civil war.” Then he went on to describe how the situation for Christians had deteriorated under the rule of the Muslim Brotherhood and that “Egyptians became divided between Islamists and non-Islamists.” Anis felt that this division was due to two things in particular. First, there was the Sharia-compliant constitution, which was “written and approved in haste.” The second reason for the division between Islamists and non-Islamists was the marginalization of moderate Muslims, Christians, and other from “participation in the political life” of the country. Also troubling was the appointment of Islamists “as ministers in the Cabinet and other prominent posts.”

Interviewed in April by The Institute on Religion and Democracy’s Jeff Walton, Anis had described the majority of Egypt’s Muslims as “ordinary, normal people without an agenda except to live peacefully.” But the remaining Egyptian Muslims are the Islamists “who primarily seek political power.” Within the Islamists, he explained, are the Salafis who “are more militant than the broader Islamist group, reject the use of modern things, and want to return to the ways of the ‘fathers.’” And within the Salafis are the Jihadists, “militant Muslims who count terrorists among their numbers and have an agenda to create an Islamic nation – the Caliphate.”

Anis told Walton that in spite of the fact that following the Arab “Spring” elections, the Egyptian parliament has been dominated by Salafis, and other Islamists were holding 70% of the seats, it is the more general Islamists who pose the greatest threat to Christians. “The Islamists have a much wider base of support within the population,” he explained, and they do not possess the same “anti-modernist teachings (such as opposition to women in the workplace) that make the vocal and self-defeating Salafis out of tune with Egyptian voters.”

In his June 27 call for prayer, Anis revealed the threats by those same Islamists towards those who were showing signs of rebellion against the Muslim Brotherhood government. He mentioned the “Tammarod” (Rebellion), a movement that formed in April and called for mass demonstrations against President Morsi. “They claim to have gathered the signatures of 15 million supporters,” he said. In response, he said, the Islamists held demonstrations in support of Morsi and threatened the Tammarod not to demonstrate against the President on June 30, saying, “Anyone who will sprinkle water at the President will be sprinkled with blood.” The Islamists also specifically threatened the Christians, Anis said, warning that “those who would demonstrate are ‘kafiroon’ or ‘godless’ and deserve to be fought against.” He concluded his June 27 statement with another plea for prayer for Egypt.

In the bishop’s July 3 statement he declares that prayers had been answered concerning the days of protest and the revolution by the Egyptian people. He added that several moves by the Egyptian Armed Forces signaled hope for the future. Field Marshall Abdel Fattah el-SiSi “invited His Holiness Pope Tawadros II and The Grand Imam of Egypt Dr. Ahmed el-Tayyib, and other political leaders, to discuss the roadmap for the future of Egypt.” As a result of the meeting, Anis continued “it was announced that the head of the constitutional court will be an interim leader of the nation” and that “the current controversial constitution is now suspended.”

“As soon as Field Marshall Abdel Fattah el-Sisi announced this, millions of Egyptians on the streets went around rejoicing, singing, dancing, and making a lot of fireworks,” said Bishop Anis. “I have never seen Egyptians rejoicing in such a way! They deserve this joy as they insisted to write their own history!” he declared. Sadly, it would seem that Egyptians are continuing to write an Islamist history. In National Review on July 10, Nina Shea writes that the new draft constitution “appears to give more even greater prominence to sharia by invoking its principles in the very first article of the draft, in an apparent move to appease Salafis.” She quotes her Hudson Institute colleague, Egypt analyst Samuel Tadros, who says, “By putting it there, the military has basically sent the message that the Salafis are more important than everyone else. It makes it harder to remove in the next phase.” The Coptic activists’ “Maspero Youth Union” has declared the constitution “shocking” and not compatible with the ideals of the 30 June uprising… that went out for a civil state that upholds religious and cultural diversity.”

In a solemn foreshadowing of what was to come, in his July 3 statement Bishop Anis asked for prayer for the healing of the divisions in Egypt that had taken place with the ascendency of the Muslim Brotherhood, and for protection against violent backlash from the supporters of Islamic supremacism. It turns out that prayers are definitely in order. Shea said that “Egypt’s various Christian communities are experiencing continuing attacks by jihadists, Salafis, (who joined them in the anti-Morsi coalition), and angry Morsi-supporters, alike.” Raymond Ibrahim has also written about this in his July 11 article for Front Page Magazine.

MidEast Christian News (MCN) is another source for details about Copts and other Christians under siege since Morsi’s overthrow. They report that on July 5, many Copts in the village of Dabaaya, in Luxor, Upper Egypt were attacked by Islamic militants. With no police presence anywhere to be found, the Islamists killed 4 people and burned 23 homes of Christians.

MCN also provided further information about the beheading of a Coptic businessman, Magdi Lamie, in Sheikh Zowaid, North Sinai. Lamie’s body was found on Thursday, July 11 “beheaded with the hands tied with chains from the back and signs of beating and dragging.” A priest interviewed by MCN said that contrary to most reports, Lamie’s murder was not because his family refused to pay a ransom. After an initial demand when Lamie was abducted from his shop on July 6, the family never heard again from the kidnappers. “It is clear that the kidnapping was not for a ransom but the victim was slaughtered in an inhumane way because he is a wealthy Copt,” the priest said. He said that the goal was to displace the Copts in the region and declare Sinai “an independent Islamic emirate.”

Bishop Anis and all of Egypt’s Christians continue to hope against hope for an Egypt in which they have religious freedom and equality, but so far, there seems to be little consideration for their rights. Most of the Islamists in Egypt would like to see all of Egypt as an Islamic emirate – whether they or not they would go to the lengths of the Islamists in Sinai to make it happen. “[On 30 June] we went out to bring down the failed constitution that built a state of hate and violence,” the Maspero Youth Union said in their statement. “We did not take to the streets to give legitimacy to religious-based political parties that were about to erase Egypt’s identity,” the statement continued. Unless the United States and other Western political powers start to support those who truly want freedom and secular democracy, not only will Egypt’s identity be erased, but the region will be redrawn as key element of the worldwide Caliphate.

This article originally appeared on Front Page Magazine and was reposted with permission.

Wild Goose Festival Migrates through Turbulent Issues of Transgenderism, Intersex

12 Friday Jul 2013

Posted by jeffreywalton in News

≈ 16 Comments

Tags

Asher Kolieboi, emergent Christianity, evangelical, Evangelical Left, Institute on Religion and Democracy, Intersex, Jeff Walton, Lianne Simon, Megan DeFranza, Religious Left, Transgender, Wild Goose, Wild Goose Festival

(Photo credit: Shannon T.L. Kearns/Anarchist Reverend)

(Photo credit: Shannon T.L. Kearns/Anarchist Reverend)

By Jeff Walton (@JeffreyHWalton)

An annual progressive Christian festival that draws oldline Protestants and disaffected former evangelicals will feature workshops on transgenderism and “Intersex” next month.

Inspired by Britain’s annual Greenbelt festival, the Wild Goose Festival brings performers, yoga practitioners, speakers and artists to a multi-day campout in the mountains of western North Carolina August 8-11. In its first two years, Wild Goose speakers promoted an assortment of liberal causes – peppered with sharp critiques of Southern Baptists and other conservative evangelicals.

Wild Goose has broached issues of human sexuality before, welcoming gay and lesbian speakers and exhibitors in 2011 and 2012. The unofficial United Methodist Reconciling Ministries Network will have a presence at Wild Goose this year, and former Contemporary Christian Music artist Jennifer Knapp has brought her “Inside Out Faith” program to the festival. Tony Campolo and his wife Peggy have also spoken at Wild Goose about the church’s response to homosexuality.

In 2013, Wild Goose is apparently getting wilder. Among the workshops highlighted at next month’s gathering will be a talk by Asher Kolieboi, co-founder of the Legalize Trans* campaign, on creating “trans* inclusive faith communities.” Kolieboi’s talk will be entitled “Galatians 3:28,” referencing the verse “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

Festival goers will also have the opportunity to hear a talk on “welcoming the intersexed among us” titled “When Male and Female Is Not Enough.”

As we have the previous two years, IRD will send a team to report on the festival’s speakers. Both of the above workshops should be intriguing. Kolieboi was born a woman, now “Trans Man,” who self-describes as an “artivist” (activist and artist). Co-founder of the arts collective Queer Sol in Austin, Kolieboi was featured in The Advocate Magazine’s “Top 40 under 40” LGBTQ activists for work with the Soulforce Equality Ride, where Kolieboi served as the Co-Director of Young Adult Activism.

The discussion on “intersex” will feature Lianne Simon, author of Confessions of a Teenage Hermaphrodite, a young adult novel about an “intersex” teen. Born with a mix of testicular and ovarian tissue, Simon was raised, for a time, as a boy and eventually came to identify as female.

While not as prominent in gender and sexuality conversations as homosexuality or transgenderism, “intersex” is an umbrella term for people either having traits of both sexes or identifying with neither. Transgender activists often point to “intersex” persons as evidence for their claim that biological sex is not binary, but instead a continuum.

Simon will be joined by Megan DeFranza, a professor at evangelical Gordon College who has written about sexuality. Interestingly, DeFranza attends a conservative Anglican parish. The Gordon College professor recently appeared on a panel discussion at Episcopal Divinity School in which she examined the eunuchs of the Bible and suggested that such a study would be helpful for Evangelicals in understanding how to approach intersex persons.

National Cathedral Dean Slams “Filthy Enactment” of Voting Rights Ruling

02 Tuesday Jul 2013

Posted by jeffreywalton in News

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Dean Gary R. Hall, Episcopal, Episcopal Church, Episcopal Diocese of Washington, Episcopalians, Gary Hall, Institute on Religion and Democracy, Jeff Walton, same sex marriage, Supreme Court, The Episcopal Church, Voting, Washington National Cathedral

Gary Hall, center, dean of Washington National Cathedral, recently led a delegation from the cathedral at the annual Capital Pride Parade in Washington. (Photo credit: Sarah L. Voisin / The Washington Post)

Gary Hall, center, dean of Washington National Cathedral, recently led a delegation from the cathedral at the annual Capital Pride Parade in Washington. (Photo credit: Sarah L. Voisin / The Washington Post)

By Jeff Walton (@JeffreyHWalton)

A recent decision by the U.S. Supreme Court “essentially gutted” the Voting Rights Act (VRA) and recalls the infamous Fugitive Slave Act of the 1850s, according to the dean of the Washington National Cathedral.

In a Sunday sermon celebrating recent Supreme Court decisions on same-sex marriage and lamenting a ruling on the Voting Rights Act, Dean Gary Hall sought to link the church’s public engagement with Jesus Christ’s turn towards Jerusalem in Luke Chapter 9.

Already thrusting the Cathedral into debates over firearms control and same-sex marriage, voting rights is just the latest in a string of politically charged issues championed by the activist Episcopal Church official.

Hall celebrated court marriage decisions overturning the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and California’s Proposition 8 as “victories for all of us who support marriage equality for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered people.”

“Those who had suffered so much discrimination savored a cultural and legal turning point in our shared march towards justice,” the Episcopal priest reported of a special Wednesday service for LGBT persons at the cathedral. Hall also noted “as we exalt in the joys of our lesbian and gay brothers and sisters, we must also weep with the pains and the losses of our brothers and sisters of color.”

“On Tuesday I found myself as dejected as I would find myself elated on Wednesday,” Hall told of the VRA and DOMA rulings. Recalling his own participation in the civil rights movement as a high school junior, Hall said it brought him into contact with Christian people and the life and ministry of the church.

Designating the VRA ruling “a filthy enactment,” Hall quoted Ralph Waldo Emerson’s declaration that he would not obey the Fugitive Slave Act, which required residents of Free states to return escaped slaves to the south.

Acknowledging his own record of political sermons, Hall insisted Sunday’s message from the pulpit wasn’t just “another instance of the Dean going all political on you” but was instrumental to following Jesus Christ.

“Jesus sets his face to go towards Jerusalem both literally and figuratively,” Hall pronounced of Luke chapter 9:51-62, in which Christ begins his journey towards the Jewish capital, the center of public life.

In going to the capital city, Jesus “is taking his critique to the heart of Roman and Jewish life,” Hall assessed. The cathedral dean termed the week’s events as “triumph and tragedy in our own capital.”

“We are a public church and public churches cannot be neutral where issues of justice are concerned,” Hall charged. Adding that Jesus went to Jerusalem “not out of anger but out of compassion,” Hall portrayed Jesus’ journey as one of solidarity “with and for those who are up against it.”

Declaring that God “loves and blesses and accepts everyone as they are,” Hall pronounced that “Jesus does not go to Jerusalem alone” and calls Christians to go with him.

“Therefore, following Jesus as he sets his face to go towards Jerusalem is part of what it means to be a Christian,” Hall interpreted. “If we are really following Jesus – and not just being personally pious in a private way – we try to care as much about the sufferings of people we don’t know as our own children, parents, spouses and friends. The only way you can care for people you don’t know is by establishing justice.”

In a call to the U.S. Congress “to rebuild what the court has taken away,” Hall insisted that Christianity has never been about only private suffering or personal joy, but rather about public social struggles. The cathedral dean asserted that Christians experience persecution “because they dare to make their private compassion a public virtue.”

“Today we both rejoice and lament,” Hall concluded. “Tomorrow we take up again the work again of standing with Jesus and God for those Jerusalem and Washington would oppress.”

Update: Full text of Hall’s sermon has been made available by the Washington National Cathedral. Access it by clicking here.

National Cathedral Celebrates Supreme Court Rulings with LGBT Service, African Drums

27 Thursday Jun 2013

Posted by jeffreywalton in News

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

Dean Gary R. Hall, Episcopal, Episcopal Diocese of Washington, Gary Hall, Gay Marriage, Institute on Religion and Democracy, Jeff Walton, Washington National Cathedral

Beth Pattison, front right, and husband John Pattison, wave rainbow flags during a prayer service for the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender community to mark the Supreme Court's ruling at the National Cathedral on June 26 in Washington. (Photo Credit: Jahi Chikwendiu/Washington Post)

Beth Pattison, front right, and husband John Pattison, wave rainbow flags during a prayer service for the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender community to mark the Supreme Court’s ruling at the National Cathedral on June 26 in Washington. (Photo Credit: Jahi Chikwendiu/Washington Post)

By Jeff Walton (@JeffreyHWalton)

Washington National Cathedral officials hosted a special service for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) persons the day of U.S. Supreme Court rulings that struck down the Defense of Marriage Act and effectively overturned California’s voter-approved Proposition 8.

Advertised as “a service of thanksgiving celebrating an increase in compassion and equality,” the June 27 ceremony sought to place the Supreme Court rulings within the narrative of liberation struggles.

A congregation of approximately 300 clustered at the front of the Episcopal cathedral, still undergoing repairs from a 2011 earthquake. Chairs were arranged to face the procession. While the congregation was overwhelmingly middle-aged whites, songs were often African in origin, such as “Siyahamba” in which participants declared “we are marching in the light of God” accompanied by djembe drums. Several congregants enthusiastically waved rainbow flags emblazoned with the word “equality” as choir and clergy processed in to the Zimbabwean song “Uyai Mose” (Come, All You People).

“It’s a great night, isn’t it?” asked Cathedral Dean Gary Hall in his opening words of welcome, prompting sustained applause, hooting and cheers.

“Was that standing ovation for God or the court?” Hall joked, declaring his belief that “we have turned the corner in the faith community’s life.”

In a short homily, Hall recalled his own wedding 35 years prior, in which the Epistle reading was the same as at the LGBT service: Ephesians Chapter 3:14-19, in which Paul prays for the church in Ephesus to be “rooted and grounded in love.”

“In God’s view, something deep, holy and precious is going on when any two people commit themselves,” Hall announced.

Declaring that the church has been “on a trajectory,” Hall traced changed views of marriage from polygamy, unequal heterosexual unions, egalitarian heterosexual unions, to now same-sex unions. He offered no prediction on what was next.

“The sacrament of marriage is a divine gift – regardless of sexual orientation,” the Cathedral Dean pronounced. Stating that the Christian church has only been in “the marriage business” for 1,000 years, Hall bypassed early church teaching on marriage, as well as the wedding at Cana in John Chapter 2 and Jesus’ teaching about marriage in Matthew 19 in which he quotes Genesis Chapter 2.

“Let us extend that promise until it extends to every couple of all sexuality or gender,” Hall concluded. Following the reflection, the congregation was led in singing a version of “Surely it is God who saves me,” modified with gender-neutral language. A concluding prayer invoking Rosa Parks, Eleanor Roosevelt and other contemporaries, along with petitions for the healing of Nelson Mandela, further buttressed the civil rights imagery of the service.

The National Cathedral service follows an announcement last year that the church would begin hosting same-sex weddings. Throughout the day, a string of Episcopal Church bishops and seminary deans issued statements in support of the ruling. Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington extolled the court ruling as moving the country “closer to this vision of equality and unity” and called for Episcopalians to recommit to this “holy work.”

Similarly, Los Angles Bishop Jon Bruno declared: “we rejoice at the repeal of DOMA’s [Defense of Marriage Act] discrimination against LGBT families.” In his announcement, Bruno touted “provisional” liturgies for the blessing of same-gender couples that was adopted by the church’s General Convention last summer.

Arizona Bishop Kirk Smith was equally celebratory, proclaiming an indiscriminate inclusion and assessing that the United States “has come closer to a truth which has been ours as Christians from the beginning, that God loves everything and everyone God has made, and that we are called to reflect God’s love for us in how we love each other.”

Bishop Mouneer Anis on the Crisis Facing Egyptian Christians

24 Monday Jun 2013

Posted by jeffreywalton in News

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Anglican, Anglican Church, Anglican Communion, Anglicanism, Christian persecution, Coptic Christians, Coptic Church, Diocese of Egypt, Egypt, Egyptian Christians, Institute on Religion and Democracy, Islam, Islamism, Islamists, Jeff Walton, Mohammed Morsi, Mouneer Anis, Pope Tawadros II, Salafists

Anglican Bishop of Egypt Mouneer Anis (R) greets Coptic Pope Tawadros II (Photo credit: Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria).

Anglican Bishop of Egypt Mouneer Anis (R) greets Coptic Pope Tawadros II (Photo credit: Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria).

By Jeff Walton (@JeffreyHWalton)

UPDATE: Bishop Anis has released a letter about upcoming June 30 demonstrations in Egypt that can be viewed by clicking here.

Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby is this week embarking on his first visit abroad since his enthronement earlier this year. Lambeth Palace says the Anglican official chose the Holy Land because of the region’s importance to global stability.

Welby is “deeply concerned for justice and for the security of all the peoples of the region, and the pressures on its Christian communities,” according to a statement from Lambeth Palace.  “In particular he wants to support and honour the work of the President-Bishop of the Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East, the Most Revd Mouneer Anis in Cairo; and the Anglican Bishop in Jerusalem, the Right Revd Suheil Dawani, with whom he will be staying in Jerusalem and who will accompany him on all his visits.”

This spring I met Bishop Anis in North Carolina at the New Wineskins for Global Mission Conference. Bishop Anis spoke on the difficult situation his fellow Egyptian Christians face, especially in the aftermath of the “Arab Spring” uprising that toppled former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

“It was like the honeymoon,” Anis described of Egyptian Christians and Muslims joining together to protest corruption, low quality of life, high food prices and unemployment. Women and Christians began to participate in political life, and one man openly proclaimed “I am a convert from Islam, I am a Christian, that is my right.”

Unfortunately, harmony did not endure as Islamist groups asserted themselves. Anis outlined four Islamic groups in Egypt, each a smaller concentric circle within another:

Anis described the majority of Egypt’s Muslim population as “ordinary, normal people without an agenda except to live peacefully.”

Within the Muslim population is a smaller group of Islamists who primarily seek political power. A third, smaller subset of Islamists (Salafis) are more militant than the broader Islamist group, reject the use of modern things and want to return to the ways of the “fathers.”

Finally, a small circle within the Salafis are the Jihadists: militant Muslims who count terrorists among their numbers and “have an agenda to create an Islamic nation – the Caliphate.”

Anis determined that the second group – the Islamists – posed the greatest danger to Christians. While not as extreme as Salafis or Jihadists subsets, the Islamists have a much wider base of support within the population. Usually, Islamists lack the anti-modernist teachings that make the “vocal and self-defeating” Salafis “out of tune” with Egyptian voters, such as opposition to women in the workplace.

Following elections, the Egyptian parliament is now dominated by Salafis and other Islamists that hold about 70 percent of seats, according to Anis. The Egyptian bishop assessed that “people who are not educated are easily moved,” something Egypt’s high rate of illiteracy exacerbates.

“There was disappointment in the hearts of the young people who sought revolution,” Anis reported, cited churches burned and people killed. “All of them are Christians.”

Anis attributed the election of Muslim Brotherhood official Mohammed Morsi, and his predominantly Islamist government, upon “people [who] didn’t want anything from the previous regime.”

The bishop, however, was quick to assert that Morsi was accountable to a broader power structure and was individually not as powerful as might be perceived.

“It became obvious that the Muslim brotherhood leadership had the power,” rather than Morsi himself, Anis reported. The Anglican bishop and other Christian leaders met with Morsi to share their concerns, “He listened to us, but nothing happened.”

The dour situation has not been without silver linings, however: increased difficulty for Christians has also led to increased unity.

“One of the greatest joys [has been] to start the Egypt Council of Churches,” Anis exclaimed. The Anglican leader had high praise for new Pope Tawadros II of the Coptic Orthodox Church, a man who is “very keen for Christian unity.” Welby will meet with Tawadros this week during his visit.

Describing the former pharmacist as a man with “a very big heart,” Anis, himself a medical doctor, praised Tawadros as “a gift from heaven” and assessed that historic differences between Christians of Eastern and Western traditions was dissolving.

Among the issues facing the Coptic church is an exodus of young adults departing for other countries. Alarmed at the departure of 100,000 Christians in 2011 alone, Anis lamented that among them are “the best minds” in the Christian community.

“It is amazing that the Middle East could be a place without a Christian witness,” Anis worried, connecting the link between presence and witness.

“Because we live in a [majority] Islamic country, the only thing we can do to show God’s love is serve society,” Anis added, highlighting English instruction, arts camps and other ministries to both Christian and Muslim Egyptians.

In closing, Anis asked American Christians to pray for:

-An end to the emigration of young people from Egypt’s Christian community
-Good Samaritans in Egyptian society
-All churches in the Middle East

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