Province of Jerusalem and the Middle East Offers Ministry of Hospitality
Episcopal News Service. June 29, 2002 [2002-164]
James Solheim
(ENS) As one of the 38 provinces in the Anglican Communion, the Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East is highly unusual, straddling several continents and many different cultures, offering a ministry of care and hospitality within the Muslim countries of the Middle East.
"We are a very young church," said Bishop Clive Handford during a briefing at the Episcopal Church Center in New York. He was elected to head the province at a synod last February, succeeding Bishop Iraj Mottahedeh of Iran on May 1. Formed in 1976, the province includes dioceses in Cyprus and the Gulf, Egypt, Iran, and Jerusalem, serving as a bridge between Asia, Europe and Africa. "It is about 3,000 miles from Cyprus in the north down to Eritrea in Africa, and probably as many miles from Algeria over to Iran," Handford said. "That means a lot of time in airplanes."
While many of the governments in the region are conservative Islamic governments, "they are not hostile," Handford said, "as long as we are understanding and sensitive." Seeking converts, for example, is strictly forbidden, "although conversations about faith are permitted."
In one or two of the more conservative Islamic countries the church must remain inconspicuous and clerical garb can't be worn in public. In most of the Gulf states, on the other hand, the government provides land for building churches. Handford told of recently dedicating a new church in Dubai with over a thousand people in the congregation. "As many as 30,000 people a week use our facilities." And dialogue between Christians and Muslims in places such as Egypt have been quite productive.
"In almost every case, among work colleagues and religious leaders, it comes out of a personal relationship," he said. "An important example is the friendship between the rector of Al Azhar University in Cairo and the archbishop of Canterbury. A few weeks ago, Bishop Kenneth Cragg, author of such books as The Call of the Minaret, was engaged in dialogue with over 800 students at the university.
"It's almost impossible to avoid our identification with the West, even though most of our church members are more often Asians than Westerners," Handford noted. "And they still think of the Western nations as Christian, using what seems to be a convenient stereotype." In the wake of the terrorist attacks on September 11, most of the Islamic countries in the region condemned terrorism. "Many in the local population see the American attack on Afghanistan as an attack on the family," he added.
With the Christian community spread so thin in the region, Handford admits that there is a certain fragility and vulnerability to life in the province. That brings some difficulties in holding the churches of the province together but he is convinced that there has also been "a gradual growing together" in recent years.
Given the minority status of Christians, Handford said that the Anglicans practice "a ministry of hospitality," sharing their facilities with as many as a hundred other groups in some places. "We serve as an umbrella, embracing every shade of Christian, from Egyptian Copts to Filipino charismatics." He said that migrant workers in the region have a very difficult life and "the church is a place where they can be themselves and affirm their identity."