Episcopal Church Looks to the Middle East
Episcopal News Service. January 26, 1989 [89016]
NEW YORK (DPS, Jan. 26) -- In recent years, bonds between the Episcopal Church of the United States and the Episcopal Church of Jerusalem and the Middle East have grown stronger, and with this growth has been an increasing knowledge and understanding of a shared life as Christian communities in the context of the worldwide Anglican Communion. Personal ties between the primates of the two Churches, Presiding Bishop Edmond L. Browning of the United States and Bishop President Samir Kafity, Bishop of Jerusalem and Primate of the Episcopal Church of Jerusalem and the Middle East, have helped the growth of knowledge and understanding between the two Churches.
This year's Good Friday Offering made by the Church in the United States is destined for Jerusalem and the Middle East [See DPS 89009]; in preparation for the Offering, Episcopalians in the United States, young and old, will be learning new things about the lives -- and the dedication -- of their brothers and sisters in a part of the world that is both rich in religious tradition and troubled by political and economic strife.
The fact that a geographical area is beset by external difficulties does not mean that its religious life is doomed to stagnation. Often, the opposite is true. In April 1988, All Saints Episcopal Cathedral, a large and striking contemporary church building, was dedicated in Cairo, Egypt. Egypt is one of the dioceses of the Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East. The new cathedral, whose innovative design is based on the lotus flower, the traditional Egyptian symbol of immortality, was quickly seen as epitomizing the new spirit of life in Middle Eastern Anglicanism.
The dedication of All Saints Cathedral was a significant event for both the Diocese of Egypt and for the whole Episcopal province in the Middle East. Bishop Kafity was present as well as Bishop G.A. Malik of Egypt, Egyptian Coptic leaders (the Coptic Church is the most ancient of Egypt's Christian bodies), and Egyptian government officials.
All Saints Episcopal Cathedral in Cairo, Egypt, with its unique lotus blossom design, rises in the midst of the busy city. Cairo's original Episcopal cathedral was destroyed to make way for a new bridge across the Nile.