PUERTAS INTEGRADAS EN SIST. CONTRA INCENDIOS

Not 30 km down South of the JBAD, an Egyptian Evangelical couple in the village of Atlidam experienced more than they had ever expected during the last weekend of January 2016. Their promise to be together "until death do part" them was a short-lived one once a gas leakage killed them both on their wedding night

101 while sleeping in their new home. As their local pastor was on vacation, the distressed wedding guests (now funeral guests) moved to the neighboring Coptic Orthodox Church. The church opened its doors to receive the large crowd of desolated mourners; however, they were further vexed by the reaction of the local Orthodox priests who refused to pray over the deceased bodies.

Despite the fact that the international press was notoriously silent on the matter,76 Egyptians through social and national traditional media77 attacked the Coptic Orthodox Church accusing it of sectarianism and hatred for other Christians. A local mosque even offered the funeral to be moved to their venue78 ignoring that the Coptic Orthodox Church –like any religious institution- has internal rules and traditions.

Such was the pressure that even the Pope (through the official spokesman of the Coptic Orthodox Church) and the local bishops released a statement the day after on their website explaining that that decision was beyond the internal rules of Church and insisting was disrespectful the own will of the deceased (The Coptic News 2016). The Church argued that while the doctrine of the Church does not allow them to pray for non-Orthodox who are dead, the request of the mourning families was opposite to their own tenants as Protestants do not believe in the rituals of the Church. The raising of incense, their rejection of the priesthood and the fact that Protestants do not believe in the usefulness of prayer for the dead in the first place were an apparent contradiction. Furthermore, the statement stressed that introducing a deceased person against his/her will in a church that he/she had

76 _{I was not able to find reliable sources in English covering this tragedy.}

77 _{See Aalam, Sarah. "Alttayifat al'iinjiiyya: rafad "alUrthodks" alssalat alaa mutain bil}

Minya karithat 'iinsaniyya" ("Anglican Communion: the rejection of Orthodox prayer for our deceased in Minya is a humanitarian disaster") El Youm Es Sabaa (January 28, 2016), Available at: http://www.youm7.com/2559087; or Aadel, Michael.(Jan. 26, 2016) " Alkanisat al'Urthudhuksiat bel Minya tarfud alssalat alaa jththamayn arousein Brotestant" ("Orthodox Church to in Minya refuses to pray on the bodies two Protestant newlyweds"),Al Bawabh News. Available at: http://www.albawabhnews.com/1738465

78 _{Khalil, Emad (Jan, 27, 2016) Kinisa Urthoduksiyya bel Minya tarfud asSala alaa}

mutawaffin "Brotestant" ("Orthodox church in Minya reject prayers for the deceased

«Protestant»") El Masry El youm. Available at:

102 openly rejected during life was unacceptable. The statement added that the prayers could have also been held in the Church of the bride's hometown village in Samalout (50 km from the incident) as it is traditional to pray for every person in the church that they normally attended and which is of the same denomination as the couple. Nonetheless, the Church offered her sincere condolences to the family of the dead couple and continued to offer to receive them in the hall of the Church (Coptic News, 2016).

Neseem, an Evangelical English teacher at the JBAD, was the first of my contacts to share the news on Facebook complaining:

"They just ignore the feelings of those who are suffering with the excuse of their rite? Where is the Christian love you teach people? God have mercy on our sister and brother and shame on you!"

While the solidarity of other Protestant contacts was understandable, my later survey on Catholic reactions to the event presented an opportunity to bring out their own claims. Ibrahim (my Catholic convert host during Easter) insisted that the Orthodox Church in the village where they married should have held their funeral:

"In reality, funerals are not for the dead, they are for the living family members who are suffering. Even an "Abana Elazzi" ("The Lord's Prayer") would have helped… We all pray it in common in all denominations –Orthodox, Catholics, Protestants too! It is in the Bible! If they really wanted to help, they would have made it possible…They just really didn't want to help because they are closed-minded".

The incident further reveals that Justina's comment about inter-Christian sectarianism (q.v. Chapter 4.4.3) was either contextualized for the JBAD or a symptom of denial. If sectarian clashes between Muslims and Christians are sensationalized, sectarian issues among Egyptian Christians are contingent to both relations of power based on denomination and also on the historic and theological wounds that linger.

103 Although this is an individual incident, it can be further understood by recalling that the relations between the Coptic Orthodox Church and different Protestant groups in Egypt have by no means been fully amicable. Since 1854, the American Presbyterian church sent their first missionaries to Egypt but their educational activities and open proselytism soon developed into rivalry with Christian denominations that (Sharkey 2013: 12). The pope of the time, Pope Demetrius II (1862-1870), focused his efforts on soliciting support from Egyptian authorities to expel the foreign missionaries and called for the public burning of books distributed by these Presbyterian missionaries (Atiya: 51). Two centuries later, in the late 90s, Pope Shenouda III also campaigned heavily against Protestant and non-Trinitarian groups. Conferences on Coptic Orthodox apologetics, increasing the availability of revised books in Coptic Orthodox Churches, strengthening pastoral care in slums, spreading warnings on deceiving attitudes of proselytizers, advising the Orthodox against joining activities in joint cooperation with Protestants and Catholics (since these were used for proselytism), prohibiting Protestant choirs in Orthodox churches, and withdrawing from participating in Sat 7 satellite station, were some of the measures that the Pope deployed to protect his flock from Protestants (Husulman: 81-83).

In this sense, the Coptic Orthodox Church rejected a unity based on sympathy arguing that “God is not only love but the truth” (Secretariat 2011). These efforts to segregate the flock from the "wolves" (Sharkey 2013: 57) resulted in preventing dialogue between Orthodox and other Christian denominations in Egypt.